Glenvar defense stones two-point try to preserve 21-20 win over Union in semifinal
The undefeated Glenvar High football team had to travel over three hours to play in the Class 2 state semifinal last Saturday. This Saturday, a 10 minute bus ride will suffice.
Glenvar will be playing Strasburg for the state championship Saturday at Salem Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 11:30 am. The Highlanders earned the right to play for their second state title with an exciting 21-20 win over Union High in Big Stone Gap. The game went down to the final 2.7 seconds before it was decided by a memorable defensive stand on a Union two-point conversion attempt.
Prior to last Saturday there were only two undefeated high school football team in the state of Virginia, Glenvar and Union. Now there is one, and Glenvar is hoping to cap off their first ever undefeated season this Saturday in Salem.
It won’t be easy, and you don’t expect a state championship game to be. Strasburg has lost just once, a 28-20 loss to Broadway back on September 5th. Since then the Rams have run the table, including a 31-10 victory over Poquoson in the other state semifinal last week. Strasburg beat Stuarts Draft in the Region 2A final, 54-7.
“They’re really good,” said Glenvar coach Kevin Clifford. “They’re similar to Union, they’re physical and very athletic. They have tough kids.”
The Rams have a strong tradition in football but have never won a state championship. They’ve been to the final five times and lost every time. They lost to Parry McCluer in 1987, Jonesville in ’88, Appalachia in ’92, Bath County in ’95 and last year they lost to Graham in the championship game at Salem Stadium, 31-8. That was a week after Graham eliminated the Highlanders in the semifinals, 28-24, in what many folks thought was the game that had the best two teams in the state.
Glenvar has never played Strasburg in football. The two were big rivals on the wrestling mat when Clifford was the Highlanders’ coach but they’ve never met on the gridiron. Glenvar will be the home team, sit on the home side and wear their green jerseys.
“It will be a dog fight,” said Clifford. “They’re battle tested but I feel like we’ll have a little advantage playing at home. I really don’t care where or when we play, things become an issue when you make it an issue. We’ll prepare like we do every week and we’ll come ready to play.”
Last week’s game at Big Stone Gap was an instant classic. It was a beautiful day in the southwest corner of Virginia with all the seats filled at Bullitt Park and fans lined up two deep behind the fence all around the field. You couldn’t ask for a better setting.
Glenvar drew first blood when quarterback Brody Dawyot hit Jace Forster with a 36 yard deep ball and Jace skipped past the defender into the end zone. Zane Smith’s kick made it 7-0 with 6:37 remaining in the first period.
Union evened the score when the Bears capped off a drive on the first play of the second period. Quarterback Cam Bostic went off the right side from the two yard line and it was 7-7 with the horns blaring on the home side.
Glenvar went three-and-out on the ensuing possession but Brody Dawyot boomed a punt that sent the Bears back to their own 14 yard line. Union then drove the field to the Glenvar red zone, where they faced a fourth down on the half yard line. A bad snap on the fourth down play concluded Glenvar’s first goal line stand of the day, and that would prove to be prophetic.
Dawyot punted the Highlanders out of the shadow of the goal post again, this time standing in his own end zone and driving the ball to the Union 26 with just over two minutes until the half. Union quickly moved down the field, and a pass to the sideline gave the Bears a first down at the Glenvar two with 29 seconds until halftime.
Again, Glenvar would hold. Jacob Campbell tackled Bostic for a four yard loss and, with no timeouts, Union was forced to spike the ball and try a 23 yard field goal. It was blocked by Forster as time expired and the score remained 7-7 as the Highlanders dodged another bullet.
Union got the ball to start the second half and Glenvar’s defense forced a three-and-out. The Highlanders regained the lead when Dawyot found Cooper Mullins open in the end zone for a 29 TD pass and it was 14-7 Glenvar after three quarters.
Glenvar upped the lead to 21-7 with 10:39 to go in regulation. Dawyot took off down the right side and scored on a 17 yard run and the Highlanders were in business with the defense playing well. However, it wasn’t over just yet.
Union drove right down the field, riding big tailback Keith Chandler, and scored with 5:40 still to go. Chandler took it in from five yards out after several costly but contested Glenvar penalties kept the drive alive.
The Bears kicked it deep and Glenvar took over on their own 23. After one first down they had to punt and Union got the ball back on their own 25 with just under two minutes remaining and two timeouts.
The final two minutes were high drama. Facing a fourth and three the Glenvar defense was flagged for 12 men on the field, giving the Bears a big first down. An unsportsmanlike penalty on Union moved the ball 15 yards in the other direction but Union managed to reach the Glenvar 10 where they faced a third down with 11 seconds on the clock. Bostic passed to Chandler, who caught the ball at the five and dove at the pylon for a touchdown with 2.7 seconds to play.
Union, with a line that dwarfed Glenvar and a runningback who was tough to stop, decided to go for two and win the game right there. Clifford expected as much.
“That’s what I would have done,” said Clifford. “Number 28 (Chandler) has been their bell cow all season.”
When the cow came home, he was short of the goal line. Chandler tried the right side of the Glenvar line and found a wall of white uniforms to greet him. The collective Highlander defense stopped him cold and won the ballgame.
“Our kids stepped up,” said Clifford, who was reminded of a similar play in 2015. Playing Union at Bullitt Park, on the same end of the field, Glenvar scored with three minutes to go to cut the lead to 28-27. They went for two and didn’t get it, ending their undefeated season short of the goal.
Union’s ensuing onside kick was fielded cleanly and bedlam broke out on the Glenvar side of the field. The Highlanders improved to 14-0, the program’s best record ever, and set up a state championship game for what surely will be a huge crowd at Salem Stadium this Saturday. The Class 1 championship between Rye Cove and Rappahannock will be played at the stadium later in the day, at 5 pm.
Statistically, Dawyot was 10 for 18 passing for 119 yards with five completions to Forster for 77 yards and four to Mullins for 37, and both had touchdown catches. Brody ran 10 times for 49 yards and punted five times for a 48 yard average.
On defense Dawyot led the team with 14 tackles. Cale Vaughan, Rawlin Hanks and Dalton Shoemaker had 13 each while Hanks had two sacks and Shoemaker had one. Campbell had 10 tackles, Nick Wilson had nine and Forster recovered a fumble and had the big blocked kick. More importantly, the defense came through in the clutch with a collective effort.
“It was an exciting game,” said Clifford. “We’ve had some exciting games with Radford over the years and the 2014 state championship, winning in overtime, had to be the most exciting game I’ve coached, but this one is right up there.”
