Armstrong's playoffs victory over Thomas Jefferson comes with a Cherry on top
As players and fans filed off the field and out of the stadium following host Armstrong’s 21-0 victory over Thomas Jefferson in the Region 2A quarterfinals Friday night, Wildcats coach Jeremy Pruitt couldn’t quite celebrate.
“The shutout means nothing,” Pruitt said. “I’m not impressed with how we performed.”
While fourth-seeded Armstrong avenged a regular-season loss to the fifth-seeded Vikings – a game that had its halves played weeks apart due to extreme heat – the game won’t win any awards for beauty. The Wildcats committed at least 11 penalties, many of the drive-killing variety.
“We’ve got to clean it up … we’ve got to watch film and clean everything up,” Pruitt said.
Armstrong flexed its muscles early. After allowing TeeJay’s Tyler Meade to run for 32 yards in the first three plays, Armstrong allowed zero yards in the next three, including a fourth-down stand that gave the Wildcats the ball in plus territory.
The offense answered with a nine-play drive, capped by a 19-yard sprint around left end by Kemari Cherry to give Armstrong the early advantage.
The Wildcats’ defense forced a three-and-out on Thomas Jefferson’s second possession before the offense turned a broken drive into another score.
A personal foul and a block-in-the-back penalty on back-to-back snaps left the Wildcats with a second-and-35 on their own 26-yard line. Quarterback Jahkee Cotman took to the air, floating a pass down the left sideline to Brendon Oliver, who caught the ball with plenty of running room. Oliver appeared pinned in by the defense around the Vikings’ 35-yard line, but he broke free down the sideline after faking a move inside to put the Wildcats up 14-0 late in the first quarter.
“We put our athletes on their athletes. We had the better athletes, period,” Pruitt said. “We had the better athletes, and we showed that to them.”
Following the early success on the ground in the game’s first drive, Thomas Jefferson couldn’t sustain anything against Armstrong’s defense. However, the Vikings just missed an opportunity to cut into the Wildcats’ lead with their first offensive possession of the second half.
Faced with fourth-and-15 at the Armstrong 23, quarterback Koi Brown threw a pass into the end zone that was caught, but the receiver was out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Wildcats. The Vikings would not cross the 50 the remainder of the game.
With time winding down, Cherry bookended his scoring efforts, this time on the defensive end by picking off a pass and returning it 10 yards for a touchdown. Cherry and the Armstrong secondary limited the Vikings to fewer than 50 yards passing in the second half.
“I really thought he was going to throw it deep, but I baited him and took it to the house,” Cherry said.
Cherry, who has made positive plays all over the field this season, finished with 102 yards rushing on 16 carries, while Shadarus Pickett finished with 64 yards on 11 carries. For TeeJay, Meade finished with 59 yards on 11 carries, and DaiJuan Smith caught five passes for 69 yards.
With the win, Armstrong advances to play at the region’s top seed, Central-Lunenburg, in next Friday’s region semifinals. The Chargers defeated Randolph-Henry 21-7 in their opening-round game.
