King’s Fork won the Suffolk football title for the second straight season, ending the season with a 20-6 victory at Nansemond River.

As has been the case in all three Bulldog wins to finish the fall, the Bulldog defense showed the way. King’s Fork (3-7) forced five turnovers and held the Warriors (1-9) to six first downs on the night.

In the opening half it was even more one-sided in favor of the King’s Fork defense. It took a quarter for the Bulldog offense to get warmed up, but a couple touchdown drives in the second period were plenty of reward.

“Our defense came up big. From the beginning of the season, that’s what we said we needed to be about. Playing great defense and playing ball control on offense,” said King’s Fork head coach Joe Jones.

The teams traded punts through the opening 12 minutes. On Nansemond River’s third possession of the night, a bad pitch play wound up in a fumble and T.J. Hinson recovering the ball for the Bulldogs on the KF 27.

Five-foot-4 Kenny Brown got the Bulldogs out of 2nd-and-long with an 11-yard catch and a 7-yard gain on a sweep.

King’s Fork marched, mostly on the ground, into the Warrior red zone. NR forced the Bulldogs into 3rd-and-12 from the 17, only for DeQuan Fofana to roll out and find Brown again. Brown turned up field and fought for the last three yards into the end zone.

King’s Fork missed the two-point try, leaving the score 6-0 after the 7:11-long drive.

Two plays into the next Warrior possession, Alex Kase fumbled the snap and KF’s Tishon Madison recovered the ball, this time deep in Warrior territory.

The Bulldogs moved 23 yards in five plays, capped by Charles Clark’s 7-yard scoring run and Davon Grayson’s catch from Fofana for two points, making it 14-0 Bulldogs with 2:03 left in the half.

Both Kase and Fofana were backup quarterbacks most of the season. Fofana benefitted from a good ground attack, totaling 173 yards, and was able to make a few timely completions to boost Bulldog drives.

The first Warrior drive of the second half was a drive for a few plays. Lamont Brown carried for gains of 15 and 13 yards, moving into Bulldog territory before another NR turnover, a fumble recovered again by Hinson.

The Bulldogs marched to inside the Warrior 20 before Hinson fumbled on a fullback dive.

Nansemond River turned the turnover into a 92-yard drive. Brown broke into the open for a 35-yard run, plus a King’s Fork penalty on the end of the play, to reach the KF 3. Brown rushed in from there on the next play, making it 14-6 KF with 1:50 left in the third. Brown finished with 14 carries for 66 yards.

The Bulldogs fumbled on their next play from scrimmage, with Jalen Thrower recovering, setting the Warriors up on the KF 26.

The KF defense held, with a Warrior fake punt failing on fourth down.

Joseph Hill intercepted a Kase pass near midfield and returned it to the Warrior 1 midway through the fourth period; so the Bulldog defense did everything but score a needed insurance touchdown. Fofana ran a sneak in to make it 20-6 KF.

Clark was the leading Bulldog rusher with 76 yards on 10 carries. Lawan Brown rushed 13 times for 40 yards.

“The team really came together as a family and they worked hard throughout the year. It can be hard when you’re losing games and things aren’t going your way. It’s easy to maybe go through the motions, but these guys didn’t do that,” Jones said.