HARRISONBURG - "The Drive" will probably be forever etched in the minds of Brookville High School fans, especially when the conversation turns to the Bee's 1999 state championship - a 14-6 win over favored John Handley of Winchester.

Leading 7-6 Friday night at James Madison's Bridgeforth Stadium, the Bees began the second half with a 70-yard, 17-play drive that took eight minutes, 40 seconds off the clock. There were no passes, the longest run was 11 yards by fullback Russell Lomax, and the determined Bees con-verted two fourth-and-short plays.

Handley, ranked No. 6 in the final regular season poll, seemed surprised and frustrated that the upstart Bees could dominate their line and the Judges never seemed to recover from "The Drive."

"It was real frustrating," said Handley quarterback Lang Campbell who finished his senior year with 2,081 yards passing. "Every team's goal is to keep our offense (a sophisticated West Coast passing game) off the field and they were able to do that and they got all the momentum."

The Bees, unranked all season in the AP poll, just kept pounding away with Lomax and Matt Burch going between the tackles and tailback Dejon Kennedy slithering through the line and turn-ing on the speed en route to 190 yards rushing on 39 attempts. Forty-two of his yards and 10 of his carries came on "The Drive."

"This turf (artificial) has killed my ankles but I'm a strong person and I just tried to forget about it," said Kennedy who finished off "The Drive" with a 1-yard TD run and finished his junior season with 1,590 yards rushing and 25 touchdowns. "Our guards and tackles were pushing them off to the side and I was cutting it up."

Brookville coach Bobby Johnson, a strong advocate of the pass when he was an assistant coach at E.C. Glass, tried to loosen the Handley defense early in the game. However, sophomore quarterback Scott Nixon appeared nervous and completed just one of his first six passes.

Once the Bees started clicking with their ground game, there were few thoughts of passing again. Especially after Brookville took a 7-6 lead with a 37-yard drive midway the second quarter (Kennedy finished it with an 11-yard dash).

As for the 70-yard drive, Johnson said, "That was something special. I've been coaching 14 years and that was one of the best I can remember, especially considering how big a game it was."

Handley had only four possessions in the second half and got into Brookville territory just twice. Bees' linebacker Martellus Braxton intercepted a Campbell pass to stop one drive and the Brookville defense, led by Tarik Ghriri, Lomax, Josh Daniels, John Mason and Burch, sacked Campbell at the Brookville 45 with seven minutes left in the game.

"That first drive (of the second half) hurt us bad," said Handley defensive back and receiver Adam Dutton. "We really wanted to come out and make a statement but they jammed the ball right down our throat."

Hill said Brookville's counter play with Kennedy killed the Judges. "We tried everything we could think of to stop it."

Ghriri, the Bees' 6-foot-2, 295 pound all-state candidate at tackle, said, "We kept running the same plays and they couldn't stop them so we kept running them. After that "drive", they couldn't get back on track on offense."

Johnson said the Bees' game plan was to control the ball and keep it out of Campbell's hands. The strategy worked to perfection as the Judges had the ball for only 5½ minutes the second half. "We knew we had to take care of the football (the Bees had four lost fumbles in a 21-14 win over Gate City in the semifinals) and we didn't have a turnover tonight and no penalties until the last few minutes."

When the Judges did get the ball back after "The Drive", Campbell had little time to throw and was held to minimum rushing yards by the Bees' outside containment. "They were able to pursue and close down a lot of my lanes," said Campbell. "You can't do that much when their defense is that strong."

Brookville center Ben Martin was among the many Bees with a look of satisfaction on his face during the post-game celebration.

"They shocked us on the first play (Campbell threw a 70-yard TD pass to Robert Fowler) but we kept our poise," he said. "This game should get us some respect."

"The Drive" certainly played a big part in the Bees' getting their first state championship.