Black Knights fall to Lancers

Before his team hit the field on Friday night, Chris Fraser knew that his first game as the coach for the Charlottesville football team was going to be tough.

Up against two-time defending Group AA, Division 4 champion Amherst County, the Lancers’ power rushing attack took it to the Black Knights, paving the way for a 42-6 victory.

“It’s a tough way to start out,” Fraser said.  “But that’s an outstanding football team we went up against.  It was a benchmark game for us.  We need to work on the offensive line, but we improved in the second half.”

Before the Lancers’ offense could even take the field, they were up 7-0 after taking the opening kickoff in for a 74-yard touchdown return.

Amherst passed the ball only twice in the game, but four different rushers found the end zone, and the defense returned a fumble to put the Lancers up 42-0 at the half.

Xavier Porter provided the lone highlight for the Black Knights when the receiver hauled in a deep pass from quarterback Kevin Leatherwood and took it 63 yards for a touchdown.

The Charlottesville offense struggled in the first half. A handful of miscommunications, poor snaps and the constant pressure Amherst put on Leatherwood made the first half particularly miserable. However, things picked up after halftime.

“We’ve got a lot of young receivers, so this is still a work in progress,” Fraser said.

When the offense finally got rolling, scoring its first touchdown as time expired in the third quarter, it was too little to late for the Black Knights.

Phillips saw potential in the Charlottesville offense and was happy that the game was put away before it got rolling.

“We knew we had to put the pressure on early in the game,” Phillips said. “We evaluated their personnel before we came in here, and in the second half, Leatherwood and those athletic receivers showed that they can play.”

Leatherwood completed 10 of 26 passes for 203 yards and one passing touchdown.

After the game Fraser told his players that one loss does not define a season. Right now, he and his team are looking forward to putting this loss behind them and working out the kinks of a new system.

“I’m a little disappointed, but the good news is that we’ve got four games to work everything out,” Fraser said. ‘The district is wide open this year. We plan to compete. We’re building for the future but we also plan to win now.”

Charlottesville travels to Harrisonburg on Friday at 7:30 p.m.