Friday Football Roundup

Heritage Wins Big, McGrath Loses Valley Debut

by Nathan Curby

Saturday, September 6, 2008

It took Heritage only 15 seconds to take the lead over North Hagerstown Friday night. Senior running back Ross Madison took the initial kickoff back 90 yards straight up the middle to score. Big plays would be the story of Friday night's 56-28 win for the Pride.

Heritage (2-0) scored two more touchdowns within the next three minutes of play when North Hagerstown turned the ball over inside their own 20-yard line on each of their first two possessions.

North Hagerstown began to mount a drive on their third possession, only to have Heritage senior T.J. McPhaul pick off a pass attempt and return it 73 yards for another touchdown.

Heritage scored another defensive touchdown when senior Lawrence Middleton hit North Hagerstown’s quarterback at his own goal line, popping the ball out of his hands and into the hands of a Heritage linebacker.

Taking a 36-0 lead into the second quarter, Heritage began to get a little sloppy on both sides of the ball. After losing 25 yards in two plays, Heritage was forced to punt the ball away. North Hagerstown mounted their first sustained drive, scoring on a one-yard run by the quarterback.

The Pride ran the ball to eat the clock with less than a minute left to go in the first half, but senior quarterback Zach Gordon found a hole and took the ball 75 yards to score another touchdown. Heritage took a 43-6 lead into the half and finished the game easily, substituting younger players heavily throughout the second half.

Madison topped his kick return with a 91-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, finishing the night with 121 rushing yards and 229 all-purpose yards. Heritage Coach Wes Driskill said he knew coming into this season that they had several big playmakers on the team.

"I think we came in ready to play," Driskill said. "In the second quarter we got a little sloppy. We've got to be a little better on pass defense." North Hagerstown only managed to complete three passes in the game, but each of them went for more than 50 yards. Driskill said that was mainly due to Heritage substituting players later in the game.

Next week Heritage hosts Brentsville. "Brentsville plays pretty tough defense," Driskill said. "Things are coming together for us, but we've got some things to work on."

Forest Park Defeats Loudoun Valley, 16-0

Just before kickoff, Loudon Valley Coach Danny McGrath gathered his team together for one last pregame huddle. As he began to speak, McGrath couldn't help but smile.

The clouds became dark and the rain began to fall, McGrath could not have imagined a more fitting scene for his head coaching debut. The Vikings newly minted head coach, only two years removed from anchoring the Virginia Tech offensive line relished poor weather games. But as the rain began to subside, it became the Forest Park Bruins that rained all over McGrath's Vikings, 16-0.

"To be honest, I really don't remember what I told them," McGrath said after the game. "It might not seem like it [based on the score], but this is exactly where we want to be. We made some mistakes, but we'll clean that up."

The game had the potential to be a blowout early, but the Bruins failed to get out of their own way. The Bruins offense racked up 13 penalties for 117 yards, many of which were holding calls that negated big plays.

One of the lone bright spots for the Vikings was the play of junior running back, Bernard Thompson who rushed 20 times for 48 yards. The Vikings had three interceptions, the second of which lead to the Bruins only touchdown of the game.

"While I am proud of the way we came out and played today, we're only going to get better," McGrath said. "Nobody's out of this thing mathematically until at least the middle of October. So we're going to go back to work and hopefully next week the result will be better."

In other Loudoun action, Potomac Falls jumped out to a 34-0 halftime lead and scored 27 more points in the third quarter to help the Panthers take a 68-0 win over Hedgesville. Michael Baker rushed for three touchdowns and Gregory Woodlief had two touchdown passes as Potmac Falls had 386 yards of total offense. Read the Martinsburg Journal's account of the game here. Also, Freedom-South Riding picked up its first win since the 2006 season with a 22-14 win over Brentsville, and Park View lost to Jefferson, 42-36, in overtime in its home opener.

Special correspondent Stephen F. Ball contributed to this report.

Tagged: Heritage High School, high school sports, Loudoun Valley High School, Potomac Falls High School

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