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It was a football season nobody in Rappahannock County will soon forget. The switch this year to an eight-man league by Rappahannock County High School — Northern Virginia’s smallest school division, and one of the smallest in the state — provided a giant lift to the school and helped unite the community around a single cause.
The team went 6-5 in the Panthers’ best-ever football season, despite a disappointing ending last week with a 52-6 loss to Virginia Episcopal School in the first round playoffs. But the season’s Hollywood-movie highlight came Oct. 14 at RCHS’ Homecoming contest against Chincoteague — with a last-second, come-from-behind 36-33 win before a record crowd at Panther Stadium.
The Panthers led most of the game, but were down by three points with six seconds left on the clock and 20 yards to the endzone. As the clock ran down to zero, quarterback Dylan Hensler whipped the ball in the air. As it arced down to tight end Brandon Pullen in the end zone, the injured Pullen leaped up and over the defender’s head and brought down victory, pride and elation.
The Homecoming crowd of students, faculty, parents, friends and alumni screamed and jumped for joy as Pullen hobbled out of the end zone with the winning ball in his hands, mobbed by his teammates.
In an emotional speech to the players after the game, Head Coach Fulmer Burks, already looking ahead to the team’s last games of the season and the playoffs beyond, repeated something he’s said before to the boys: “Why not us? Why not us?”
About this project
This Foothills Forum/Rappahannock News documentary of the game, and what the Panthers’ winning season meant to the school and the community, is part of “This Place,” a series exploring what divides us — and unites us — in Rappahannock County.
“This Place” is grounded in months of research by a team of Rappahannock News reporters and Foothills Forum volunteers who conducted interviews with dozens of county residents of diverse political, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, most of whom said there has been an increase in divisiveness and conflict in recent years.
This documentary was made by the Rappahannock-based team of award-winning photographer Luke Christopher and editor-composer Roger Piantadosi, a former Rappahannock News editor. Other videos in the series include the Cancer Is Messy event at Eldon Farms benefiting families who endure childhood cancer, and the Amissville parade and carnival that returned in August after a two-year pandemic-pause.
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Foothills Forum is an independent, community-supported nonprofit tackling the need for in-depth research and reporting on Rappahannock County issues.
The group has an agreement with Rappahannock Media, owner of the Rappahannock News, to present this series and other award-winning reporting projects. More at foothillsforum.org.
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