Lancers sting Bees repeatedly in Seminole slaughter

“Unfinished Beesness” read one of the banners hanging outside Amherst’s football fieldhouse prior to Friday night’s showdown with defending Seminole District champion Brookville at Lancer Stadium.

The sign played off the theme of the season for the Lancers, who lost to Broad Run on a snowy field at Liberty University in last year’s Group AA, Division 4, state championship game immediately after Brookville fell short in a shootout to James Monroe in the Division 3 final.

It also alluded to the Bees, who snapped then two-time defending state champion Amherst’s 26-game winning streak in last season’s opener on the same field, Cecil Phillips’ coaching debut with the Lancers.

“Coach had been nailing it in our head about 24-21, that was the score last year, so we’ve been pretty focused since Day 1,” Amherst senior multiple-position athlete Anthony Rose said.

In the rematch, a 54-6 massacre, the Lancers took care of business early with perfect execution of their Wing-T attack.

“Our kids were jacked,” Phillips said. “Our kids were very excited. They’ve been waiting on this for quite some time.”

They struck quickly with electrifying 62- and 70-yard touchdown sprints by Jamal Glover on their first and third plays from scrimmage and a breath-taking 61-yard punt return by Mario Vaughan to take a commanding 20-0 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

“They’ve got a really fast football team,” Brookville coach Jeff Woody said. “You can’t simulate that speed. They execute well. From the fakes to hitting the hole fast to executing the block, they’re a good football team.

“We felt like we could hang with them, but (when our) execution fails and their offense is hitting on all cylinders, it quickly gets out of hand. It got out of hand on us tonight.”

Glover finished with 10 carries for 181 yards and three touchdowns, the same number as Rose (eight carries, 145 yards) who caught two passes and took seven handoffs from quarterback Kirby Anderson before replacing Anderson behind center went down with a knee injury and sneaking for an awe-inspiring 71-yard TD up the left sideline.

“That was just a little trick play because we were running the power the whole time,” Rose said. “That’s not one of our plays, we usually don’t run it. Coach just told me to keep it.”

And he ran with it.

“He’s a 4.5-(second 40-yard dash time) kid who has the opportunity to take it the distance, too,” Phillips said of Rose, who adds another arrow in the Lancers’ loaded backfield. “We’re trying to create as many touches as possible (for everyone) because when we get so many big plays, we don’t have the chance to get them as many touches as they need.”

Amherst amassed 510 yards on 50 rushes (10.2 yards per carry). It picked up 20 first downs to Brookville’s three, holding the Bees to negative yardage in the first half, when they punted six times.

Converted quarterback Deshon Foxx, who split duties with freshman Kendall Becraft for the second straight week, was sacked five times in the first half and finished with negative 23 yards on 17 carries.

He and Becraft did hook up with wide receiver Alec Thompson, who they replaced at quarterback, five times for 43 yards, including a 19-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Becraft that Thompson came back for at the five before diving into the end zone, preventing a shutout.