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Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s varsity football team fell 21-17 to visiting and undefeated Fredericksburg Christian School on Friday, Oct. 25, but the Saints put forth a high-effort performance that evoked enthusiasm from their homecoming crowd.

Though disappointed with the loss that likely ended his team’s playoff hopes, NSA Head Coach Mike Biehl noted being quite pleased with the committed, competitive play from his Saints.

“I’m really proud of them,” he said, with emotion showing in his voice. “Forty-eight minutes, man, it came down to all 48. … They gave everything they could.”

The Saints took an early 3-0 lead off a 26-yard field goal by junior kicker Henry Ross with 3:36 remaining in the first quarter.

The Eagles responded with 7:40 to go in the second quarter, scoring on a six-yard touchdown run to go up 7-3.

That remained the score going into halftime, during which Haley Price was crowned NSA’s homecoming queen, and Christina Tabet was crowned the homecoming princess.

The third quarter of the game was scoreless, but the fourth quarter was far from it.

Nansemond-Suffolk senior quarterback Vann Baggett broke tackles during a gritty 22-yard run to reach the end zone and help put his team up 10-7 nearly two minutes into the fourth.

FCA responded about four minutes later on an open touchdown pass that came about after a Saints defender slipped on the ground. The Eagles took back the lead, 14-10.

But then NSA senior Howard Casterlow took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown to lift the Saints back to a 17-14 advantage with 5:43 to go in the game.

The Eagles, who were defending an 8-0 record this season, were able to put together a roughly four-and-a-half-minute drive capped by a five-yard touchdown run from senior running back Christian Ray, taking a 21-17 lead.

Nansemond-Suffolk’s offense had one minute and eight seconds left to mount a final comeback, and Baggett and sophomore running back James Adams made clutch plays to sustain the drive, but the Saints ultimately came up short, turning the ball over on downs with three seconds to go.

Biehl indicated that a key deciding factor in the game was explosive plays, and though some of those were executed by FCA, he noted that his players were able to put those behind them and press on effectively.

“I didn’t think at any point our guys didn’t think they could win that game,” he said. “It’s just a tough one.”

He praised Baggett, noting that he “dug real deep, made plays when he really needed to make them.”

Biehl said NSA’s defense did a great job with Fredericksburg Christian’s playmakers at quarterback, running back and wide receiver, who he described as NCAA Division 1-caliber players.

“I thought we bottled them up for most of the night,” Biehl said. “It made everything really difficult.”

When the Saints took a 17-14 lead, it looked as though Ross’ field goal kick might be the difference in the game.

“He’s a special talent,” Biehl said of Ross. “He’s a top-100 kicker in his class, so he’s got a lot of recruitable aspects about his game. He’s going to kick at the next level, and we’re lucky to have him, for sure.”

With Friday’s narrow loss, NSA falls to 3-5 overall on the season.

When asked if playoffs were still in the picture, Biehl said, “No, we needed to win out. There’d have to be craziness that I don’t believe is going to happen. So, tough, but we’ve got one more (game), we go to Charlottesville to play St. Anne’s-Belfield on Friday(, Nov. 1).”

St. Anne’s-Belfield School is 4-4 overall.

“They’re an up-and-coming team,” Biehl said. “Heath Miller is the head coach of that one. So that’ll be really a good opportunity to end the way we want to end. So, just got to turn the page and get to that one.”

Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.

(Photos by Titus Mohler)