ESSEX WINS!

GROUP A, DIV. 2 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Essex 30, Radford 0

SALEM -- Lyndon Garner threw for 242 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score, leading Essex to a rout of Radford in the Group A, Division 2 state championship game, the school's first state football title.
Garner hit DeVante Baker for a 42-yard scoring pass and scored on an 8-yard run for the Trojans (14-0), overcoming four interceptions. Essex got 135 rushing yards and a touchdown from James Hence, and receiver Deon Hammond also threw a scoring pass, to Cedric Thorne.
The title came after Essex reached the state semifinals three times in the past four years, and also lost in the state championship game to Gate City in 2003.
Radford (10-4), which had four turnovers, was led by D.J. Parker with 86 rushing yards.

FINALLY the team can crawl out of the prodigious shadows our three wins in 1987 cast, as well as my blocked extra point in 1988. Finally. Congratulations guys - and, again, I'm sorry to have played a part in raising the bar so high; you guys didn't ask to be compared against us at every turn. Wasn't fair. But now you've triumphed. Cap doffed.