The Shadow
WOODSTOCK – Back on October 2nd, Central High School’s football program was hit with a VHSL rules violation.
The cost of that violation was the team’s three victories.
Heading into the fifth week of the season for Central Woodstock was the football team’s bye week. The Falcons were headed into their bye week with a 3-1 overall record.
That’s when the high school learned that one of their student-athletes on the football team was ineligible due to a violation of the VHSL rules.
The result of the penalty was the Falcons had to forfeit their previous three victories since they had already lost their season-opener which would have been forfeited as well had they won.
The player who was ineligible was also not allowed to play moving forward.
Since then, Central Woodstock has played a normal schedule as such and have won three out of four games since their bye week.
The Falcons to date are currently 3-5 overall, but had it not been for violating VHSL rules, they could be sitting at 8-2 and on top of the Bull Run.
The teams that Central defeated during their violation period included Amelia County, East Rockingham, and Staunton.
All three of those schools had their losses taken away and were credited wins.
Two of those schools, East Rock and Staunton, are in Class 3, Region C. The same region as Alleghany.
So, what do those added wins do to affect Alleghany, well very little as of now. If the season ended today the Cougars would host Staunton (6-2) in the first round of regionals. AHS is currently in the No. 3 spot of the playoff rankings, while the Storm are at No. 6.
The added win for Staunton is a big one against a formidable opponent like Central. The Storm could have gone from tinkering around the No. 7-10 seeds had the loss stood.
Meanwhile for East Rock (6-3), they two benefited by gaining an extra win and because of it remain in the conversation for a potential playoff berth. The Eagles regular season wraps up this week at Broadway. The game has a lot of playoff implications. The losing team of that game most likely misses out on the postseason.
Amelia County (5-3), which is a part of the James River district, is not part of the region as Alleghany, East Rock, and Staunton.
For Central, who are a member of the Region 2B, despite having their three wins they had to forfeit, are currently in position for a regional playoff appearance as they are in the No. 8 spot, a very dangerous No. 8 seed they would be.
With two weeks remaining we will see how much of an impact the added wins and losses have for all of the schools involved during the violation, most importantly for East Rock and Staunton who are a part of the region Alleghany plays in.
