By: Dan Sousa
Sterling (Oct. 14, 2006) – It took the Park View High School defense one play Friday night to establish the tone for its match-up with Group AA Dulles District co-champion Heritage as the hard-hitting Patriots forced the first of five turnovers.
The Patriots defeated the Pride 20-12 last season, but had to settle for a co-championship when both teams finished 4-1 in district play. If Friday’s game is any indication, Park View is not about share anything this season as the Patriots, behind a defense that limited Heritage to 77 total yards, defeated the Pride 37-14 before an appreciative homecoming crowd.
Out to prove once again that they are the top team in the Dulles, the Patriot defense swarmed Heritage quarterback Kyle Nelson on the first snap from scrimmage Friday, forcing a fumble, and setting up a quick C.J. Leizear to Amechi Anyaugo 24-yard touchdown pass.
Heritage then failed to cover a short kickoff and Patriot senior Nathan White hustled down and recovered the live ball on the Pride 28.
“The ball took a bounce in our direction. They were a little shell-shocked,” said Hill.
The stunned Heritage defense was back on the field and on the first play Park View coach Andy Hill pulled out something from deep in his playbook. Freshman wide receiver Kenny Griffin, who had not carried the ball this season, took a snap in the backfield while Leizear faked a handoff to Park View’s feared running back Deric Dudinski. As Dudinski carried out the deception to the right, Griffin, after hesitating with the ball for a count, took off around the left end and the 5-foot-4, 122-pounder scooted 21 yards before the Pride figured out the play. On the next play, Leizear with time to spare in the pocket, found 6-foot-4 sophomore Kenny Smith lurking near the back of the end zone and the 7-yard touchdown pass made it 14-0.
At this point the Pride had had the ball for 11 seconds and trailed by two scores.
“We started off real hot,” said Hill.
A quick three-and-out by the Pride offense and the game threatened to become a real blowout. The Pride defense, however, recovered nicely with Bryan McCarthy intercepting a long Leizear pass at the Heritage 4. Over the next 25 minutes, the Pride kept the Patriots out of the end zone, controlling the elusive Dudinski to just 82 yards on 18 carries, well below his 195-yard per game average coming in.
“They had some zone-type blitzing schemes that worked. There were linebackers in my backfield and defensive tackles down field making tackles,” said Hill.
Heritage even threatened to tie the game as the Pride marched 63 yards in the second quarter on a 10-play drive that was capped by Darius Tibbs’ circus catch on 4th-and-goal from the 4 with 2:19 to play in the half. Nelson had kept the drive alive with a key 16-yard scramble on 3rd-and-11 and a 3rd-and-6 incompletion later in the drive was salvaged by a Patriot illegal contact penalty.
Despite that disastrous opening, the Pride threatened to tie the game when a Dudinski punt went off the side of his foot and traveled only two yards before landing amid the Patriot cheerleaders. The Pride took over at the Patriot 27 with 49 seconds left in the half.
Nelson hit running back Sean McCoy for a 15-yard game to move the ball to the 8 but the Patriot defense came up big, sacking Nelson on the next play for an 8-yard loss. On the night, the Patriots harassed Nelson every time he dropped back, stopping him behind the line of scrimmage eight times in the game. Nelson’s sacks left him minus-30 yards on the night in 17 carries and the Pride offense as a whole had minus-24 yards rushing on 23 attempts.
Out of timeouts, the Pride had to spike the ball after the sack to stop the clock. That brought up fourth down and the Pride sent the field goal unit out only to get hit with a delay of game penalty before snapping the ball. Pushed back, James Mallon’s 38-yard attempt was no good and Heritage had lost its chance for some halftime momentum.
In the second half the Patriot offense moved the ball efficiently on the opening series but stalled at the Pride 17 and Clayton Parker’s 35-yard field goal attempt was no good. Neither team could generate offense on the next two series so the Patriot defense took things into their own hands. On 1st-and-10 from their own 31, McCoy was hit by Park View linebacker Chris Davies in the backfield and the ball popped loose. Park View’s 6-foot-1, 287-pound defensive tackle Corbin Barnes scooped up the loose ball and rumbled 26 yards for his second career touchdown. Parker’s extra point made it 21-7 Park View with 3:47 to play in the third.
“I was like: ‘Is this really happening’,” said Barnes about his touchdown return.
White, around the ball all night, intercepted Nelson two plays later but Park View gave it back to Heritage when Pride defensive back Bobby Edmonds intercepted Leizear around the Pride 10. Edmonds is one of the fastest players in the Dulles District and he raced along his own sidelines, threatening to go 90 yards for the score … only a determined Dudinski sprinted after Edmonds and dragged him down from behind at the Patriot 32.
The 58-yard return set up Heritage for a short drive and on the first play of the fourth quarter, Nelson (11 of 19, 101 yards) hit Edmonds in stride as he raced down the left sidelines for a 31-yard touchdown. Mallon’s extra point left Heritage just a score behind.
The Patriot defense had taken the game into their own hands most of the night and it would be no different on the ensuing kickoff as 6-foot-3, 280-pound Thomas Mulabah, fielded the Pride squib kick at his 36 and instead of just falling on the ball, Mulabah starting plowing straight ahead and the first couple of Heritage defenders that got in his way felt the full brunt of his size as he moved forward and wasn’t stopped until he reached the Pride 40.
“He can run pretty hard,” said Hill of Mulabah.
Heritage held Dudinski to three yards total the next two carries but on 3rd-and-7, the Pride defense was keyed on Dudinski, and Anyaugo got the call instead. He went 14 yards for the first down at the Pride 24. Heritage stiffened on defense and Hill sent Parker out for his second field goal try of the night — a 34-yarder that was good to give the Patriots a cushion at 24-14 with just under eight minutes to play. It was the first field goal made since Hill took over as coach last season.
Any hopes of a Pride comeback were dashed by the relentless Patriot defense as they sacked Nelson on back-to-back plays and then intercepted the ball on third-and-29. Park View finished off the job when Anyaugo hit a wide open Danny Foley on a 19-yard option pass on the very next play.
Park View’s best drive of the night, a 73-yard march in the closing minutes closed out the scoring as Dudinski, who had a 41-yard touchdown called back on the drive, scored from seven yards out with 1:52 to play. Dudinski would have easily broken the 100-yard mark in the game except for that penalty and an earlier penalty in the first half which wiped out a nice run.
Leizear finished the night 13 of 18 for 128 yards and he got just about everybody involved as he hit seven different receivers.
“This game was huge. It gives us a little bit of breathing room,” said Hill.
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