By Matthew Hatfield

Special to the News-Herald

The Nansemond River Warriors made the trip to Hampton for the opening round of the Group 4A-South Region playoffs on Saturday night and took one of the most storied football programs in Virginia High School League history to the wire.

Since 2001, the Phoebus Phantoms have won seven state titles. But even with their considerable youth, featuring only six seniors, the Warriors came close to achieving the school’s first playoff win since 1995, only to fall short in a 14-13 heartbreaking defeat.

“We came out and played hard,” Nansemond River head football coach David Coccoli said. “We’ve gotten better as the year has gone on. We’re so young and I knew that would happen, but we took the seven-time state champs to the limit.”

“They held us pretty good on defense and we held them pretty good on defense,” he added. “It was one of those backyard games. It’s one that I like. This is how I want to win football games. We just didn’t get the ball moving enough and made too many mistakes to win.”

After 14 scoreless minutes, Phoebus scored early in the second quarter on a 27-yard interception return by Breon Baskerville. While Nansemond River missed a chance to tie the game on a dropped pass in the end zone, the Warriors finally struck on their final possession of the first half, when quarterback DeShon Saunders hit junior Demetrius Stitmon in the flat on a screen pass. Saunders raced 35 yards for a touchdown. That made the score 7-7 at half-time.

On the third play from scrimmage in the second half, Saunders made up for the interception he threw that was returned for a touchdown by getting one of his own on defense. He broke on a pass near the Phoebus sideline and found the end zone on a 32-yard return. However, the extra point was no good, and the celebration for taking a 13-7 lead was short-lived.

Phoebus responded with a 41-yard touchdown run by Jomari Becnel with 9:23 left in the third quarter and pushed ahead 14-13 on a successful extra point.

Nansemond River’s defense held Phoebus to a total 35 yards on 21 plays and just two first downs through two quarters of play. Saunders, Napolean Cross, Fred Dupree, and John Carter combined for 14 tackles for loss. Furthermore, the Warriors kept themselves in it by playing fundamentally sound, committing just one penalty for five yards.

“The things I want out of my football program are that we’re disciplined, and we play hard enough. I thought we did that tonight,” Coccoli said. “It’s something we can build on in the off-season, and we’ll go from there.”

Finishing 5-6 overall, Nansemond River will return the bulk of its team next year with 18 projected starters returning, according to Coccoli.

“It’ s a tough loss, but I’m pleased with the effort,” he added. “The future is bright for this program. We’ll get back at it in the off-season and get ready to work.”