NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- There are many factors that motivate a high school football team throughout any given season. For Maury football, one of them was the heartbreak of a year ago.
Last year's state title game saw Stone Bridge top Maury on the final play of the contest and the Commodore players and coaches have had one year to let that burn.
"No kid wants to feel that pain of losing on Hail Mary on the last play of the game like that," Maury senior running back and linebacker Nathaniel Knox said. "We took it offseason. We [were] all out there working, getting it."
"I'm pretty sure that a lot of people that are involved are happy about the situation that we're in," added head coach Dyrri McCain. "I won't be happy unless we get a win Saturday."
Finishing now becomes the focus. To this point, the Commodores have looked like a team that can hoist the ultimate prize, handling nearly everybody in their path. Maury is on a 10 game winning streak since falling to New Bern (NC) in the season opener and 2022 marks the third time in the last four years that the team is still standing on the last day of the season.
"This isn't no surprise or Cinderella story. We belong here, we worked to get here and we do it consistently," McCain explained. "Highland Springs is a bunch that does it, too, so there's mad respect there."
That Highland Springs team is the only thing standing in the way of the state title for the Commodores. The Springers are 14-0 and are in the state championship contest for the sixth time in the last eight seasons, meaning Saturday features two squads with a tradition of excellence kicking off to decide a champion.
"We pretty much mirror each other," said McCain. "You're talking about two programs who consistently do it on a consistent basis year in and year out, so it's both. You have to be physical and you have to be mentally ready."
"A lot of big-boy football being played by those guys," Knox pointed out. "It's a challenge in the trenches. That trench challenge is what I see right there."
When the dust settles, the Commodores hope to be the ones celebrating a victory, climbing back from the agony of 2021's last second defeat.
"These last two years we fell short, but my freshman year we won it," recalled Knox. "It would mean a lot to me and the guys and it would mean a lot to the program."
"We'd better come ready to play," McCain said. "They'll come down here, fans, players, ready to go. We have to do the same, so it should be a good one."
Maury and Highland Springs kick off for the Class 5 state championship on Saturday at noon at Old Dominion's S.B. Ballard Stadium.
