|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Spartans roll past Falcons in Ashburn showdown
Following his team's 29-0 victory against Ashburn rival Briar Woods Sept. 26, Broad Run football coach Mike Burnett said the defending Dulles District champions were “not into sending statements.”
They may not have been looking to send a statement Friday, but the Spartans' convincing win against the previously undefeated Falcons definitely served notice that Broad Run will be a team to be reckoned with once again in 2008.
The Spartans (1-0 in the Dulles District, 4-0 overall) raced out to a 16-0 first-quarter lead and never looked back to claim their 14th consecutive regular-season victory in front of a packed home crowd on a rain-filled Friday night.
"There was a lot of hype all week in the paper and online," Spartan senior Breon Earl said. "We just feed off what they say about how they are the best defense in the area and can't anybody stop their offense. We had to come out here and show them tonight."
Earl started at running back as junior T.J. Peeler missed the game with an elbow injury. On the game's first series, he started toward the right before reversing the field down the Falcon sideline for a 32-yard gain. Earl rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries and also hauled in two passes for 27 yards.
"We are very different when T.J. is on the field. It changes our dynamic," Burnett said. "But I have to be the luckiest guy in the world when my tailback goes down and I can bring Breon into the backfield.
“It makes me give him the ball more, which I know I should. I absolutely should, but we like to be balanced, and that's our philosophy to spread the ball out and make teams defend the whole field,” Burnett continued. “I think they did a good job at times of knowing where we were going, but Breon still made plays."
After digging a 16-0 hole, the Falcons (0-1, 3-1) turned to their power running game to march down the field with hopes of slicing into the deficit. But an 18-play drive came up empty at the Spartans' 17-yard line, and Broad Run's offense responded with a seven-play, 83-yard drive that extended the lead to 23-0 at halftime.
"We were pinned back offensively all night long," Falcons coach Charlie Pierce said. "It's hard to get any momentum going. They did a heck of a job at the second level with their linebackers. We couldn't get to the second level to block their linebackers with the normal blocking techniques that we have. And their team speed was outstanding."
Spartan senior Chris Jessop had another solid night at quarterback. Jessop tossed touchdown passes to Didier Saidi and David Weaver and also ran for a score. Jessop completed seven of 15 passes for 116 yards and rushed six times for 55 yards.
Briar Woods quarterback Austin Frattali was limited to 27 passing yards. Matt Eisenman led nine Falcon ball carriers with 56 yards on 11 touches.
Pierce stressed to his team the importance of bouncing right back from this loss in the post-game huddle. Briar Woods will host Dominion (1-0, 1-3) on Oct. 3.
"I told the players, 'You can become fractioned and broken apart or you can stick together,'" he said. "There is always going to be a gallery of critics no matter what you do in life, and right now we are going to have a gallery of critics. It takes a heck of a man to stand up to that and say, 'We got our butt whipped, now we to have to regroup and come back.'"
Next up for Broad Run is an Oct. 3 road game against Heritage (0-1, 3-1).
"We set goals for this season, we set goals for each week. This was one of them so that feels good," Burnett said of Friday's victory. "Now we have to go after [Heritage] next week."
You must be logged in to post a comment.