Broad Run Repeats as Dulles Champs

Spartans Complete Another 10-0 Regular Season

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Saturday, November 8, 2008

One final hurdle stood between the Broad Run Spartans and their second straight undefeated regular season heading into Friday night’s season finale: the one team that beat them a season ago and a team that had owned them for the past two decades, the Park View Patriots.

It was just last season that the Spartans finally notched a win against Park View, their first in 16 years against their Dulles District rivals. But only one week following that monumental victory to clinch the regular-season league title, the Patriots got back to their winning ways, knocking Broad Run out of the regional playoffs. The Spartans still hadn’t won in Sterling in 16 years, and then entered Friday night with a chance to lock up their second consecutive district title.

With touchdowns on each of their first two offensive plays, the Spartans raced out to an early lead and never looked back, fending off a late Park View rally to win the game and the league title, 39-26.

“Before last season, the last time that Broad Run beat Park View was the year I was born, 1990,” senior linebacker Kenny McAdow said. “Being a senior, we told the younger guys, ‘The entire time you’ve been alive we’ve been losing to Park View. Last year we changed that and we’ve got to keep it that way.”

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Park View lines up before honoring its seniors. (Matt Brooks)

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The Spartans' Kenny McAdow, left, and Breon Earl before the coin toss. (Matt Brooks)

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Broad Run celebrates its back-to-back Dulles District titles. (Matt Brooks)

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In typical Park View fashion, the Patriots went with a trick play right out of the gates, recovering an onside kick to spark their offense and the home crowd on senior night. But after Park View turned the ball over on downs, Broad Run’s T.J. Peeler broke through the line untouched on the ensuing play and sprinted 56 yards for the opening score.

"We had big plays early and that really sets the tone and gets you out of sync," Broad Run Coach Mike Burnett said. "If you take those big plays out of it, they really kept it close and were able to move the ball on us better than anyone has this year."

The Patriots (3-7, 2-5) did move the ball on their next possession, gaining three first downs before punting, but the Spartans connected on another huge play the next time their offense touched the ball. Senior quarterback Chris Jessop hit Adrian Flemming down the sideline for a 69-yard touchdown pass and just like that, Broad Run was up 13-0 midway through the first quarter.

"They came out fired up, that's for sure," Flemming said. "So we just had to capitalize on every play, and we did that."

The Spartans (10-0, 7-0) scored twice more before Park View was able to answer just before halftime. Jessop threw two more touchdown passes before the break, an 8-yarder to Breon Earl and a 27-yarder to Flemming. Brandon Lee's 1-yard touchdown run with seconds remaining in the second quarter was all the Patriots could muster.

After the break, Jessop’s 13-yard run gave the Spartans a 32-7 cushion, but Park View continued to battle back, scoring three minutes later on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Sawyer Hackett to Josh Jones. The junior quarterback hooked up with Jones again midway through the final frame on a screen pass that Jones turned into a 64-yard score. Freshman quarterback Jonathan Wooten's 14-yard touchdown run in the final moments of the game cut the margin of victory, but wasn't enough to give the Patriots a shot at a late comeback.

Peeler led the way for Broad Run with 129 yards on 13 carries. The bruising junior back now has three 100-yard efforts in his last four games. He's scored in every game he's played this season and is averaging a league-leading 12.4 yards per carry. Flemming caught three passes for 132 yards and the two touchdowns and Jessop was a modest 5 for 13 for 149 yards but accounted for three scores with his arm and one with his legs. Broad Run's high-octane offense has now scored 30 or more points in 7 of their 10 games this year.

Jones had five catches for 103 yards for the Patriots, bringing his season touchdown total to nine. Three Park View quarterbacks had at least five completions with Hackett having the most productive night as he went 12 for 19 for 197 yards and the two scores.

For Park View the yearly trip to the postseason had become routine, so naturally Coach Andy Hill wasn't happy to see his team’s season end in early November.

"It's an awful feeling," Hill said. "We had a lot of young kids play this year – nine underclassman starters on offense and seven on defense, but we can't waste it. It's nice that we fought back, but there are no moral victories here. We expect to be better, and that's an expectation they've inherited. But Broad Run is a great team and a classy organization and you can't help but be happy for them.”

With the experience they gained from their playoff loss last season, coupled with the desire this team has to make a deep run into the postseason to keep their magical streak alive, the Spartans expect to continue their strong play in the coming weeks. It all starts next week when they host district rival Loudoun County – which clinched the No. 4 seed in Division 4 Region II playoffs with a win at Heritage.

"You don't really know how much football means to you and how much a season like this means to you until you're in a position where you’re not going to have it again," McAdow said. "I'm never going to have another 10-0 season at Broad Run. It's a great position to be in, but it's also sad because I know it's never going to happen again. Now every game could be the last one. We've just got to make sure it's not."

Tagged: Broad Run High School, football, high school sports, Park View High School

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