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For Michael Zhang and the Cave Spring High School Scholastic Bowl team, Saturday’s [Feb. 25] VHSL AA state championship tournament was a dream.

For the other seven teams, it was a Knightmare.

Led by Zhang’s 105 points, Cave Spring swept to the state championship, winning the final match 270-150 over River Ridge District rival and defending state champion Christiansburg. Zhang outdueled Blue Demon star Matt “Moschzilla” Moschella in the final, but the real strength of the Cave Spring effort was the support Zhang received in the match from sophomore James Cole (70 points), Maddie Burton and Jerry Huang. The trio outscored their Christiansburg counterparts 95-10.

Cave Spring jumped to a 40-0 lead in the final match, led 95-40 after the first round, and locked up the match with an 85-20 run in the final round.

“The team worked really hard to prepare for this tournament,” Zhang said afterward. “I’m really happy that we improved all the way through the season and were at our best here at states.”

“So many of the players did the extra work to become champions,” Cave Spring coach Bob Powers noted. “We were much better at regionals than at districts [where the Knights lost to Christiansburg], and we were much better at states than we were at regionals. The team deserves this win.”

It was Cave Spring’s fifth trip to the final tournament in six years–no other team has appeared more often–and its first state championship.

In the semifinal match against Western Albemarle, a team which upset Christiansburg in the second round of the double elimination tournament, Zhang put on the most impressive performance of the tourney. With Cave Spring holding a shaky 20 point lead, Zhang exploded for a 100-0 run to win the match going away. The 260-130 win avenged in part last year’s loss to the Warriors in the second round of the state tournament.

VHSL Scholastic Bowl is similar to team Jeopardy, in which four-person teams compete to answer questions on history, science, literature, math and popular culture. The matches consist of a 15-question tossup round, a 20-question directed round where teams can confer on answers and a second 15-question tossup round.

Cave Spring’s run was almost derailed in the first round against Region II runner up Woodgrove. After a slow start, the Knights trailed the Wolverines by 20 points early in the final round, when Zhang, Cole and Burton put together a 90-10 run to clinch the match. They carried that momentum into the second round match against Poquoson, jumping out to a 120-15 lead in the first round before cruising to a 280-130 victory. Zhang scored 130, Cole 40 and McKennon Flint 20 in the win which secured the Knights’ place in the semifinals.

The win concluded a 23-3 VHSL season for Powers’ squad, in which the only losses were to Christiansburg. They were 4-3 against their district rivals and 19-0 against all other teams. The win was the third consecutive for a River Ridge District team, with Blacksburg earning the 2010 title and Christiansburg the 2011 winner.

While the VHSL season is complete, Cave Spring’s Scholastic Bowl team schedule continues into the spring, when they will be competing in regional tournaments to prepare for the NAQT national tournament in Atlanta over Memorial Day weekend. They continue to compete in WVTR’s Battle of the Brains television show in Richmond; their round of 16 match vs. St. Christopher’s will air Saturday March 10. They will also host their annual Roanoke Classic tournament open to the Roanoke Valley community in May.

Submitted by Ken Flint.