By Greg Taylor
Contributing Writer

When looking back at the 60th season of Powhatan football, one can only surmise that this was a year to remember. This team was one which dominated its opponents throughout most of the year, recording five shutouts on the season including a 49-0 drubbing of York in the playoffs. The Indians also scored the most points ever for any Powhatan football squad in a season (552) and gave up the fewest points by anyone this decade (85).

Any success for this season has to go first to the offensive line. Seniors Collin Christovich, Josh Mills, Pat Purington and Brandon Dodd have been together as a line for two consecutive seasons forming a very cohesive unit. Sophomore Andrew Christovich joined the quartet this year and is continuing the family tradition at left tackle.

Behind this mammoth and powerful offensive line, the Indians had almost 5000 yards of offense on the year including over 3700 yards on the ground as the line continuously opened big holes for Landen Bradley, Shawn Minor, Dion Berry and others to run through averaging over 290 yards rushing per game.

With Shawn Minor running the team for his third consecutive year, the Indians offense consistently had over 300 yards of offense per game until they met Broad Run.

Six times, Powhatan had over 400 yards of offense including 511 (second best all time) against Monticello.

Defensively, the Indians were a very stingy group. Opposing teams had a hard time moving against this defense. Up front, Jay Jackson, Joey Blanco, C. Christovich and Purington controlled the line of scrimmage and pushed the opposing line around allowing the linebackers to come up and make the plays.

Senior Josh Morris and junior Darius Nash were the leading tacklers for a defense that held opposing rushers to only 2.8 yards a carry for the season.

In the secondary, Minor and junior Phillip Schoeffel returned to their 2008 positions and welcomed sophomore sensation Ray Brown to a secondary that picked off 18 passes in 2009.

Despite falling short to the eventual Division 4 state champion Broad Run Spartans in the semifinals, this team, overall, had a very successful year winning the Southside District for the eighth consecutive time, extending a 49 game district winning streak, capturing their fifth Region I title this decade and making the state semifinals for the fourth time in five years.

The 21 seniors on this squad finish their careers going 44-7 scoring 1913 points over that span and producing three of the highest scoring teams ever seen at Powhatan.

The seniors have set the bar very high for those players who will return next season. This year, we got a glimpse of what the future holds with Bradley, Berry and Brown tearing up the ground rushing the ball and Ingram making catch after catch. Jay Jackson was manhandling opposing offensive lineman. While Dustin Kingery and Kurt Taylor were the unsung heroes of this team on both sides with their ability to make timely plays from multiple positions.

The coaching staff was fortunate enough this season to have the ability to play the second and third teams in the second half of games creating quality depth and giving those players who will play prominent roles in 2010 exposure to a live game environment.

But for now the questions of who will step up on the offensive and defensive lines and who will line up under center will have to wait until training camp.

It has truly been a pleasure to watch this team progress over the season from a team with promise to one with a purpose. Though, the season did not end with a state title, all of the players had a tremendous year, one for the record book.

As the chill of winter approaches, I will be looking forward to the heat of August and the start of another football season. But I shall always remember 2009 and the unparalleled success that this team had. I will miss the seniors in this class, especially Shawn Minor, who never ceased to amaze me with what he could do on the football field.

I wish all of the seniors the best of luck in their future endeavors and thanks for the memories.