by Nathan Curby
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Deandre Reaves rushed for 247 yards and three touchdowns Friday night as Dominion defeated Freedom, 35-7, at home to earn its first win of the season in a Dulles District showdown.
Reaves only carried the ball five times in the second half after rushing for 228 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries in the first half. Two of the scoring plays came on runs of more than 50 yards. Reaves scored again in the second half on an 85-yard kickoff return.
A light rain made it hard for either team to get a passing game going. Dominion relied heavily on its rushing game, but Freedom, missing running back Jeff Pugh, went to the air more often. Senior quarterback Luke Bratton completed only 4 of his 20 passes, throwing for 85 yards with two interceptions.
Reaves started the scoring for Dominion by breaking a 52-yard run into the end zone on the Titans’ second drive of the game. After Dominion intercepted a Bratton pass at Freedom’s 40-yard line, Reaves carried the ball on four consecutive plays. He capped the drive with his second touchdown on a 22-yard run.
Two drives later, Reaves scored again on a 58-yard carry to make the score 21-0 with 5:38 left in the second quarter. "We shifted a few things around knowing it was going to be a ground game, and the guys up front did a great job," Dominion Coach Karl Buckwalter said.
Dominion extended their lead on their first drive of the second half. On a fourth-down fake punt, Aaron Good threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Andy Pont to make the score 28-0.
Freedom showed the ability to run with junior Phil Britten, and drove down to Dominion’s 11-yard-line, but failed to convert a fourth down when Bratton’s pass hit the referee.
Freedom’s next possession was more successful. Bratton led a 71-yard drive which led to a three-yard rushing touchdown by senior running back T.J. Mizzell. Dominion answered right away when Reaves returned the kickoff 85 yards for his fourth touchdown of the night.
Reaves, who finished the game with a very muddy jersey and a tear in his pants, acted like a little boy enjoying the mud, but played like a man among boys. "Just having fun," he said.
Loudoun County Beats Park View, 21-4
Known for its routine use of gadget plays, Park View looked ordinary against a stout Loudoun County defense led by junior linebacker Chase Williams. By the end of the game, the only points Park View was able to muster came from two intentional fake punts as the Raiders went on to a 21-4 victory Friday night in Sterling in the teams' Dulles District opener.
With two weeks to prepare for the Patriots unconventional offense, Loudoun County Coach Todd Hill planned for this contest to be more of a track meet than football game.
"We really came into this game expecting to have to throw the ball down the field more than we’re used to," Hill said after the game. "We always try to be as balanced as we can, tonight we just had to run the ball a little more than we expected."
While balance may have been Hill’s objective, the Raiders (3-1, 1-0) passed the ball only six times in the game, running the other 25 offensive plays.
After both teams spent the early part of the first quarter feeling each other out, Park View had a chance to take the lead early in the second quarter. A 20-play drive by the Patriots stalled when a holding call nixed a 30-yard touchdown run by quarterback Brandon Lee that would have given the Patriots a 7-0 lead. Park View never recovered their momentum. Seven plays later, Park View was forced to kick a 30-yard field goal that missed.
After the missed field goal, it didn’t take long for the Raiders to take control of the game. A five-play, 80-yard drive, highlighted by a 49-yard run by running back Adam Yesuf, resulted in a one-yard touchdown run by Mike Howard.
After a six-play Park View possession, Loudoun County methodically drove the ball 59 yards, capped off by a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Joe Bushrod, putting the Raiders up 14-0 just before halftime.
The second half was more of the same. Three plays into the second half, Park View was forced to punt from their own 34-yard line. The punt was blocked, giving the Loudoun County excellent field position on the Patriots 11-yard line. Two plays later, Bushrod scored his second touchdown of the night on an eight-yard quarterback draw with 9:50 remaining in the third quarter, and Loudoun County was up, 21-0.
From here, Loudoun County played against the clock, attempting to run it down at every opportunity. After Park View turned the ball over on downs at the Raiders' one-yard line, Loudoun County was unable to advance the ball past the four, forcing them to put from deep in their own end zone. The punt, which at first looked to be a fake, turned into an intentional safety when Bushrod ran out of the back of the end zone.
When faced with the same situation minutes into the fourth quarter, the Raiders again intentionally committed a safety, this time punting the ball out of the back of their own end zone.
"Once we got that 20-point lead, we just wanted to control the clock," Hill said. "We're not worried about the statistics. When we've got to punt the ball from that tight [in their own end zone], we can only kick it 35 yards or so; so it doesn't make sense to give them the ball with field position that good to drive down and score, when we can just take it out of bounds, give up the two and then kick the ball off. We put it on our defense, and they did a good job tonight."
For the Patriots (1-3, 0-1), there was little to be happy about after such a tough performance. After the game Patriots Coach Andy Hill summed up his teams efforts with a simple, "we sucked."
"I thought we were ready to play but the first half we looked like we hadn't practiced in two weeks," Hill said. "I think we all need to look in the mirror and take some accountability for what goes on with this team … we're either going to fix it, or it's going to be a miserable season."
Hill went through three quarterbacks in the game, ending the game with freshman Jonathon Wooten, but said that Lee would start next week at Freedom (1-3).
"Brandon Lee has the most physical tools of any kid I've ever coached and I coached a kid that played in the Big 10," Hill said. "So I'm not ready to give up on Brandon Lee."
After the game, Lee tried to remain upbeat saying that it didn't bother him too much that he had been pulled from the game, but added that next week; his team would come in more focused.
"It wasn't hard [getting benched]," Lee said. "I wasn't doing what I should have been doing, and if I can't do it, I want one of my teammates to. We'll go back and work on the fundamentals and be more focused next week. Hopefully we'll learn not to panic if something bad happens."
Special correspondent Stephen F. Ball contributed to this report.
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