Black Knights snag first win of Fraser era

At Charlottesville’s homecoming against William Monroe, halftime was supposed to be longer than usual — but not 90 minutes.
When lightning was spotted over the stadium in the middle of the halftime festivities, however, both teams were forced to remain in their locker rooms throughout the delay. Following the delay — the longest for postponed high school games in the area — Charlottesville held off a second-half William Monroe surge to earn their first win of the season over winless William Monroe, 14-7. The win was the first of first-year head coach Chris Fraser’s tenure.
During the halftime delay, “I had my IPod on, I was asleep,” CHS senior quarterback Kevin Leatherwood said. “[My teammates] were wrestling around and playing.”
At 10:30 p.m., with a thin mist still hovering over the field and Charlottesville leading 14-0, the teams emerged for the second half. Despite the delay and the worsening conditions, William Monroe moved the ball effectively, eventually punching in a touchdown on fourth and goal from the one-yard line with just over eight minutes remaining in the fourth.
With 3:42 remaining, the Dragons burned their final timeout to gear up its defense for a potentially backbreaking fourth and one from midfield, which it stuffed as Leatherwood’s sneak came up inches short. Monroe’s offense shot themselves in the foot on the ensuing series, however, as a 19-yard intentional grounding on first down and a false start on third down led to a third and 34 from the 25-yard line.
When sophomore quarterback Mitchell Morris’ desperate throw was picked off by Charlottesville junior Kim Anderson, William Monroe’s night was done; with no timeouts, Monroe coach Tom Hoffman could only sit and watched as the Black Knights ran away the game’s final 3:19.
“You try to save things [timeouts] like that, but to get yourself a chance to win sometimes you’ve got to use them,” Hoffman said. “High school kids sometimes, you’ve got to get the right personnel in situations.”
In the first half, Charlottesville had game-changing plays in all three phases of the game. The offense made its mark first; on a third and 14 on Charlottesville’s first series, junior wideout Maurice Jackson flew by the Dragons’ secondary, and Leatherwood hit him in stride for a 74-yard touchdown pass for the opening score.
Linebacker Brian Rice then deflated any momentum Monroe might have built on its ensuing drive. After the Dragons completed a fourth and 12 to Charlottesville’s 11 yard-line, Rice recovered a fumble in the backfield on first down and returned it 89 yards for a touchdown. Later, running back Xavier Porter made his presence felt on special teams, blocking a field goal to keep the Dragons scoreless at the half.
Leatherwood finished with 139 yards passing, including 114 in the first half.
“We look to [Leatherwood] to get the job done,” Fraser said. “As he goes, we go.”
Porter led the rushing attack as the rain continued to come down second half, ending with 53 yards on 11 carries.
“It just shows how balanced we are,” Leatherwood said. “We could have a pretty dry game and we could throw the ball around, or if it gets wet, we have three great running backs in Jermaine [Rush], Daniel [Intolubbe-Chmil] and Xavier who we could just hand the ball off to and just go ahead and let them run.”
The Black Knights’ resiliency after the delay, however, was what had Fraser praising his players the most as they wrapped up just shy of midnight.
“We’re in a unique situation right now, with everything that’s happened,” he said. “They deserved this win, and they were excited about it, so they were excited at halftime.”