It's official: any road the Battlefield football team takes to return to the state tournament this year will require a major detour through Revenge Road.

With a 17-14 win over Gar-Field last Friday night in the opening round of the Northwest regional tournament, the Bobcats (10-2 overall) earned the right to face off against the only Group AAA Division 6 team to prevail against them during the regular season: Hylton. Battlefield is set to face off against the Bulldogs on their turf in Woodbridge this Friday, Nov. 19 during the regional semi-finals at a time when the Cardinal district champions are undefeated and a potential state title contender.

"We just need to come fired up and we can't take any team lightly. It's going to get harder and harder every week," said Battlefield running back Nagee Jackson. "We're going to prepare during practice and we'll be good to go."

Battlefield ended the Indians season Nov. 12 by mounting a second-half come back in what turned out to be a tightly-contested match up. A scoreless first period gave way to an immediate 15-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Swingle to Andrew Smith for the Bobcats' only touchdown of the first half, seven seconds into the second quarter.

Jason Hoepker's missed extra point gave Gar-Field a chance to take the lead before half-time. The Indians converted on another Battlefield miscue after quarterback Ryan Mason hooked up with DeVonte Piggott for a 12-yard score after Piggott returned an interception 80 yards. A successful extra point by Tyler Brooks with 3:40 on the clock gave Gar-Field a 7-6 advantage, sparking the needs for Battlefield to pick up its defense and running game in the third quarter.

"Yeah, the first half, they just kept bringing that pressure," said BHS running back Terrell Tapscott. "Second half, they kind of let up, thinking that we wouldn't realize it. We realized it and took advantage of them... Just pick up the key backs that kept blitzing and that's all we had to do."

The Battlefield front line stuffed Gar-Field on a fourth-and-inches at the Indians' 38 yard line with 10:26 reading on the clock. Though the Indians appeared to hold Battlefield to a three-and-out, a running-into-the-kicker penalty on a BHS punt attempt gave the Bobcats new life and pushed the ball up to the Gar-Field 24 yard line.

Jackson made quick work of the golden opportunity, pushing through the red zone for an 8-yard pick up and galloping for another 12 down to the 4-yard-line on a second-and-2 at the Indians' 16.

Gar-Field held its own for the next two plays in front of the goal line on for Jackson to fall over the plane on the right side of the offensive line for a touchdown run with 6:17 to go in the third quarter.

"Well, we would crash down right, because they were mostly coming from the left," said Tapscott of Battlefield's rushing approach. "So, while they were coming left, we were crashing our right... (to) bring it back to the opposite side."

While Hoepker set up for what appeared to be a field goal attempt, Battlefield called time out and regrouped. Re-entering the field, the Bobcats decided to go for the two-point conversion in order to give the team a pull seven-point advantage.

Swingle rolled to his right on a play-action pass and found senior wide receiver a step or two over the goal line. Beathard roped in the toss and gave Battefield a solid 14-7 lead.

Battlefield seemed destined to blow the game open less than three minutes later after forcing a Gar-Field punt and bringing the ball up toward midfield. But senior defensive lineman Frank Polk scooped up a fumble for Gar-Field on a pitch to the backfield and plowed his way back to the end zone with 2:43 left on the clock. A Brooks extra point knotted the game up at 14-14.

"We just knew, we believed in ourselves and we just kept getting ourselves hyped in the huddle," said Jackson of having to come back. "We just kept fighting."

The Bobcats acted as their own worst enemies again at the start of the fourth quarter on a goal line drive that resulted in a David Bailey interception in the end zone. Battlefield's defense, however, came through by forcing a three-and-out punt that gave Battlefield 65 yards to go to pay dirt as 7:12 remained in the game.

Tapscott got things going with a 14-yard rush, and converted another first down at the the Gar-Field 39 yard line. Smith kept the drive alive on a pass from Swingle, when he bulldozed his way down field and broke tackles to end up just inside the 20 yard line with less than 4 minutes to go in regulation.

Gar-Field held Battlefield to only four more yards, but that turned out to be four yards too many. Kicking from the 23-yard-line with Swingle holding the ball, Hoepker sank a 33-yard field goal, putting Battlefield back in front, this time for good.

Jackson took away any last chance Gar-Field had to make a stand after he pounced on a fumble on the Indians' first play from scrimmage at their own 18 after the ensuing kick off. Jackson then turned the tables on offense by driving up the gut to the five yard line, where the game clock expired.

"We were very pumped because we knew... we just had to run the clock out," said Jackson.