SALEM One mississippi, two mississippi …  The clock wound down.  Three mississippi, four mississippi …  Gap was ahead 28-13, 5:50 in the final stanza.  First-and-10. Travis Morris hands the ball to Pickle Nuckols - nothing.

SALEM Fans had just started to pour back into Salem City Stadium after a quick trip to the concessions stand during halftime.

SALEM Like a pogo stick hopped up on truck stop-grade pep pills, Buffalo Gap’s Travis Hale patroled the sidelines, his arms waving to the fans, holding a cupped hand to his air to egg them on to cheer louder and screaming at them while standing on top of the bench on the sideline.

One more game to go.

SWOOPE Open up the hole. Let Pickle Nuckols score. Now go and kick the extra point and don’t forget to run to the other side of the field for the kickoff.  That’s a lot for one player to do, but Bison guard and kicker Ian Rosenfeld doesn’t complain.

If you’re looking for the fabled green veil of jealousy to descend upon the Shenandoah District, well, sorry, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

A seam in the line rips apart like the Red Sea. Pickle Nuckols burst through seeing nothing but empty field all the way to the end zone. Back at the line of scrimmage, Joe Workman looks up from the ground and smiles.

SWOOPE Clashing every week on the Bison tundra, the Buffalo Gap offensive line occasionally gets a nod after a touchdown before going to the sideline.  Statisticians don’t keep track of blocks and rarely a guard or a center is the star of the game. Instead, the running back, quarterback and wide receivers get all the glory, but the Bison linemen know they are essential to every score.  “We know if we don’t do our jobs there is no possible way for them to do their jobs,“ said Bison tight end Alex Brown.

Everybody wanted to touch him.

For years, football fanatics and plain old lunchbox fans have been telling the 2007 edition of Buffalo Gap football that a state title was its for the taking. That’s what happens when you show flashes of talent before your offensive line can see over the counter at the local convenience store.

SWOOPE - Punch the clock and get back to work on Monday.

SWOOPE - Most of them had played together since they were 8.

It takes connections to get to the top. Buffalo Gap is blessed with a ton of them.

Sorry fans, but Pickle Nuckols isn’t going to take his helmet off after a game, beat his chest with a clenched fist and scream to the heavens above that he’s some sort of super-duper scoring machine.

In its first game since its Final Four finish in the Group AA tournament last season, the Waynesboro’s boys basketball team kept its momentum rolling.

The heat in August was sweltering.

Buffalo Gap and Colonial Beach are separated by 176 miles of interstates, mountains, rivers and old country roads. Despite the three-hour drive, the two schools are almost identical.

Rob Maxwell didn’t need to open that mythical football book - you know, the one that tells coaches when to go for the win, when to go for the tie and what to do when you’re stuck at the 40 with the whole Canadian army closing in on you.  If Maxwell went to this farce of a textbook for help, it would have told the veteran coach that at home you go for the tie, on the road you go for the win and, well, you’re on your own with the Les Habitants.

LYNCHBURG It has been a ride for Stuarts Draft.  “We gave God our best and he blessed us in amazing ways,“ said Cougars coach Rod Bowers on Friday night.

It was a gutsy call.

Stuarts Draft first crack at the playoffs since 1996 ended in Lynchburg.

In Staunton, after winning the College of Notre Dame Tournament in Baltimore over the weekend, the Mary Bladwin basketball team continued its winning streak, defeating Randolph College in its home opener 73-60 on Tuesday night.

When teams make it to the playoffs, they know that they are going to play the best.

Waynesboro’s Devon Brown on Monday officially announced her decision to play basketball at Liberty University in 2008, signing her letter of intent at Waynesboro High School.

STUARTS DRAFT Still at work at the end of November, Stuarts Draft couldn’t be happier.

Waynesboro’s Devon Brown will sign a letter of intent today to play basketball at Liberty University in Lynchburg, The News Virginian has learned.

STUARTS DRAFT How can 28 football players make it to the Region III, Division 3 final game- That’s the question that has left a lot of heads scratching this year.  Stuarts Draft is the smallest school in all of Region III, which makes the talent pool more like a puddle. Despite the small number, the Cougars have made it work and even say they like it better this way.

R.E. Lee coach David Tibbs said when you go in and play Stuarts Draft, you have to beat them. “They’re not going to lose it for you,“ he said.

SWOOPE- Just a reminder.  A reminder that Buffalo Gap senior quarterback Travis Morris will never forget during the Bison’s 32-7 win over Stonewall in Friday’s Region B, Division 1 semifinal.

STUARTS DRAFT It’s always the superstars who get the attention.  Tielor Dietrich already knows that, he wowed soccer fans on the pitch last spring at Stuarts Draft, but not on the football field.