Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s Brock Van Selow, standing near midfield a couple minutes after the end of his team’s 27-20 defeat of host Greenbrier Christian Friday night, summed the night.

&uot;I haven’t felt this good in a long time!&uot; said the senior Saint. &uot;Well, at least in the last four weeks.&uot;

That’s because the senior, who blocked for his younger brother’s Tyler’s tally of 128 yards and the game-winning touchdown run, was celebrating his team’s first win in a month.

Brock punched in the first NSA score of the night, from one yard out, finishing off a 13-play, 71-yard, 6:20 drive for the Saints that ended with 11:19 in the second quarter and NSA leading 7-0. A 38-yard completion over the middle from Jack Wright to Adam Gillette was the big play of the drive, moving the ball to the Gator 23.

GC was stopped again and NSA took possession at their own 39 with 8:52 left in the second.

After three short runs, NSA faced fourth-and-one at their own 48. The word from the sideline was to go, and Wright took an option play around the right side of the line for five yards.

On the next series, a third-and-12 was bested with a 20-yard pass from Wright to Gillette that got the ball to the GC 29.

Kelvin Demps took a straight-ahead dive, broke through the line at full speed, and kept sprinting straight ahead for a touchdown, and NSA was ahead 14-0 5:15 before halftime.

The Gators cut the lead in half right before the break, but Wright opened the second half with three completions to three different receivers, moving the ball from the NSA 33 to the GC 23.

Tyler moved the ball to the 12 on a pair of good ground gains. Wright ran to the right side of the field, scrambled back to the left, cut toward the goal line, spun off two Gator tacklers, and dove forward into the endzone. His score put NSA up 20-7 at the 8:31 mark of the third.

With a good kick return following NSA’s score, the Gators then moved 58 yards in only 2:53 to cut the lead to 20-13 as Kyle Jett saved what could have been a very critical point with a blocked PAT.

After NSA was stopped on downs at the GC 34, the Gators marched down the field again. This time, Cephas Battle’s scored on a 14-yard run with 10:03 in the fourth quarter for a 20-20 score.

NSA’s next possession was nearly short-lived, but a nine-yard Wright-to-Gillette pass moved the ball to the NSA 45. On the next play, Tyler took a pitch around the left side for a 30-yard run down the sideline to the GC 25.

Two more rushes by Tyler set up first down at the GC 14.

On his fourth consecutive carry, Tyler took a carry off the left end, leveled a Gator defender with a leading right forearm, and scored to put NSA up 27-20 with 6:58 left.

The Saints’ defense held on the NSA 23 with 50 seconds left. J.D. Duplain’s sack forced second-and-12 at the NSA 30, Daniel Raman’s solo tackle on a Gator pitch play brought up third-and-11, Issac Ballou made a tackle to keep a completion a short one for fourth-and-five; and an incompletion on fourth sealed the victory.

Wright finished the night six-for-eight passing for 89 yards.

Gillette caught four of those passes for 78 yards.

The Saints totaled 206 rushing yards.

NSA (3-5, 2-1) travels to Blue Ridge next week for a Saturday afternoon game and the Saints’ last home game of the season will be in two weeks when Hampton Roads Academy visits Suffolk.

andrew.giermak@suffolknewsherald.com