Gretna shutout by Essex in Group A state semifinals

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TAPPAHANNOCK – Gretna players stood idly as the Essex sideline burst into a celebration. The life, energy and sense of having a chance to win were quickly sucked out of the Hawks.

The thought of not advancing to Salem had never crossed their minds until 10 seconds were left in the game.

Many of the players remained dressed in the locker room with their mud-caked jerseys on, running plays from the game through their minds of what went wrong and what could have been done differently.

Several sat shivering, still cold from playing in near-freezing temperatures and a constant downpour.

While the Gretna players were in the warmth of the locker room, nothing could really warm their spirits.

Gretna’s run for a third consecutive state championship came to a muddy halt, as the Hawks fell to home-standing Essex 8-0 in a defensive slugfest in the Group A, Division 2, state semifinal game on a miserable Saturday afternoon. It was the first time Gretna (10-3) suffered a shutout loss since the 2006 Region B championship game at Goochland.

The Trojans advance to the Group A, Division 2, state championship game in Salem on Saturday. Essex (13-0) will play the winner of today’s Radford at Lebanon contest.

“It’s very heartbreaking knowing that we put our all into it the whole game, all four quarters,” Gretna junior linebacker Darion Jefferson said. “Taking the ‘L’ instead of the ‘W’ is heartbreaking.”

A Gretna football season is not supposed to end with the players holding their heads down in a locker room, especially after the team’s defensive effort.

Essex’s highly potent offense was stifled every time except the last drive, a 12-play, 73-yard example of why the Trojans are undefeated. Instead of playmakers James Hence, Chuck Samuel and Lyndon Garner getting the ball, Cedric Thorne took a sweep to the left and found the pylon from 11 yards out with 10 seconds left.

Jubilation filled the home sideline.

Dejection, heartbreak and gut wrenching only begin to describe the emotions of the visitors.

“I thought we played really well and should have won the game, but we didn’t,” Gretna coach Kevin Saunders said. “I thought we played great field position football and we just didn’t get the win.”

Saunders, who took over the program in late May, kept a program that has established a tradition of winning. Inheriting a team that lost two behemoths on the offensive line and several key offensive playmakers, the Hawks kept piling up the victories. The 3-5 defense held Garner, who has thrown the most touchdown passes in a season in Group A history (40), to a meager 22 yards through the air on 4-of-10 passing.

“Everybody in that locker room wanted (it),” Gretna junior quarterback Nick Miller said. “The seniors, they really wanted it and I wanted to get them a ring. I wanted to get everybody on the team a ring. It wasn’t about the last few years. It was about this team this year, what we wanted to do and how we felt in our hearts what we could have done.”

Miller, who walked off the field with his head high after a tough battle, rushed for a game-high 147 yards and arguably should have scored a touchdown in the first quarter. He appeared to cross the goal line on a first-and-goal run from the 4-yard line. Despite the upper half of his body and the ball getting into the end zone, the official ruled him down a foot short. The next three rushes, which tried to bounce Miller outside, were all met by the Trojans’ defense.

“It was just our mistakes that took the game away from us,” Miller said. “We were on the 1 and should have just pounded it in and not given them a chance to even have that call right there.”

Gretna’s first three possessions got at least to the Essex 25-yard line. A fumble on the first drive at the 15 and another at the 24 on the third ended those drives with the goal-line stand sandwiched in between. A 32-yard field goal attempt at the end of the second quarter was knocked down by the wind.

In the second half, the Hawks only had one drive reach the red zone. Like the other drives in the first half, it resulted in a fumble in the rain.

Five drives into the heart of the Essex defense. Three lost fumbles, one goal-line stand and a missed field goal.

Gretna’s season ends one game short of where they wanted to be.

One game from where they feel they should be and where no one at the beginning of the season thought they would be.

“Our kids played well and I don’t know how many people expected us to be in this situation and those kind of things,” Saunders said. “It’s great for us and hopefully we can keep this thing going and hopefully have a great opportunity further down the road next year.”

Essex 8, Gretna 0
Gretna 0 0 0 0 -  0
Essex 0 0 0 8 -  8
Fourth quarter
E – Cedric Thorne 11 run (Lyndon Garner run), 0:10
Team statistics
Gretna Essex
First downs 9 10
Rushes-yards 39-205 43-145
Passing yards 26 22
Passing 2-5-1 4-10-0
Total offense 231 167
Fumbles-lost 4/3 1/0
Penalties-yards 8-65 6-40
Punts-average 2-18.5 7-24.1
Individual statistics
Rushing: G – Nick Miller 23-147, Andre Dickerson 14-66, Darion Jefferson 1-(-5), Team 1-(-3). E – James Hence 28-100, Garner 8-29, Chuck Samuel 4-22, Thorne 2-16, Deon Hammond 1-(-16), Team 1-(-6).
Passing: G- Miller 2-3-0 26, Team 0-2-1 0. E – Garner 4-10-0 22.
Receiving: G – Gunnar Saunders 1-23, Kevin Dale 1-3. E – Samuel 3-20, Hammond 1-2.
Records: Gretna 10-3; Essex 13-0.