While the seniors of the Gloucester football team were not able to celebrate a victory on senior night, the Dukes will still be returning to the Virginia 5A Regional playoffs for the second year in a row.

The final regular season game of the year against Kecoughtan saw Gloucester fall, 28-20, in a game that went down to the wire and offered a reminder as to why the Dukes and Warriors are such bitter rivals.

Kecoughtan won the opening toss and elected to receive, with Gloucester kicking the ball out of bounds intentionally to prevent a big return. The Warriors elected a re-kick instead of accepting the penalty, which proved to be a mistake as the Dukes kicked onside and recovered.

Momentum was squarely in the Dukes’ favor before a fake punt on a fourth down was stuffed and the Warriors took over. Kecoughtan relied on quarterback isolation runs and the read option to score their opening touchdown.

By the end of the first quarter it was 13-0 in favor of the Warriors and it looke...