The Shadow
Warm Springs, VA- The Bath County Chargers 2024 season has been nothing short of spectacular. Bath has been dominating on both sides of the football. Anchored by standout play from senior linebacker Braiden Mabe, who looks a lot more like a Micah Parsons or Ray Lewis than a high school senior, the defense has been firing on all cylinders. Another defensive standout comes in the form of junior lineman Jeremy Burns. He is as fast as any high school student lineman out there and he creates more havoc in opposing offenses backfields than a young Aaron Donald.
This Bath County defense really has been in lockdown mode, and it’s been hard for offenses to get anything going. Offensively, the Chargers have been just as awesome. They score at will, leaning on the run game to provide at least 80% of their production and effectively passing when longer yardage is needed.
Senior quarterback Wyatt Campbell has had a great season. Whether running or passing, Campbell has been in a league of his own. He can thread the needle like Brady, and he runs like prime Vick. His meshing of ability makes it easier to just call him Superman and get it over with. Campbell’s just one great piece of the puzzle. He also has talent all around him.
Luke Turner runs and catches a lot like A.J Brown making him an ever-present threat and Ethan Bryant can pound the ball down the field like Marshawn Lynch. The heart and soul of the team though is the Bath County offensive and defensive lines. They have played incredibly all season. They make running lanes big enough to drive a truck through and have made it almost impossible for other teams to run the ball. This team was sitting at 9-0 before Friday night and had a point differential of 519-49. They won the Pioneer District title and faced the Pioneers of Fort Chiswell in the first round of the regional playoffs. Fort Chiswell came into the playoffs and the number eight seed with a record of 2-8. Needless to say, it was an up-hill battle for the Pioneers.
Fort Chiswell started on defense after kicking the ball off and Bath started on the 20-yard line. Chiswell’s defense looked great on the first couple of series and had Bath in a fourth-and-5 situation at one point. If not for Bath’s coaching staff successfully pulling the Pioneers offsides, Bath may have been forced to punt.
After the penalty, Bath was forced to march down the field slowly getting four and five yards every play. This slow pace was a change Bath was not used to as they usually take big chunks of yardage and score quickly, but after working down to the 3-yard line, Wyatt Campbell punched it in for Bath’s first points of the night.
Bath’s defense rose to the occasion and helped the offense out by causing the Pioneers to fumble on their very first play. Bath jumped on the ball and took over with a short field of 20 yards for Bath’s next points. The offense wasted no time, and Turner took it around the end and scored Bath’s second touchdown of the game. Bath’s defense played hard all night and held Fort Chiswell to just six points. Once Bath’s offense got rolling it never slowed down and ended up putting 42 points on the board. Bath will now play Narrows again in the regional semifinals on Friday in Bath County. The Chargers came out victorious in their first battle with the Green Wave a couple of weeks ago after putting up 49 points to Narrows’ 12.
