The final score between two high school football teams from Virginia was a head-turning: 104-0.
The end of the game was stomach turning.
Phoebus High School of Hampton led Jamestown High School of Williamsburg 98-0 and had a chance to run out the clock. Instead, Phoebus went for more, scoring on a 28-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play.
Fans of the Phoebus Phantoms cheered at Darling Stadium in Hampton as the team eclipsed the 100-point mark. But the last-second touchdown did not sit well with Scott Lambin, coach of the Jamestown Eagles.
“I was hot,’’ Lambin wrote to USA TODAY Sports by text but said he didn’t say anything about it to Phoebus coach James Blunt. “…I didn’t feel that I had to ya know?’’
The touchdown was the final indignity on a night Jamestown trailed 56-0 at the end of the first quarter and 84-0 at halftime.
Blunt, reached on Sunday by phone, expressed regret about allowing his team to go for the touchdown on the final play.
“It’s going to eat me up,’’ he told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s something that’s going to stay with me.’’
What was the winning coach thinking?
Phoebus’ coach said under normal circumstances his team would have taken a knee and run out the clock during a lopsided game. But then came Friday night.
“By the time we got to 98 (points),’’ Blunt said, “I’m just like, “Jesus, man, why is this game still going on?’’
But his players reaction was decidedly different after Phoebus took possession of the ball at the Jamestown 45-yard line and 3:44 to play.
“The kids are all looking at me and they’re begging me, like, ‘Coach, can we have our shot at history?’” Blunt said. “And, you know, for me I’m like, I don’t like it. I didn’t like it, didn’t care for it and you’re hearing the crowd and they’re begging me.’’
With eight seconds left, Phantoms snapped the ball. From shotgun formation, the team’s third-string quarterback launched a high-arching pass pulled in by a reserve wide receiver who coasted into the end zone as the final second elapsed off the clock.
“I’ll be honest with you, man, I told the boys at the end when I broke them down, I’m happy for them and I did it for them, but that it’s not one of my better moments,’’ Blunt said. “I haven’t smiled about it. I haven’t accepted a congratulations about it. I just don’t feel good about it.
“But I did it for my kids. The point that was made by some of my seniors was, ‘Coach, we always take the high road and we get it. But it’s our chance. Can we make history?’ “
Why did this travesty happen?
A questionable high school football playoff system in Virginia created this unfortunate matchup.
Phoebus entered the game 10-0 with seven shutouts. Jamestown entered the game 1-9, with seven of those losses’ shutouts.
“No disrespect to Coach (Lambin) and his team, but it wasn’t a matchup that we were excited about,’’ Blunt said.
The game got out of hand almost as soon as it started.
Jamestown committed turnovers on the first play of each of its first three possession, and Phoebus led 20-0 just 48 seconds into the game.
Jamestown trailed 56-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“Those poor kids shouldn’t have been in that game,’’ said Blunt, adding that he pulled out most of his starters early in the first quarter.
The schools’ athletic directors discussed ending the game at halftime, according to Blunt, who said Jamestown chose to play on even after trailing 84-0 at halftime.
Lambin, a former Marine, suggests he draws on his military background in coaching a team that went 0-10 last season.
“The biggest takeaway from last night is we didn’t quit,’’ he wrote.