We have box scores and summaries from all six VHSL state football championships.
A T-shirt born from tragedy.
A title at stake.
Two former college teammates coaching on opposite sidelines.
A county’s populace, torn by flooding, that turned out in full throat.
A team 12 seconds from a championship 12 months ago that took another chance.
East met west in the Virginia High School League Class 1 football championship game at Salem Stadium, and boy were the storylines plentiful.
Essex High School of Tappahannock won its second VHSL title by denying Grayson County its first. The Trojans scored a 22-0 victory over the Blue Devils on a day when gray skies burst open to a bright blue.
The sunshine washed away dark memories for Essex, which earned a dubious distinction 12 months earlier.
The Trojans were 12 seconds from victory in the 2023 Class 1 final against Galax until Maroon Tide freshman Yandel Vera bounced a 42-yard field goal over the crossbar for a 7-6 victory.
Do the math. Galax’s other four points came on a pair of second-half safeties, meaning Essex became the first VHSL team to lose a state championship game without surrendering a touchdown since Jefferson High of Roanoke beat Woodrow Wilson of Portsmouth in back-to-back finals in 1923 and 1924.
The loss was not close to the worst news Essex coach Todd Jones received after the sun went down that day. Jones’ uncle, Wally Jones, suffered a fatal heart attack in the bleachers.
Jones brought his team from the Northern Neck of Virginia back to Salem with swirling emotions.
Grayson County’s players arrived from Southwest Virginia after swirling waters from Hurricane Helene flooded parts of the countryside in late September, washing away roads, interrupting power and closing public schools for two weeks.
That was the scene Saturday as football fans and family members from east and west converged for an 11:30 a.m. kickoff.
The tailgate might have been bacon instead of burgers. The real menu was about to get cooking.
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Grayson County players take the field. Video by Robert Anderson.
The two locker rooms at Willis White Field inside the stadium are adjacent. When the doors of both opened, the first men who stepped out were former college football teammates at Emory & Henry.
Jones and Grayson County coach Stephen James played on E&H teams coached by legendary Lou Wacker, then they went on similar career paths but in different directions.
Jones headed east to Essex, leading the school to the 2009 VHSL Division 1 state championship with a fast-paced spread offense that produced a 30-0 victory over Radford in the final.
James stayed west, spending nine years as the head coach at Fort Chiswell High in Wythe County.
Then their divergent paths intersected.
Jones, a Pulaski County native, returned home to become Pulaski County High’s head coach in 2010. After spending four seasons in Pulaski, he went back to Essex as the school’s athletic director.
Who replaced Jones? It was Stephen James.
James served six years at Pulaski County. Like, Jones, he left the position not for a head coaching job but for an assistant’s post at his alma mater, George Wythe High in Wytheville.
Neither man was out of the front seat on the bus for long.
After spending two years coaching at Washington & Lee High (now called Westmoreland) Jones returned to Essex for a second stint as head coach in 2017. James was hired in 2021 by Grayson County, a consolidated school which had never won so much as a region title.
The door was now open to both to win a state championship.
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Essex County players take the field. Video by Robert Anderson.
While Grayson County and Essex are among the larger Class 1 schools in enrollment, there was no guarantee either football team would be standing on Dec. 14.
Essex’s returning starter at quarterback, Zay Bundy, broke his wrist in the team’s first scrimmage and the Trojans were beset by other injuries along the way. Moreover, Essex dropped a 13-8 game to Rappahannock in a late-season Northern Neck District showdown.
Grayson County’s high hopes for 2024 were instantly tempered as the Blue Devils lost their first two games to neighborhood rivals: 21-20 to Alleghany (N.C.) and 22-18 to Carroll County.
Essex’s players massed outside the locker room door. One carried a sledgehammer. Another had the school flag. An assistant coach led the purple-clad players in a pregame battle chant before they charged toward the same sideline the team had in 2023.
Minutes later, Grayson County’s players emerged from their pregame talk. The school’s cheerleaders held a white banner with blue and gold lettering that read, “BLUE DEVIL 20-24 FOOTBALL. ONE LAST RIDE.”
The players burst through the banner and raced to the visitors side of the field where it seemed the entire population of the county had assembled in the stands.
The four team captains of each side met at midfield for the pregame coin toss: Essex’s Bundy, Jaden Holmes, Tristan Marshall and Taivian Holmes; and Grayson County’s Aaron Peterson, Mac Goad, Preston Jones and Omar Hernandez-Perez.
A season that began with the official opening of practice in late July was about to come to an end.
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Jones put his old spread offense in mothballs a few years ago in favor of a double-wing setup featuring three or four running threats on every snap.
Essex’s first play from scrimmage went for 7 yards to Jaden Holmes, who in 2023 was forced to sit and watch the final three postseason games including the state final against Galax with a hip injury.
Holmes’ run put the ball at the Essex 49-yard line. Then the Trojans hit Grayson County not with a sledgehammer but with a lightning bolt.
Jones moved the 220-pound Bundy to the blocking back position and inserted fleet Keion Hence at quarterback. He took a shotgun snap on Essex’s second play, knifed through the interior line, broke to the left sideline and raced for a 51-yard touchdown a mere 55 seconds into the game.
Six-foot-two, 225-pound freshman Demetrius Stewart bulled his way to a two-point conversion and Essex led 8-0. Grayson County scored six TDs in a 40-34 semifinal victory at Rye Cove so who knew that Essex had scored all the points it would need?
Grayson County went three-and-out on its opening series and punted, strangely enough for the only time in the game.
Grayson’s defense forced Essex to punt. Then in the span of 11 plays, the Blue Devils’ chances to win their first state championship took a huge hit.
Make that two huge hits.
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Mac Goad entered Saturday’s state final with more aches and pains than the board game “Operation.”
The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Grayson County senior wide receiver and free safety wore a brace to protect a right knee that had undergone a reconstructive procedure during his sophomore season.
Goad also broke his thumb, and later in the 2022 season after he complained about a strained calf, an X-ray revealed a fractured leg.
This season, things got worse. Goad suffered a ruptured kidney in a game against George Wythe. He sat out one full game.
However, the black cat followed Goad to Salem. On the second play of Grayson’s next series, he caught a 10-yard pass from his brother, Blue Devils quarterback Maverik Goad, and was sandwiched by two Essex tacklers.
Mac Goad got up holding his extended right arm below his waist and headed for the sideline where Grayson trainer Tayler Wright went to work.
She was about to have more business in her sideline office.
Grayson County reached the Essex 16, where the drive ended. Standout running back Aaron Peterson took a 9-yard swing pass from Maverik Goad, attempted to hurdle a tackler and landed a yard short of a first down.
The play would not have counted anyway because hurdling another player results in a 15-yard penalty.
Essex declined the flag, but it proved to be a double loss for Grayson.
Peterson, an 1,100-yard rusher on the season and also a key defender at strong safety, left with a knee injury and did not carry the ball again.
Seeing Goad and Peterson on the Grayson sideline did not escape their opponents’ attention.
Holmes, who missed Essex’s 2023 state championship, knew the significance.
“It helped us out a lot,” the Essex senior star said. “You cut the head off the snake, you win the game.”
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Grayson County’s roster included several players who suddenly found their commute to school 35 minutes longer each day after Hurricane Helene forced the New River out of its banks and destroyed sections of U.S. Highway 21.
These guys were not about to let a little adversity cause them to cave.
Grayson made Essex punt twice more in the second quarter and left for halftime still trailing 8-0.
With 150-pound senior Benton Wagoner filling in for the injured Peterson, the Blue Devils moved the ball into Essex territory twice.
However, Grayson County’s passing game was not causing Essex to sweat. Maverik Goad had only enough time to throw a quick swing pass in the face of the Trojans’ relentless pursuit.
And while Mac Goad returned to the field, something was amiss. On a first-down pass from the Essex 49 in the third quarter, the Blue Devils’ ultimate Warrior had an uncharacteristic dropped ball.
“Still having trouble feeling my fingers,” Goad said. “I guess I got hit in a nerve the wrong way. It definitely made it harder to catch the ball, to tuck it away. I couldn’t get my arm bent enough to carry it the way I wanted.”
Grayson County moved to the Essex 38, but that was as close as the Blue Devils came to the end zone the rest of the game.
Two plays later Essex’s Zion Darby and Elijah Morton sacked Maverik Goad and forced a fumble. Johnson recovered for the Trojans and by the time Grayson County got the ball back, the Mountain Empire District champs were in a two-touchdown hole.
Bundy pinballed his way to a 1-yard TD run 14-0 lead with 2:26 left in the third quarter.
“It definitely hurt us, but we tried to keep our heads up and fight,” Maverik Goad said of the fumble. “When you go down two touchdowns, it’s tough to come back.”
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The final seconds of the Grayson-Essex game. Video by Robert Anderson.
Grayson County faced a 28-13 fourth quarter deficit against Rye Cove and stormed back to win on Maverik Goad’s TD run with 27 seconds left in the state semifinal.
Essex was not Rye Cove.
The Trojans shut out all three of their opponents including a 41-0 revenge victory over Rappahannock in the Region 1A playoffs. Essex limited an Altavista team that averaged 48.5 points during the regular season to one score in a 30-8 triumph.
With Grayson showing no deep threat in the passing game, Bundy jumped a route later in the second half and intercepted a short pass. The Blue Devils needed to play a clean game to have a chance to win. Two turnovers were too many to overcome.
“We just couldn’t get going,” Grayson quarterback Maverik Goad said. “They’re a physical team, a good football team. We just drew the short straw today.”
James gave a big nod to Essex’s defense.
“They’re just athletic,” the Grayson coach said. “We had some issues up front sometimes in some of our protections, but that was predominantly because of [Essex].”
Essex’s lineup featured many players who were and a year stronger than they were in 2023. The Trojans, who attempted just one pass all day, mounted three late scoring threats.
Grayson County blocked a field goal to end the first one before Bundy added a second 1-yard TD and a 22-0 lead.
Essex was knocking on the door in the waning moments until Jones told Bundy to take a knee at the Grayson 6-yard line, allowing the clock to expire.
* * *
Jones had difficulty standing still on Essex’s sideline as the last two minutes ticked away.
At the final gun, he thrust his arms skyward and was lifted off his feet in a bear hug by Bundy. Several Essex players gathered in a small group for a prayer.
The traditional handshake line featured a show of mutual respect. Both teams accepted their individual medals and assembled for team photographs.
Mac Goad and several other Grayson County players did not remove their helmets.
“It sucks obviously, finishing second, knowing it is the last time you’ll step foot on the field,” he said. “But you made it to the last possible game and there’s not another week after this one, it helps a lot to be able to go back in the locker room with the guys.”
Moments after the game, Maverik Goad already was contemplating his senior year in 2025.
“We’ve proved people wrong. We’ve had that in the back of our heads that we could come out here and do it again today,” he said. “For sure, I’m definitely thinking about next year, but I’ll soak on this one for just a little bit.”
If any tears were shed, they were on the Essex side.
Immediately after the game, Jones received a black T-shirt from a well-wisher and put it in the pouch of his hoodie.
The front of the shirt featured a large color photograph of Jones and the uncle he lost during the 2023 championship game.
“He passed before Galax kicked that [field goal] so he’s up there [in heaven] bragging that we won,” Jones said. “This year he can really say that Essex finally won.”
Long after the stadium emptied in preparation for the Class 2 championship game later Saturday evening as their players were heading for their respective buses, Jones and James stood in conversation just outside the field house where each had given his respective team a final 2024 pep talk.
Maybe the two old teammates were talking about their college days.
Maybe the Southwest Virginia natives were telling stories about Pulaski County.
Or maybe they were reflecting on what it really means to coach high school kids in a state football championship.
“To be able to play in this, you’re fortunate to be able to play this long,” Jones said. “All of them are special.”
Interview with Essex coach Todd Jones. Video by Robert Anderson.
