Highland Springs sets local standard with culture, discipline in blowout of Manchester (2025)

With his Springers cruising up 35-8 late in the third quarter of Thursday's season-opening clash with Manchester, Highland Springs football coach Loren Johnson decided that his visiting sideline was too quiet.

"If I don't hear run or pass, we are running around the track tomorrow," Johnson barked at his players, imploring them to vocally indicate the Lancers' offensive plays on every snap despite the lopsided score line.

In his 17th year leading one of Virginia's preeminent high school programs, Johnson said such attention to detail and aversion to complacency is essential to the Springers' continued dominance.

"You've got to play complimentary football no matter what the situation is," Johnson said at midfield after Highland Springs rumbled past the Lancers 42-8 thanks to a collectively stout defensive showing plus 242 yards on the ground via a dominant O-line and stable of explosive running backs.

"You can't get flat, think that everything is good when you're up, because there are going to be times when you're down and you've got to be able to do the same thing.

"So we just want to do the same things over, and over, and over again. When you do that, it promotes and creates consistency. That's what it takes to win ballgames ... the biggest part is guys doing what we ask them to do and being disciplined."

On the game's opening drive, Highland Springs methodically marched 71 yards on nine plays, and capped the tone-setting sequence with a 9-yard plunge to pay dirt by first-team All-Metro junior running back Eric Byrd.

Byrd finished with 71 yards and two TDs on seven totes. Fellow junior back Daeron Ferguson carried 13 times for 60 yards and a TD. Five Springers found the end zone.

Senior QB Nelson Layne, a James River transfer with big shoes to fill in the form of graduated two-time All-Metro player of the year Khristian Martin (Maryland), shined in his debut with his new program.

Layne, an Army recruit, rushed nine times for 35 yards and a TD while completing six of nine pass attempts for 100 yards.

Highland Springs outgained Manchester 342-215. Most of the Lancers' offensive production came on an 83-yard passing score from junior QB Landen Abernethy to senior receiver Latrell Green, a broken play in which Abernethy bobbled the snap and rolled right before finding Green streaking down the right sideline.

That brought the score to 14-8, and injected life into Manchester's blue-and-orange-clad home support.

But early in the second quarter, a sack by Springers senior linebacker Rikieh Hopkins put the Lancers in a fourth-and-long situation on their own 33-yard line.

A fumbled snap on the ensuing punt attempt followed. The visitors recovered, and promptly capitalized five plays later with a 2-yard rushing TD from Ferguson for 21-8.

That took the life, and hope, out of the Manchester stands and sideline.

Highland Springs had a vise grip on the proceedings the rest of the way, with senior left guard Michael Becton, the younger brother of Philadelphia Eagles tackle Mekhi Becton, and junior left tackle Kayden Brown, leading a line that paved the way for Byrd, Ferguson and Co. to control the clock.

Senior safety Brennan Johnson operated in a hybrid rover role, quarterbacking his defense from all the over the field, and registered a sack. He could be heard telling teammates to "wake up" even as the opposition struggled to find any offensive rhythm.

Brennan Johnson said the consistency of Highland Springs' culture is derived from the aforementioned discipline preached by his father and coach.

Even down to the Lancers' final drive, loud shouts of "run" and "pass" could be heard on the Springers' sideline, as the Manchester stands emptied out and Highland Springs supporters broke into "You don't don't want to go to war with the Springers" chants.

"That's the culture here, 35 to 8, 35 to 100, you've got to keep the culture," Brennan Johnson said. "That's how it is."