Patrick HiteStaunton News Leader
STAUNTON — With just over six minutes left in Friday night's game, the situation, while not dire, wasn't ideal for Staunton. The Storm were trailing by a touchdown and had just turned the ball over to Stuarts Draft, who had slowly taken over the momentum in the fourth quarter.
"We have a saying that we're never going to give up until the game's over, until the final whistle," Staunton sophom*ore Marc Geffrard said.
Geffrard's teammate, Andre Johnson, remembers thinking somebody has to make a play, that the team had to find a way to get back into the game. Turned out at least three somebodies made plays.
Geffrard did it first. After the Storm's defense held on fourth down at their own 16, Geffrard took the handoff on 2nd-and-9 and bolted 83 yards down the left sideline for the game-tying score.
Then Staunton's defense forced a punt and Braylen Fields made the next play. The sophom*ore had a six-yard touchdown run where he ran into two defenders with two yards left to go and managed to take them across the goal line with him. That put Staunton in front to stay.
Then Johnson made his own play, picking off a pass with 47 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
"I read it, I saw No. 18 go down, read it and was just hoping," he said. "And I got it."
He did, indeed. For good measure, Fields made one last play for the Storm, a big 52-yard run to the end zone to cap 21 unanswered points in the final 4:51, turning a touchdown deficit into a 14-point win.
"That right there showed me a lot of grit and fight out of my players," said first-year head coach Michael Bell.
Photos:Scenes from Staunton's win over Stuarts Draft
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Staunton's 35-21 victory improved the team to 6-0 on the season, the program's best start since 2017 when the team went on to play for a state championship. Staunton came into the game sitting fourth in Region 3C after the Virginia High School League released its first ratings of the season earlier in the week. Friday night's win should only help the Storm in the chase for the playoffs.
"We want to be 7-0," said Geffrard. "We want to be undefeated. That's the goal and 6-0, I'm pretty sure that secures us a spot in the playoffs. We went to go to states. We want to get a ring on our fingers."
There's a lot of work to do between now and then, but Friday's win was huge for Staunton, who had dropped the last three to Stuarts Draft by a combined 132-27.
"That was, like, the first big game (of the season)," Johnson said. "That was one of the hardest games and we pulled through, as a team."
Bell gave a lot of credit for the fast start to his coaching staff, saying that they are getting practice started every day when he's tied up with other head coaching duties.
"I feel comfortable that, if I wasn't there, everything would run smooth," he said. "Those guys down there are helping me out every day. When you put a staff together you never know what's going to happen, but they're stepping up, the kids respect them and you can tell the kids play for them. It's just great."
Staunton led the game early, taking a 7-0 lead with a little razzle dazzle. Facing 2nd-and-11 from the 19, quarterback Walker Darby threw a backward pass to Geffrard, who was standing at the 10. Geffrard the fired the ball up field to a wide open Thomas Chisely, who caught the ball at the 50 and sprinted the rest of the way for the score.
"Me and Thomas, we've got that connection," Geffrard said. "We've been working on it in practice because we knew it was going to happen at one point. It's a trick play. I have that relationship with him, saw him downfield and threw the ball. Touchdown."
Bell said you never know if something like that will work, but it did on Friday night.
After that, Johnson scored on an 11-yard run for a 14-point lead, but Stuarts Draft scored the game's next 21 points on a Landon Graber pass, a Troy Thompson run and a Graber run.
But Geffrard's 83-yard run got things moving in the right direction again for Staunton.
"I just felt like, after that big run, I felt momentum just shifted a little bit," Bell said. "I told the guys, hey, it's a ball game and we've got to finish. That's what they did."
Staunton will look to take another step toward the playoffs with a road game at Fort Defiance next Friday. Fort lost to Wilson Memorial 42-28 Friday.
"The kids, they feel it, they feel the change," Bell said of his players. "The Storm is rolling right now. I hope we just keep going."
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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.
