J.I. Burton will travel to Holston next week for the Region 1D championship game. The Raiders had two of their last three games canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.
“We just came off of a 10-day quarantine. We practiced two days, three days, we just practiced hard,” Teasley said. “We want to do something this year. We have the right team, we have the right coaching staff, we can do it.”
Patrick Henry (5-2), which entered having won five in a row, took an 8-0 first quarter lead on a 1-yard plunge by Jay McFail, who added the two-point conversion. The Raiders came right back, quarantine or not.
“Maybe that is the secret, take about 11 or 12 days off, but just turnovers are untimely moments really cost us,” Padgett said. “Again, if those don’t happen maybe it is a different game, I don’t know, but J.I. Burton played very well.”
Burton answered behind its huge offensive line, with Esau Teasley busting through a hole for a 17-yard touchdown run. Trevor Culbertson added the two-point conversion to tie the score with 11:19 left until halftime.
“The big heavy offense, we put that in on a Thursday, came over here and other than the one fumble on the counter, we ran that pretty good,” Caudill said. “When we get those big guys in there that have been in the weight room all summer and just let them push around on people and it created holes.”