COURTLAND—Southampton Academy missed getting into the Virginia Independent School Athletic Association’s Division IV football playoffs by 6/100 of a point.

While Monday’s news disappointed Raiders Head Coach Dale Marks, what made it more difficult was being notified one day earlier that Southampton Academy had made the playoffs.

“I had texted quite a few players and told the we were in,” Marks said upon learning from a league official on Sunday that the Raiders were in.

An oversight resulted in the change.

“We had to have a meeting (with the team on Monday) to explain what happened. It’s kind of a downer,” Marks said.

Southampton Academy finished the season fifth out of 12 teams with a 6-4 record. Before last Friday’s final regular game of the season, the Raiders were in fourth ahead of Roanoke Catholic High School. Roanoke Catholic won on Saturday and finished 6-3.

The four top teams make the playoffs, and the league uses a point system to rank teams.

Roanoke Catholic finished with 5.56 points and Southampton Academy had 5.50.

Had Southampton Academy gotten into the playoffs, the Raiders would’ve played top-seeded Blessed Sacrament Huguenot. The Knights (9-1) defeated the Raiders on Friday 42-8.

“They’re a very good team, big, fast and have a lot of players,” Chapman said.

He met with the other Raider coaches over the weekend to develop a strategy for playing Blessed Sacrament.

“We were trying to do something different to increase our chances of scoring more,” he said. “We were looking forward to it.”