COLONIAL BEACH—The game of football is a game of field position.

Colonial Beach High School took advantage of that all night on Friday. The Drifters turned good field position into easy scores to down Franklin 40-19 in the semifinal round of the Group A, Region A, Division 1 football playoffs.

Colonial Beach advances to meet Surry County High School in the regional finals next weekend. Surry beat West Point 28-27 Friday night.

Colonial Beach, which improved to 9-2, had good field position the entire first half. The Drifters took the ball on the Franklin 35-yard line after a short punt by James Jervey. Five plays later, quarterback Brent Steffey faked a handoff and ran 5 yards for a touchdown four seconds into the second quarter.Tristan

Carey booted the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

On Franklin’s next possession, Isiah Hudson broke away for a 69-yard run to the Colonial Beach 7, but the run was negated by a holding call, and the Broncos ended up giving up the ball.

Jervey’s 15-yard punt gave Colonial Beach the ball on the FHS 35. Three plays later, Steffey hit Carey with a 37-yard bomb over the middle for a touchdown. Carey’s kick made it 14-0 with 5:44 left in the half.

Franklin’s Antonio Smith fumbled the ball way on the Broncos’ next possession, setting up Colonial Beach on the Franklin 18. Three plays later, Tim Wilson ran it in from a yard out for the Drifters’ second touchdown in a minute and a 20-0 lead.

Franklin, which finished the season 8-3, got on the board late in the first half on its first sustained drive of the game. With 30 seconds to play in the half, Elliott Bottoms scored on a 12-yard run. Jervey’s extra point cut the home team’s lead to 20-7.

The Broncos’ game plan was to stop Colonial Beach running back Brandon Foster, who burned Franklin in a regular-season meeting between the two teams on Oct. 5. Franklin held Foster to 64 yards in the first half, but he exploded for 116 yards in the second half.

On Colonial Beach’s first series of the second half, Foster broke loose for a 59-yard run on a direct snap. Two plays later, Carey Bushrod scored on a 10-yard run. Carey’s extra point gave the Drifters a 27-7 lead at the 6:59 mark of the third quarter.

With 4:42 left in the third quarter, Foster bolted 49 yards for a touchdown and a 33-7 lead.

Franklin’s Bottoms scored on a 10-yard run with 3:32 left in the third period to cut the lead to 33-13, but the Drifters could not be stopped. They scored again with 1:45 left in the third on a 13-yard run by Bushrod.

Franklin added a late score when quarterback Donzell Shearin threw an 89-yard bomb to Malik Brown.

Colonial Beach’s passing game surprised Franklin. The Drifters attempted just three passes in the first meeting; on Friday night, Steffey was 5-of-19 for 97 yards.

&uot;They made some adjustments,&uot; said Franklin head coach Darren Parker of the home team. &uot;We came into the game trying to stop Foster.&uot;

Parker did not make any excuses for the Broncos’ loss.

&uot;They won the game and are going on to play next week. We have to go back to the drawing board. I’m proud of all our kids, especially our seniors.&uot;

Shearin completed 4-of-11 passes for 129 yards passing.

The Broncos mustered just 147 yards of offense compared with the Drifters’ 417.