varsity.roanoke.com

Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Northside players hug teammate Matt Sandoval (middle) after winning the first state football championship in school history.

KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Northside head football coach Burt Torrence (middle) is doused with Gatorade after winning the VHSL Group AA Division 3 championship game against Bruton.

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BLACKSBURG -- Roanoke County schools superintendent Lorraine Lange stood in the Northside football locker room Saturday and uttered the words all teenage students want to hear:

"On Monday, A's for everybody!"

Northside made the grade Saturday at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium, becoming the first Roanoke County school to win a state football championship in a playoff game as the Vikings scored a 20-17 victory over Bruton in the VHSL Group AA Division 3 final.

Sophomore Adam Hardister sealed the deal for Northside (12-2) when he blocked a 26-yard field-goal attempt by Ben Arbino on the final play of the game.

Bruton's Lorenzo Taliaferro picked up the ball and tried to run toward the end zone, but Northside's Trent Cundiff jarred the ball loose and the Vikings recovered as time ran out.

When officials signalled that the game was over, it touched off a wild celebration as delirious Northside players ran through a maze of devastated Bruton bodies on the pock-marked turf.

"I ran to the middle of the field, laid down and pointed up," Northside senior Dustin Phelps said.

Northside indeed got help from above.

It came in the form of two touchdown passes by senior quarterback Ryan Keith, a 65-yarder to uncovered Donovohn Brown in the first quarter and a 64-yard strike to Phelps that gave Northside its first lead at 20-17 with 11:53 to play.

The Vikings were forced to go to the air by a Bruton defense that stuffed the Blue Ridge District champs in the first half, holding them to 16 yards rushing and two first downs.

Senior tailback Philip Scott, who entered the game with 2,232 rushing yards, managed just 16 yards on seven carries in the first two quarters.

Bruton (11-3) led 17-7 midway through the third quarter after a 61-yard steamrolling TD by Taliaferro, and Northside was reeling.

However, Northside had pulled off comeback victories against Brookville and Liberty in the Region III playoffs. There was no panic.

"It was just routine," Keith said. "We just had to execute. We knew we could do it."

Northside changed its scheme at halftime, going to its goal-line offense by inserting 5-foot-10, 348-pound A.J. Johnson up front next to 6-4, 340-pound Cameron Carter. Combined with a kickout block by Tyler Fisher, the two big men sprung Scott for a 49-yard TD run with 4:24 left in the third quarter that put the Vikings back in the game.

"It was just a sigh of relief," said Scott, who finished with 134 yards on 23 carries. "We wasn't really communicating in the first half. We put the big hog-bodies in there and started running down the field. We knew our size was going to take over eventually."

Northside's go-ahead touchdown was set up after Cundiff and sophomore Dakota Jackson combined to sack Bruton quarterback Jackson Neve on third down from the Vikings' 46.

Two plays later, Keith hit Phelps in stride on a fly pattern and the 5-foot-6 wingback easily outran cornerback Devin Wynne to the end zone.

Northside appeared to have the championship locked up, as Bruton faced a fourth-and-15 from its 39 with 30 seconds to play. Instead, a scrambling Neve lofted a pass that just cleared Keith's fingertips and settled into the arms of D'Andre Parker at the 3-yard line.

Were the Vikings going to come this close and lose?

"My heart dropped," Brown said. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh. It's about to go down the drain.' "

"I was praying, heart ticking, speechless." Scott said.

"I'm not going to lie, it was a little tense," Northside linebacker Nick Sigmon said.

Not from where Northside coach Burt Torrence was standing.

"Normally when a kid catches the ball on the 3-yard line with 30 seconds left, you see a bunch of heads drop, almost like they were defeated," Torrence said. "I didn't see one player on the field do that. That's a testament to them, their character and how they've responded to adversity since they were freshmen."

Bruton was the team that cracked.

After Neve spiked the ball to stop the clock, the Panthers drew a delay-of-game penalty that moved the ball back to the 8. Neve threw incomplete in the end zone on second down, then Bruton coach Tracy Harrod sent out the field-goal team.

The kick never had a chance.

Hardister smothered it after sneaking through a crack in the protection.

"I timed the snap perfectly," the Northside sophomore said. "I kind of watched them earlier in the game on extra points. They had a little hole between the guard and tackle. I just kind of recorded that and ran through and blocked it.

"It's unbelievable. It's the best thing that's happened to me in my whole life so far."

Bruton, picked to finish eighth in the Bay Rivers District by a Tidewater newspaper, outgained Northside 397-285 as Taliaferro rushed for 161 yards.

"If you look at the numbers, by far, I'm going on record to say we were the better team," Harrod said. "I thought my guys outplayed their guys, period. But we made a few mistakes and let one get away."

Scott, the man who got away from Northside's program when he elected to skip football as a junior, had the last word.

"Oh man," Scott said. "One and nine my freshman year, two and eight my sophomore year, then not playing, coming back ... I have this memory the rest of my life."