While most of their families were getting the Thanksgiving Day meal started, the Monticello football team was on the field bright and early getting ready for their Region II Championship game with Kettle Run.

"The way our schedule is set up around here, if you're practicing on Thanksgiving day, then your season has already been somewhat of a success. So that's one of our little goals we have every year, and this year, you know it's Thanksgiving morning and we're out here practicing so that's a good thing," head coach Rodney Redd said.

"It feels great for us, it just makes us more anxious to keep on going on and on. We always thought that we would, but we just kept on pushing ourselves, and just kept on moving," junior lineman Tre Francis added.

The Mustangs are on an impressive run after dropping two games in six days to Western Albemarle and Charlottesville in early October. The preseason favorite in the Jefferson District was now in turmoil, but the team stayed together and has won every game since, including last week's semi-final rematch with Western.

Now the third-seed Mustangs will host the Region II final against No. 4 Kettle Run, thanks to Kettle Run's upset of top-seeded Skyline.

In the midst of their longest run since 2008, the Mustangs are trying to duplicate their magical 2007 season in which they won it all.

"This is a group that we knew could get back to this point, and this is a group that, this has been one of their goals. A lot of these guys have older brother or older cousins that played on some of those teams back in the past," Redd explained. "They wanted to get back to this point, and kind of, we talked earlier in the year about establishing their own legacy."

"It feels great knowing that we're good enough to make it to states, but we've got to just play it one week at a time," added sophomore Zack Zimmerman.