Unpredictable start, but inevitable ending for Tigers

CHARLOTTESVILLE

It's high school, and high school football players, even on really good teams, do unpredictable things. And so Chesapeake's Oscar Smith, a really good high school team, crossed crazy wires on its first play of Saturday's Group AAA, Division 6 state final.

The Tigers had a premature shotgun snap skitter 16 yards untouched out of the end zone for a safety. Head coach Richard Morgan has certainly seen wackier plays than that, but he still spent the next 20 seconds bent over, staring into the turf, clearly trying to not let his head explode.

Ah, but predictability soon settled over the University of Virginia's Scott Stadium, where the Tigers commenced to dazzle and dominate Centreville's overmatched Wildcats.

Tireless attack stacked upon huge hit, piled upon big gain from Oscar Smith's impressive array of playmakers filled an afternoon into evening, cementing itself into school and state lore by the end.

The Tigers wielded their multi-pronged hammer early and backpedaled only when they smashed their own thumb with it. Thirteen penalties for 130 yards were the glaring blemish on an otherwise showcase day for the Tigers, 47-21 winners who brought home their program's second state championship in four seasons.

"We go after people early, try to take them out of the game and then come after them on defense," said Morgan as happy Tigers pranced around him. "If we didn't have the penalties, I thought we could've taken them out earlier. But I'll take the state title."

He'll take and wave it as further evidence that the hard path to Group 6 supremacy runs through his creation. Oscar Smith became just the second school to capture multiple Group 6 championships in the past decade. Westfield, a winner in '03 and '07, is the other.

But bleeders of blue and gold from Morgan on down know Oscar Smith was a controversial '09 semifinal loss, in overtime, to eventual champ Thomas Dale from perhaps three trophies in four years.

"I wake up with it in my mind every day," Morgan said of a game he still contends should have been postponed due to hellacious weather. "And every day it's motivation to get back here. This makes it go away a little bit."

Coaching hyperbole? Maybe. But something drives Oscar Smith's coaches and players to reach for and touch the impressive heights they're touching.

"We are the program in the state," said senior center Keeland Jennette, "and now it's about going back to the drawing board for next year because the same thing's expected. There's a tradition and we want that tradition to keep going."

J.J. Williamson, the 5-foot-10 (wink) quarterback who simply completes passes, had as much to do with draping this garland on the Tigers' tree of success as anyone.

Williamson completed 17 of 20 throws for 240 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Name a league - 17 for 20 in its title game is brilliant. The majority of his throws, too, were on his receivers' hands.

"I'm accurate, people don't know that," said Williamson, who's bound for Hampton University. "I work hard at it."

Williamson spread the wealth to Sequan Gooding, Melvin Vaughn, Zack Jones and Jeff Woods for three to six catches among them and total gains of 51 to 85 yards. Their threat was real and relentless, and Centreville was helpless against them.

"I felt like we had the matchups we wanted," Williamson said. "Once we get going, it's hard to stop us."

Forty-seven points, and another shiny entry for the trophy case, were Saturday's predictable proof.

Tom Robinson, (757) 336-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com

hamptonroads.com/robinson

Twitter @RobinsonVP