The final VISAA Division III football rankings looked like this:

1. Isle of Wight Academy

2. North Cross

3. Blessed Sacrament Huguenot

4. Fuqua School

5. Quantico

6. Southampton Academy

The top four teams make it to the state playoffs. Two observations: 1. Again, the Virginia Commonwealth Conference dominated the rest of the state with four of the top six teams; 2. It may be that next year, Southampton Academy will be ready to move into the upper echelon.

The Raiders will lose few seniors from a team that went 8-3, beat the No. 5 team and was competitive against the No. 4 and No. 1 team.

The saying goes that defense wins ballgames. Luckily for Sussex Central this is true. Franklin could not take advantage of five Sussex turnovers in the first half.

The Tigers’ first eight possessions of the game ended this way: Franklin fumble recovery, punt, Franklin interception, Franklin fumble recovery, Franklin fumble recovery, Franklin fumble recovery, turnover on downs, Franklin fumble recovery, time ran out in the half.

On the other hand, defense helped keep Franklin in the game. The Broncos held the Tigers to just 6 points when Sussex had been averaging more than 40 points per game.

I would like to see Franklin get another crack at Sussex in the playoffs. If you take away the mistakes, especially in the first half, it could be a much different outcome.

Franklin head coach Darren Parker often talks about making adjustments. A rematch would come down to which team makes those adjustments.

One adjustment the Broncos will have to make to get anywhere in the postseason is at offensive line. Quarterback Trey Kigler was under pressure all night by Sussex and was sacked four times in the second half for a loss of 30 yards.

Volleyball has been a big deal in Courtland this year with both the Southampton High School and Southampton Academy teams reaching the postseason. The Lady Indians and Lady Raiders both had playoff games this week.

While the Lady Raiders went through the regular season unblemished in the Virginia Commonwealth Conference, including the tournament championship, the Lady Indians finished second in the Southside District under first-year head coach Chad Brock. Brock talked about his team’s preparation for the playoffs.

“To prepare for regional’s we’re just going to do what we do. With the people we have we play a certain style and we’re going to play the way we play. We had worked on some things to use against Powhatan that we’ll have to use against some of these other teams because they’re going to play bigger ball and they’re going to hit more. We’re going to play the way we can play and make somebody have to beat us,” he said.