BY MARK MORING, Eastern Shore Post, Nov. 28, 2025
A week after playing one of its best defensive games of the year, Northampton had few answers for Rappahannock’s explosive offense in the Class 1A Region semifinals last Friday night, falling 55-18 to the visiting Raiders.
The previous week, the Yellow Jackets had won their first playoff game in 30 years, holding Colonial Beach scoreless for most of the game in a 43-8 romp.
But the Raiders came to Eastville packing a literal 1-2 punch — quarterback Clyde Kelly Jr., who wore jersey No. 1, and running back Kenneth Madison, wearing No. 2. Madison ran 15 times for 300 yards and six touchdowns, while Kelly ran for 168 yards and two scores.
Northampton, which had won 10 straight games, finished its best season in decades at 10-2. There were plenty of tears and consoling hugs as the Jackets gathered at one end of the field after the game, especially among the 13 seniors.
Khaidn Davis, one of those seniors, is captain of the defensive team. “What killed us the most,” he said, “was not being able to stop their run game.”
Strong, fast, and able to turn on a dime, Madison, a senior, has a scholarship offer from Norfolk State and will likely receive more. He scored on runs of 1, 30, 67, 33, 1, and 15 yards.
The Raiders took the opening kickoff and marched 72 yards in seven plays, scoring on Kelly’s QB sneak barely more than two minutes into the game. Keighlyn Setzer kicked the first of seven PATs, and Rappahannock led 7-0.
Northampton had an opportunity to tie it up on the next possession, driving into the red zone before turning it over on downs. The Raiders then drove 88 yards for another touchdown, going up 14-0, and the Jackets never got any closer.
Still, they stayed within striking distance. When Elijah Hope scored on a 35-yard run with 1:48 left in the second quarter, the Jackets trailed just 27-15 and looked to go into halftime down by just a dozen.
But less than a minute later, Kelly scored on a 56-yard run, giving the Raiders a 34-15 lead. The Jackets drove deep into Rappahannock territory, where Sebastian Mayorga drilled a 38-yard field goal as time expired on the second quarter, making it 34-18 at the half.
But that spark of momentum died just three plays into the second half when Northampton fumbled it away. Madison scored three plays later on a 33-yard run to make it 41-18, and one could feel the deflation on the Jackets’ sideline.
The Raiders added two more scores in the third quarter to go up 55-18, which initiated a continuous clock the rest of the game. Virginia High School League rules mandate that once a 35-point differential is reached at halftime — or any time after — the clock does not stop. It’s also known as the “mercy rule.”
Ironically, Northampton had benefited from the same rule a week before in its 35-point blowout of Colonial Beach. But the script flipped this time, as the Jackets couldn’t get their offense in full gear, uncharacteristically turning the ball over three times on fumbles.
“Every team loses its last game of the season except for one team in each class,” Northampton coach John Edney said after the game. “That’s six teams out of more than 300 that are happy at the end of the year.
“Rappahannock was just physical. We haven’t played a lot of teams that were super physical, so it took our kids a bit of time to get used to that. We had it down to a two-score game just before the half, and then in the second half, it didn’t go very well.”
“I thought it was a good season,” said Davis. “But I wish we had played tougher competition during the regular season to prepare for this.” During their 10-game winning streak, the Jackets were rarely tested, winning by an average of 24.2 points.
Davis, a linebacker and the Jackets’ top running back, had a leg injury in the first half and wasn’t at full strength in the second, and starting quarterback Lucas Kindt sat out the second half with an undisclosed injury. But Edney said the injuries had little to do with the outcome.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “Turnovers, a lot of kids banged up at the end of a long season, and the ball bounces funny ways sometimes. We were just on the wrong end of it.”
Edney lingered on the field after the game to spend extra time with his seniors, giving hugs and words of encouragement. Many of them were varsity starters as sophomores, and in the last three years, they won 23 of 34 games, making the playoffs each time. And this year, they won Northampton’s first playoff game in 30 years.
“These seniors are a great group,” Edney said. “I’ve had most of them since eighth grade when they were playing JV. They worked hard, and they wanted to be good, and they were.
“They’re definitely going to be missed. I love each and every one of them, and I can’t say enough about them.”
