Brookville fails to protect lead

ROANOKE — It was almost too easy. Freshman quarterback Kendall Becraft just threw the ball in senior wide receiver Alec Thompson’s direction, and time after time, Thompson came down with the pass for a big play.

The Becraft-Thompson combination accounted for two first-half touchdowns Friday night at Northside High School, but the host Vikings made a simple adjustment — moving an extra defender to help on Thompson — to take away the only offense the Bees had.

With Thompson out of the equation, Northside (9-2) completely shut down Brookville’s rushing attack and took advantage of three third-quarter turnovers to pull out a come-from-behind 21-13 victory in the Region III, Division 3, semifinals.

“I was double-covered the whole second half,” said Thompson, who had 108 of his 138 receiving yards in the first half. “I had a guy in my face and a guy over top of me, and it was really hard to get the ball, to get open.”

The Vikings advance to play the winner of today’s other region semifinal between Liberty and R.E. Lee.

The Bees (9-3) knew they would have trouble running against Northside’s fierce front seven, and they hoped to exploit the Vikings’ smaller cornerbacks by throwing jump balls to the 6-foot-3 Thompson.

It worked for most of the first half, as Thompson caught a 62-yard touchdown — on third-and-41 no less — and an 11-yard score, and Brookville went into halftime with a 13-7 lead.

“It was difficult to run, and they only had a few (defenders) in the box. I felt like our best chance to win was to get it to Alec and those playmakers we had outside,” Brookville coach Jeff Woody said. “I felt that was where our strength was tonight.”

Northside moved a safety over to help on Thompson, which all but shut down the Bees offense.

The 14-year-old Becraft completed 13 of 23 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns, but only 36 of those yards came after halftime. The Bees rushing attack accounted for minus-48 yards on 20 carries.

A lot of that lost yardage came on five Northside sacks.

Brookville’s defense held strong against the Vikings Wing-T offensive attack. It was working with a short field for much of the third quarter, when the game swung in Northside’s favor.

Both of the Vikings second-half touchdowns were set up by Bees turnovers.

Brookville was surging after its defense made a stop on fourth-and-goal at its own 1-yard line, but the Bees offense gave the ball right back to the Vikings with a lost fumble on the next play.

Dustin Phelps, who scored on a 21-yard run in the second quarter, scored from four yards out and Shawn Joyner tacked on the extra point to give Northside a 14-13 lead.

“We were out of breath and had no energy (after that fourth-down stop), and we had to come right back out and stop them again,” said linebacker Michael Leeman, who finished with 18 tackles and two pass breakups. “I think that was the turning point of the game, because it just gave them the momentum to move forward.”

Brookville answered Phelps’ second touchdown with a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Lorenzo Smith, but a holding penalty wiped out the score.

Becraft was intercepted on the Bees’ next drive, and Northside drove down the field and scored on a Philip Scott 5-yard run with 3:27 left in the third. The Vikings’ defense did the rest, holding Brookville to only one first down the rest of the way, on a pass interference penalty.

The loss marked the end of a successful run for the Brookville seniors. It also signaled a bright future for the Bees.

Woody and his players were practically gushing about the ability the young Becraft showed this season, especially during the playoffs, when he led them to a come-from-behind win and almost took them to the region championship game.

“He’s going to have some growing up to do, but he’s going to be a great quarterback when he gets older,” said senior Zack McCray, who donned No. 70 and played left tackle in place of the injured David Brandt.

“He did a good job of stepping up and being a leader this year as a freshman, and he’s got three more years to do the same thing. He’s only going to get better.”