Strasburg’s running game blows past Glenvar as school claims first state football championship

A state football championship.

Strasburg’s football team had been there.

Glenvar had done that.

The Highlanders made the six-mile trip to Salem on Saturday looking to add a Virginia High School League championship trophy to the hardware they put in the school’s trophy case in 2014.

Strasburg made the trip down Interstate 81 to Salem Stadium seeking its first state title in six appearances in the finals, including last year’s loss to Graham.

Recent experience ruled.

For the second year in a row, Strasburg fell into a two-touchdown hole in the first quarter, but this time the Rams rebounded for a decisive 49-27 victory over Glenvar to deny the Highlanders a perfect 2025 season.

Strasburg, a Shenandoah County school which began playing football in 1929, finished with a 13-1 record by hoisting the championship trophy for the first time.

The Rams were Division 1 runners-up in 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1995 under longtime coach Glenn Proctor. Strasburg lost 31-8 to Graham in the 2024 Class 2 state final after falling behind 14-0 before running an offensive play.

Saturday Glenvar took a 12-0 lead, forcing a large Strasburg contingent on the visitors side to wonder if ill fate had cast its hand again.

Not this time.

Strasburg shrugged off the adversity with a dominant running game that produced a 21-19 halftime lead. Three more touchdowns followed in the third quarter, and the Rams’ 42-19 was too much to overcome.

“We started out in the same predicament last year,” Strasburg coach Tripp Lamb said. “We kind of tucked our tails and folded. I knew that was not going to be this group. I knew our guys wouldn’t quit. Once we got rolling, we were hard to stop.”

Proctor spent 44 seasons at Strasburg with 302 career victories but no state championship. It took Lamb, a 2004 Staunton River High School graduate, just two seasons as head coach to reach the pinnacle.

Strasburg’s straight T-formation running game was devastating.

The offensive line — tackles Hutson Conrad and Jacob Britton, guards Gate Gutierrez and Jacob Stickley, center Cooper Miller, and tight ends Alexander Mudd and Harper Sherman — opened huge holes in Glenvar’s defensive line.

The Rams’ trio of running backs — Quincy Williams (20 carries, 135 yards), Linkyn Bosworth (17-118) and Brady Knight (17-99) — combined for 352 yards rushing and five TDs while dividing 54 carries.

Strasburg entered the game averaging 363 yards rushing per game. Saturday the Rams finished with 362.

Just an average day at the office.

“Obviously they wore us down a little bit. We knew that was probably going to be the situation,” Glenvar coach Kevin Clifford said. “In a game like this you’ve got to play mistake-free. We didn’t. But it goes to them. Congratulations to them.

“We kind of ran into a buzzsaw. They were good today. Sometimes you have to tip your hat and say, ‘They were better today.’ That’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Both teams committed two costly first-half turnovers.

Knight and Williams coughed up fumbles by the Rams in the first quarter, while Glenvar quarterback Brody Dawyot threw two interceptions on an otherwise brilliant performance by the record-setting senior.

Glenvar turned the fumbles into a 12-0 lead on a 2-yard TD run by Dawyot and a 23-yard TD pass to Cooper Mullins.

“I tell our guys all the time that the toughest team we play is ourselves,” Lamb said. “We beat ourselves sometimes. When we don’t beat ourselves, we’re tough to beat.

“We knew coming into the game we were going to ride those big boys up front and try to wear them down. That’s been our strength all year.”

Strasburg had three possessions in the second quarter, and all reached the end zone.

Knight scored on an 8-yard run, then Williams had a 6-yard TD that wiped out Glenvar’s last lead of the game. Bosworth added a 10-yard run with 2:52 left in the first and the Rams were off and running at 21-12.

Bosworth’s score was set up when Williams intercepted a pass by Dawyot and returned the ball 22 yards to the Glenvar 18. It was a throw the VHSL’s career touchdown pass leader wished he could have had back.

“Things went our way in the first quarter, but after that I made a couple of mistakes and they took the lead from there,” Dawyot said. “They were sitting in a zone with people shooting out to the flats, and I should have seen it. I made some questionable passes.”

Dawyot needed to shoulder no blame, leading a 61-yard drive that ended with a 4-yard TD run that cut the deficit to 21-19 at halftime.

In the face of a fierce Strasburg rush that put him on his backside more than once, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Charlotte signee completed 27 of 40 passes for 245 yards and two TDs while running for another 91 yards and two scores on 16 carries.

Dawyot either passed or ran on 56 of Glenvar’s 63 offensive plays. His two TD passes upped his VHSL career record total to 137.

See also: 2 unlikely brothers have led Glenvar to the doorstep of a state championship

“He’s awesome,” Lamb said. “I can’t wait to watch him on Saturdays on TV. I’ve been coaching high school football for 18 years and he’s by far the best player I’ve coached against. He really hurt us with his feet today. We do a pretty good job of gobbling people up with our defensive line, and there were some times out there he kind of made us look silly.”

Dawyot completed 14 passes alone for 133 yards to his brother, senior receiver Tre Dawyot. Mullins shrugged off a bum ankle to catch six passes for 55 yards.

However, Strasburg showed that the most direct way to the end zone is on the ground. The Rams threw just one pass as a wide-open Williams dropped a likely TD strike from Brayden Hough on the first play of the second quarter.

The Region 2B offensive player of the year more than made up for it with big plays on defense and the kicking game.

He returned the second half kickoff 52 yards to the Glenvar 47. It took the Rams just five plays for a 5-yard TD run by Knight.

Strasburg forced a punt and covered 64 yards in nine running plays for Bosworth’s 23-yard sprint and a 35-19 lead.

Then Williams applied the backbreaker.

Dawyot completed a short pass to Haden Henderson. However, the ball came loose, and Williams scooped it up inside Strasburg territory and bolted 55 yards for a TD for a 42-19 lead as he held up a No. 1 signal long awaited in Shenandoah County.

Glenvar (14-1) cut Strasburg’s lead to 42-27 when the Dawyot brothers hooked up for an 8-yard TD pass with 48 seconds left in the third quarter. The Highlanders gave a huge crowd on the home side of the stadium hope by forcing the Rams’ only punt, but when Britton and Sherman combined to sack Dawyot, the Highlanders’ dream of completing an undefeated season was done.

Glenvar reached the final with a 21-20 semifinal victory over previously unbeaten Union, but Strasburg was a different animal. The Highlanders also played without two injured starters — senior receiver/defensive back Jace Forster and defensive end Jake Franklin.

“Winning at any level is hard, and going 15 and 0 is even harder,” Clifford said. “I’ve lost a lot of games. You get over them. I’m disappointed for our seniors.

“Matchups are everything. Last week I thought we played really well but they run a little bit different offense than Union did. They try to spread you out, even though they’re running two [tight ends] and hit seams. And they’re good. They’re athletic up front and they move really well.”

Lamb, who played at Staunton River for head coaches Bob Gray and David Rocco, joined Strasburg’s coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2008 before he was promoted 18 months ago.

What explains such patience?

“The community,” he said. “It’s a great place to coach. It’s a great place to teach. It’s a great place to live. We’ve got the best kids. I hope to coach here another 25 years and retire.”