By James Lidington

Special to the News-Herald

The Isle of Wight Academy Chargers stifled a pesky Roanoke Catholic High School football team, toppling the defending VISAA Division IV state champs 33-16 on Friday to claim the division’s 2015 state championship. It is the school’s sixth state football title overall.

The Chargers won back-to-back titles in 1997-98 and completed a three-peat in 2005-07.

The top two teams in the final state poll, doggedly pursuing each other all season long, saw much the same script play out in the first half of Friday’s game.

After Isle of Wight’s opening drive stalled after three plays, Roanoke Catholic got the ball at its own 29-yard line and marched to midfield, only to see running back Christopher Zoller stopped on fourth down and seven at the IWA 45. The Chargers took possession and went 54 yards in 10 plays, ending the drive with a 15-yard scoring run by senior running back Alec Edwards.

The Celtics surged ahead in the second quarter on an 11-play, 55-yard drive aided by a 15-yard penalty against the Chargers on third down and long that gave Roanoke a first down at the IWA 35. The Celtics’ Jamel Tyree finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run, and Zoller took a conversion pass from quarterback Jeremiah Krajnik to make the score 8-7.

IWA’s next drive gained only seven yards, and Roanoke got the ball back at its own 40. The Celtics advanced to the IWA 28, and Krajnik found Tyree for a short gain, but another IWA penalty — 15 yards for a facemask infraction — gave the Celtics the ball, first-down-and-10 at the IWA 12.

After a loss by Tyree and a short gain by Zoller set up the Celtics at the IWA 7, Krajnik was called for intentional grounding on second down, pushing Roanoke back to the Charger 16-yard line. He threw an incomplete pass on third down and couldn’t get to the sideline to stop the clock as time expired in the half with IWA down by only a point, 8-7.

The second half was a different story as the Chargers scored on all four of their possessions. IWA stopped Roanoke on fourth-and-one near midfield and got the ball back at the Celtics’ 40. Eight plays later, Edwards ran it in from two yards out. Freshman Tray Powell’s kick made it 14-8, a lead IWA never relinquished.

Roanoke’s next drive ended in a botched fake punt attempt that gave the Chargers the ball at the Roanoke 36. Four plays later, IWA junior running back Donald King ran it in from eight yards away. The extra point made it 21-8.

The Chargers sacked Krajnik on third-and-long on Roanoke’s next drive, setting IWA up at the Roanoke 40. Edwards ran in another touchdown, but not until after senior quarterback Bryce Casey found senior tight end Chad McCann in the middle of the field in a key third-and-long situation to preserve the drive. The score gave Isle of Wight a 27-8 lead.

Roanoke came off the mat on its ensuing drive, going 65 yards in four plays for a touchdown. Another conversion pass made the score 27-16 with 8:37 to play.

IWA responded in kind, going 56 yards in seven plays, capping the drive with Edwards’ fourth touchdown of the night to make it 33-16.

Edwards was the game’s leading rusher with 120 yards and four scores on 21 carries, while senior fullback Will Morningstar had 46 yards on eight carries. Roanoke was led by Zoller’s 99 yards on 20 rushes.

IWA ended its season with a 10-1 mark, reeling off 10 consecutive wins since its season-opening loss to Atlantic Shores Christian School, the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division III state runner-up; Roanoke finishes at 10-2.