By: Dan Sousa
Leesburg (Oct. 29, 2006) – A lot of people believe that Notre Dame legend Knute Rockne invented the forward pass in football, but St. Louis University quarterback Bradbury Robinson is actually credited with throwing the first attempt to teammate Jack Schneider on Sept. 6, 1906. For the record, it was an incompletion.
Either way, there is no denying that the pass is an exciting and important part of football, but you don’t have to throw the ball if you don’t want to, and that is what Dominion High School did Saturday as the Titans took 52 snaps from center and ran the ball 52 times for 173 hard-fought yards in a 14-7 Group AA Dulles District victory over Heritage.
Titan head coach Mike Dougherty said after the game that in his 12 years of coaching he has never been involved in a game where his team didn’t pass at least one time. A series of events conspired to inspire the Titans turf-only attack: first they lost starting senior quarter Craig Carlson to a broken leg suffered in last week’s loss to Park View; they played Saturday’s game in blustery conditions that made passing (and kicking for that matter) almost impossible for half the game; and finally the Titans went ahead on the first of two Edris Amin’s touchdown runs early in the game and then were able to stay in the lead behind a dominating defense that held the Pride to minus-9 yards rushing thanks to a number of bruising sacks, four alone by Brandon MacLean, on Heritage quarterback Kyle Nelson.
“Our game plan going in was to control the ball and win the first down battle,” said Dougherty. “The win today was a credit to our defense. We probably had 10 sacks today.”
The win marked a watershed moment for the Dominion program and not just because the game was played Saturday afternoon on a field that went “squish, squish” every step the players took a step, thanks to the soaking rain Friday night that postponed some contest until Monday.
It evened the Titans record at 4-4 on the season, the first time the four-year-old school has reached four victories, and it left Dominion 2-1 in district and with hopes of sneaking into the Region II Division 3 playoff picture. Heritage, meanwhile, suffered its third straight Dulles defeat and the Pride fell to 3-5 on the year just a season after going 7-3 and 4-1 to share the district title with Park View. Saturday was the first time Dominion had beaten Heritage, which opened one year prior to the Sterling school, in football.
“I sound like a broken record, but we keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Heritage coach Wes Driskill after his team fell on a windy and cold Homecoming day.
Driskill’s team, playing without defensive leader and second-leading receiver, middle linebacker/tight end Zak Burkhard who suffered a season-ending knee injury in last week’s loss to Broad Run and two-way starting lineman Jimmy Watson, continued a disturbing trend of turning the ball over on their opening possession.
After forcing Dominion to punt into the wind — blowing hard enough that at times it seemed as if the SpongeBob SquarePants moon bounce beyond the southern end zone might come unmoored and going bouncing down the football field– Heritage took over near midfield but on the second play, Dominion junior linebacker Marcus Waller, who had an outstanding afternoon, blitzed Nelson from the right side and stripped the ball loose and made the recovery himself.
That fumble was the Pride’s turnover on their opening possession for a third consecutive week and the fifth time in eight games. Dominion took immediate advantage as junior Britton Miller, stepping in for Carlson, executed a beautiful option ball fake on the first snap from the Pride 40. As the Heritage defense went after the dive back, Miller scooted around the right end and was off into the secondary. He wasn’t dragged down until he got to the Heritage 9 for a 31-yard gain and would be Dominion’s biggest gaining play the remainder of the game by some 21 yards.
“I was ready to play,” said Miller after the game. “I was waiting for my chance all year.”
Miller had a great first game, especially considering it was his first ever varsity start and he hadn’t taken a varsity snap until the second half of last week’s game. Miller carried the ball 23 times yesterday for a game-high 90 yards. Previously the starting strong safety for the Titans, Miller displayed tenacity and toughness needed to run an option attack.
“He knows the offense and he was just waiting for his opportunity,” said Dougherty. “He has a good ball fake and he sees the field well.”
What Miller mostly saw was 11 Heritage defenders inside the box, daring the Titans to put the ball in the air but with Amin plunging over the right side on 4th-and-goal from the 1 to put Dominion up 6-0, Dougherty wasn’t about to risk any passing unless needed.
Heritage moved the ball with the wind to the Titan 22 when things went awry. First Nelson was sacked by, who else, Waller and MacLean, and then an halfback option pass from Sean McCoy to Bobby Edmonds was nullified by a holding penalty and finally Nelson fumbled an exchange on 3rd-and-4 from the 16 to forced Heritage to settle for a field goal attempt. James Mallon never got a chance to put foot to ball as a high snap forced Nelson to scramble and he was brought down short of the first down.
In the second quarter, Heritage had to play into the wind and that helped Dominion pin the Pride back on their 16 after a good punt by Tommy Kowalick and a Pride holding penalty wiped out a Edmonds return to the 35. On first down, Heritage attempted a reverse to Edmonds and the Titans weren’t fooled as they brought down the speedy receiver for an eight-yard loss. On the next play the ball popped loose and Dominion junior defensive back Sean Johnson gobbled up the fumble to give the Titans the ball at the Pride 7 with less than three minutes to go in the half.
The Pride defense tried to hold as they stopped Amin for a five-yard loss on 1st-and-goal but Nelson’s keeper on 2nd-and-goal resulted in another costly Heritage penalty, this time a face mask call, and that gave the Titans 2nd-and-goal at the 6. Dougherty called upon Dominion’s “heavy” offensive set which brought in fullback Charles Ward and the 6-foot-4, 250-pound MacLean to line up in front of the 5-9, 175 Amin. The Titans went off tackle twice for three yards a snap and that was good enough to make it 12-0 with 1:28 remaining in the half.
Dominion lined up to kick the extra point but unveiled a trick play that Dougherty said they had been working on for two years but had never used. The holder flipped the ball back to the kicker Kowalick, who was then supposed to pass into the end zone, but he kept it instead and in an acrobatic move that might have scored big points in a gymnastics meet, Kowalick went airborne at the 2 and managed to stretch the ball over the end zone pylon as he was being knocked out of bounds by the Heritage defense.
Driskill said after the game that it was evident all the hard work that the Dominion players had been putting in the weight room over the past year.
“They are pretty physical up front,” said Driskill.
The second-half was an exchange of punts to start — both teams punted on their first two possessions — before Heritage got great field position because of the wind. Dominion, punting from its own end zone, couldn’t get the ball to travel against the wind and Edmonds, fumbling away the punt before recovering it himself, gave the Pride the ball on the Titans 13.
In perhaps a defining moment of the contest, the Titans held as they stopped McCoy for four yards on a first down sweep and then an incompletion brought up 3rd-and-6 from the 9. Nelson hit Tibbs in the flat but Dominion junior Todd Lancaster made a touchdown-saving open field tackle to force fourth down. Nelson tried to hit Curtis Rustin in the corner of the end zone but the ball was out of his reach and the Titans took over on downs.
Heritage, trailing 14-0 and facing the wind in the fourth quarter before an increasingly dispirited Homecoming crowd, did not give up and Driskill had words of praise for his dejected players after the game.
“The biggest thing I’m most proud of is that we fought in the second half,” said Driskill. “We just put ourselves in a bad position with the turnovers.”
The Titans, facing turnovers problems themselves earlier this season, got generous in the final minutes and a fumble recovered by Pride linebacker Russell East with 8:53 to go gave Heritage the ball on the Titan 48. Despite the wind, Nelson went to the air and he completed a 14-yard gain to Tibbs and then found Edmonds running down the left sidelines for a 37-yard touchdown strike to make it 14-7 with 7:44 to play.
“I thought Kyle did a good job of throwing against the wind,” said Driskill.
Dominion took over at their own 42 after an onsides kick didn’t work and Lancaster, Amin and Miller picked up yardage and the Titans drove inside the Pride 30. A holding penalty, however, followed by the unthinkable, another fumble, this one recovered by Pride defensive lineman Mike Massey gave Heritage and its Homecoming crowd something to cheer about.
With 3:54 remaining, Nelson rolled right out of the pocket and hit Edmonds for a 20-yard gain to the Titan 42. Waller was the backfield again, however, on the next down to sack Nelson for a nine-yard loss. Two more incompletions left it 4th-and-14 and MacLean fittingly ended Heritage’s comeback hopes with his fourth sack of the day.
Dominion then ran out the clock for the victory.
After the game, as the wind picked up even more velocity, Miller clutched the “game ball” in his hands and a smile on his face. While he said he missed playing defense, he felt like Dominion’s run in the second half of this season might be the start of something special for next year.
“We are going to be up there next year,” said Miller.
Dominion’s AA Dulles District Record The Titans were 1-18 in district play during their first three seasons but are now 2-1 in 2006 after defeating Heritage Saturday 14-7. Here is a year-by-year look: | |||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| L 19-46 Loudoun County | L 7-33 Loudoun County | W 13-9 Loudoun County | W 21-7 Loudoun County |
| L 0-37 Park View | L 12-48 Park View | L 16-41 Park View | L 7-35 Park View |
| L 7-37 Potomac Falls | L 6-31 Potomac Falls | L 8-31 Broad Run | W 14-7 Heritage |
| L 20-50 Loudoun Valley | L 6-43 Loudoun Valley | L 0-35 Potomac Falls | vs.. Broad Run |
| L 6-49 Broad Run | L 8-42 Broad Run | L 0-42 Heritage | vs.. Potomac Falls |
| L 12-63 Stone Bridge | L 0-25 Stone Bridge | ||
| L 7-14 Heritage | L 19-28 Heritage | ||
| Record: 0-7, 2-8 | Record: 0-7, 3-7 | Record 1-4, 3-7 | Record 2-1, 4-4 |
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