The finish came down to a couple of Hail Mary passes at the end, one a big success and the other so close to working, as the Madison Warhawks fell a point short of winning their first state football championship.
The undefeated Oscar Smith Tigers of Chesapeake (15-0) nipped Madison, 21-20, in a seesaw Dec. 14 championship game of the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 state final at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.
Three players from the Flint Hill Huskies and one from the Potomac School Panthers were chosen to the 2024 Division I all-state private high-school football teams for their performances during the 2024 high-school season.
From Flint Hill, senior quarterback Caleb West was chosen to the first team on offense while his teammate, senior wide receiver Victor McNeal, made second team.
A few matches into the Northern Virginia Scholastic Ice Hockey League, the Herndon/South Lakes club team leads the Adams Division with a 4-0 record, with the multiple-time defending champion Langley Saxons at 4-1 with a four-match winning streak.
Also in the division, the Madison Warhawks are 2-2, the Oakton Cougars 2-3 and the McLean/Chantilly high-school squad 1-3. Langley and Herndon/South Lakes meet later in the season.
In the final stages of the fourth quarter, the Marshall Statesmen boys basketball team held a five-point lead and appeared poised to improve to 4-0.
Then the visiting Statesmen hit a couple of late-game bumps in the road, resulting in a 59-53 overtime road loss to the Lake Braddock Bruins (1-2), who won for the first time this high-school season.
Finally, the Lake Braddock Bruins won a close basketball game.
After opening their season with two- and three-point losses, the boys high-school team rallied to win a tight contest by defeating the visiting Marshall Statesmen, 59-53, in overtime in non-district action Dec. 10.
Players from the Concorde District and region champion Madison Warhawks were among those chosen to the all-6D North Region football team
Madison had three first-team selections on offense with one on second team, and six first-teamers on defense.
With two individual champions and 14 wrestlers scoring points, the Westfield Bulldogs won the annual season-opening NOVA Classic.
The two-day event with more than 30 high-school teams was held Dec. 6 and 7 at Fairfax High School.
They started slow and fell behind early, but by game’s end the Robinson Rams had rallied and were still undefeated in girls high-school basketball action.
Host Robinson (4-0) defeated the Washington-Liberty Generals, 36-29, Monday night (Dec. 9) in a non-district game in Fairfax. The Generals, who were without injured starting center Eve Jungman, fell to 1-2.
The Langley Saxons and Potomac School Panthers had recent mixed results against opponents that were top teams in girls state basketball tournaments last season.
Langley (2-1) defeated the visiting Woodgrove Wolverines (0-1) of Purcellville, 59-54, as Anya Rahman scored 31 points with two steals.
It was an unwanted déjà vu situation all over again that proved costly for the Lake Braddock Bruins in the team’s state-semifinal football game against the Madison Warhawks.
Just like during an early regular-season game against the Warhawks, the Bruins fell behind 21-0 again in the Dec. 7 Virginia High School League Class 6 state-tournament semifinal, and never caught up.
