JoJo Thomas rushed for 145 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Riverbend High School football team to a 35-21 victory over Stone Bridge in the Region 5D semifinals Friday night.
The win sends the top-seeded Bears (8-3) to their first regional championship game in program history. They’ll host No. 2 seed Briar Woods (8-3) next Friday at 1 p.m.
Thomas found the end zone on runs of 3 and 6 yards in the first half, buoying host Riverbend to a commanding 28-7 lead at intermission. He tacked on a 4-yard scoring scamper in the fourth quarter to punctuate the historic victory.
The Bears also benefited from a 40-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Tristan Greene and a 7-yard scoring jaunt from quarterback Camden Simmons.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs (4-8) who upset Briar Woods 14-12 on Oct. 31 on their way to making the playoffs, got 145 yards and a pair of passing touchdowns from quarterback Samar Kaul.
The loss snapped a streak of six consecutive regional championships and state playoff berths for Stone Bridge.
Region 5D
Briar Woods 39, Massaponax 27
Brady Carmical accounted for five total touchdowns as the Falcons ended the visiting Panthers’ season.
Carmical, the Briar Woods quarterback, threw for four scores and ran for another. All four of his scoring passes came in the first half, with three of them going to Colin Capistrant.
Sixth-seeded Massaponax (2-10) hung tough for a half, trailing just 27-14 at intermission on the strength of two rushing scores by quarterback Gabe Newby-Morris.
Newby-Morris finished the contest with 171 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. He also went 6-of-11 passing for 87 yards and a score.
Region 4B
Dinwiddie 70, King George 35
The top-seeded Generals (11-1) scored the final 28 points of the game to defeat the No. 4 seed Foxes Saturday afternoon.
King George (9-3) pulled within 42-35 on QB Dylan Koch’s 60-yard TD pass to Gunnar Reger with 10:47 left to play. But Dinwiddie quarterback Harry Dalton took over from there, scoring on runs of 42 and 39 yards and throwing a 68-yard touchdown pass to Caleb Bowles.
Dalton, a University of Southern California commit, amassed 473 total yards, rushing for over 300 yards and six scores.
Mickiel Johnson added a pair of rushing scores for the homestanding Generals, who will host No. 2 seed Varina for the regional championship next Friday.
Koch threw five touchdown passes for the Foxes, with four of them going to Reger and another to Charles Johnson. But he was intercepted six times, and King George also lost two fumbles.
