By: Dan Sousa
Ashburn (Oct. 23, 2006) – Broad Run High School football coach Michael Burnett decided at halftime Saturday that his Spartans would try to run at Heritage in the second half and keep at it until the Pride stopped them. And the Spartans ran and ran and ran and ran … they ran all the way to a 31-13 Homecoming victory over the Pride.
The victory left Burnett’s team 1-1 in the AA Dulles District and 3-4 overall in his first season. Last year the Spartans were 1-9 overall. Heritage, district co-champs in 2005, fell to 0-2 and 3-4.
Taking advantage of a weakened Heritage defense, which lost middle linebacker Zak Burkhard to an injured knee in the second quarter and several other nicked-up starters, Broad Run unveiled a power running game behind seniors Clayton Abel and Zach Austin and a dominanting offensive line. Despite the Spartans reputation coming into the game for its passing attack – Broad Run did air it out 20 times in the first half – Broad Run ran 33 out of 34 offensive plays in the second half in a display of punishing ball control.
“Other players have to step up. We have got enough seniors out here,” said Heritage coach Wes Driskill when addressing the loss of Burkhard. “We got out played in some ways and in the first half we let them stay in the game.”
Heritage, which lead 13-3 in the contest and 13-11 at the half, botched a reverse on the kickoff return to start the second half and the Pride were pinned back at their own 5 and never recovered the field position. In fact, the ball never got into Broad Run territory after halftime as the Spartans took advantage of a series of short punts and interceptions to start drives at the Heritage 47, 26 and 48. All three of those drives – 11 plays, nine plays and 13 plays – chewed up the clock and resulted in Broad Run touchdowns.
“They got real emotional at halftime. We got after them at halftime too,” said Burnett.
Broad Run was able to move the ball in the second half despite the loss of left tackle Fred Galzerano who had to leave for the hospital with asthma issues. Burnett said Matt Sedlmeyer stepped in and did a good job.
The Pride offense, meanwhile, wilted as Heritage did not pick up a first down inthe second half and the Spartans fired-up defense, led by linebacker Dustin Locascio, limited the Pride to just seven total yards in the second half on 10 plays.
Abel rolled ahead for 105 yards on 27 carries and Austin picked up 38 yards on 11 attempts. Sophomore Chris Jessop, who replaced starter Cole Shain on the final series of the first half, was an efficient 3 of 4 for 42 yards and touchdown passes to Ryan Diveny and Adrian Mines. Shain went 7 of 16 for 60 yards and broke the 1,000-yard passing mark for the season.
Heritage did get 98 yards rushing on nine attempts from Sean McCoy but all that came in the first half and 51 yards of that came on a first quarter run that set up Kyle Nelson’s 5-yard touchdown run that gave Heritage the 7-0 lead with 8:13 to play in the first.
In a glimpse of what was to become, Broad Run marched 56 yards on 14 plays after the Pride score but the Spartans failed to score when Shain’s 4th-and-7 pass to Abel came up a yard short. Earlier the Spartans had intercepted Nelson on the first play of the game, when Sam Saidi got the pick, but Broad Run couldn’t take advantage when a 2nd-and-3 Shain to Mines quick screen pass attempt resulted in a backward pass and fumble that was recoved, but cost the Spartans 12 yards.
Broad Run held Heritage on the next possession and took over with a short field — getting the ball at the Pride 31. The Heritage defense stiffened and the Spartans settled for Joe Tabatabaian’s 29-yard field goal to make it 7-3 Heritage with 10:33 to go before half.
Heritage again had a drive fizzle and another short punt resulted in Broad Run taking over at the Pride 32. The Spartans moved inside the 20 before four pass plays resulted in one yard and the ball turned back over to the Pride. At that point in the game, Broad Run had been inside the Heritage 30 four times with three points to show for it.
The Pride put together what would be their last drive of the game, moving the ball 82 yards in 10 plays. Chris McCalla who has been out for a good part of the season with an injury had several nice runs during the drive and Nelson hit back-to-back passes for 41 yards. McCalla scored from five yards out with just 37.3 seconds left in the half to put Heritage up 13-3 after the Pride went for and failed on a two-point conversion.
Heritage’s squib kick after the touchdown went right to linebacker Jake Muth on the front line and he almost broke through for a touchdown but he was corralled at the Pride 44.
Jessop was inserted into the lineup and on his first pass he hit tight end Bryce Phillips for a simple 7-yard play that was turned into a 22-yard gain after a 15-yard Heritage personal foul penatly. Jessop then took the ball himself down to the Pride 8 on a 14-yard gain. With just 14 seconds left, Jessop, with great protection from his offensive line, threaded the ball to Diveny in the back of the end zone. Abel ran in the two-point conversion to make it 13-11.
“We have two quarterbacks that can play. Cole leads the district in passing but that alone is not enough of a reason to keep a talented kid on the bench,” said Burnett.
Abel ran the first four Broad Run plays of the second half. Jessop was sacked for a six-yard loss only to have the Pride jump offsides and then it was Abel again, taking it for four more straight carries. On 3rd-and-1 from the 5, Jessop kept it and brought it inside the 1 where Abel then did the honors for the go-ahead touchdown.
Just two plays later, Chase Bartalone intercepted the ball and the Spartan offense was back at work. It was between the tackles, smash-mouth football as Abel and Then Austin help move the ball to the 12. Everthing was going Broad Run’s way at this point, even a botched pitch to Abel bounced right back into the back’s hands and he turned the potential disaster into a 1-yard gain.
On the next play, the first play of the fourth quarter, Jessop found Mines on the fade route for an 11-yard touchdown. Tabatabaian’s point after made it 24-13 to the delight of the Broad Run Homecoming crowd.
The Spartans defense was so far into the backfield at this point, that Heritage had no time to think about throwing and even three running plays resulted in a loss of nine yards.
There was still 8:17 left in the contest but the Spartans were in no mood to share the football and Broad Run ate up all but 37 seconds of the remainder of the game on a 13-play march highlighed by a Mines’ reverse on 3rd-and-7. On 4th-and-goal from the 3, Austin, at 6-foot, 22o-pounds, tougther to bring down than a canon ball, blasted his way into the end zone for the final score.
“Abel and Austin are real phyiscal kids. They like to run over people,” said Burnett.
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