Patrick HiteStaunton News Leader
FORT DEFIANCE — At one point in the fourth quarter, with his team trailing, Staunton coach Michael Bell put his hands on his head in frustration. The Storm players were committing way too many penalties, many costly, and the offense was struggling to get anything going.
That's when offensive line coach Adam Martiny came over to Bell and just told him to "breathe and relax."
Bell did just that. Then his defense got a stop and Staunton's quarterback, senior Walker Darby, walked up to his coach and said, "Let's go."
"When I saw the confidence in Walker, he gave me that look like, we're not finished, that got me, like, hey, let's keep on rolling here," Bell said. "It was those two things, for me personally, coach talking to me and Walker looking at me that let me know we weren't finished."
Although it did look like they were finished, Bell was right. For the second week in a row Staunton found fourth-quarter magic to pull out an improbable 14-12 win to improve to 7-0 this season. Last week Staunton scored 21 points in the final 4:51 to beat Stuarts Draft by 14.
It's the best start to a season for this high school's football program since a 9-0 start in 2006. Even the 2017 team that went to the state championship game only won its first six games before losing. Only two Staunton teams have won more than seven games to start a season since 1967.
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As time ticked off the clock in the fourth quarter, Fort Defiance held a 12-0 lead on a pair of Jacob Shifflett touchdowns and Fort's defense had come up with a big fumble in the first half, stopping Staunton inside the 5.
Darby said there "were some things being said" by Fort Defiance students — he didn't specify what was being said — throughout the week and he thought it affected Staunton's players, maybe threw them off their game just a bit early.
"Emotions were high on the sidelines the entire time," the quarterback said. "Then we started playing Storm football in the fourth quarter"
Braylen Fields got Staunton on the board first with a 4-yard run to cap a 76-yard drive, cutting the Fort lead to 12-7 with 6:49 left. Staunton's defense then got a stop, forcing a punt. Andre Johnson returned the punt inside Fort's 30, but a penalty moved the ball all the way back to Staunton's 44 with 2:16 left.
Staunton lost a yard on a run, then fired two incomplete passes, one that probably should have been caught by Johnson. No worries. Darby went back to Johnson on fourth-and-11. The two connected on a slant for a 32-yard completion.
"I've got to come back and make a play," Johnson said. "And I did. We all did. We all came back and made plays. We were down and, I ain't gonna lie to you, I didn't think we were going to come back, but we did."
Darby said he had no doubt that if he threw to Johnson again that the ball would be caught.
"I knew he was going to come back and redeem himself," Darby said. "The linebacker, I just dropped it in over top of him. As soon as I let the ball go I knew (Johnson) was going to make the play."
He was right. Darby bought a little time with his feet, then hit Johnson in stride at the Fort 35. After hauling in the pass, Johnson ran another 11 yards before being shoved out of bounds at the 24. Three plays later the two connected again to get inside the Fort 5. Darby handled it from there, carrying the ball into the end zone with 30 seconds left.
"There are times when things get hard," Bell said. "And playmakers make plays. This feels really good because it shows we've got grit. Everything seemed like it wasn't going our way, but we didn't give up."
Fort's last drive ended with Staunton's Kayden Jackson picking off a pass at midfield and Staunton began its celebration.
"We're fighters," Johnson said. "And we're going to keep fighting, getting better."
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Patrick Hite is The News Leader's educationreporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) atphite@newsleader.comand follow himon Twitter@Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to usatnewsleader.com.
