BR Remains Undefeated with 17-10 Win over Pride

Football sponsored by  The Original steakhouse

By: Dan Sousa

Ashburn (Oct. 9, 2007) – If it wasn’t for a perfectly-executed trick play Friday night the Broad Run and Heritage football teams might still be locked in a defensive struggle. The  game was tied at 10-10 with less than four minutes to go, and seemed destined for overtime, but that was before Broad Run dug deep into its playbook to remain undefeated with a 17-10 AA Dulles District victory.

“We have (trick plays) in the playbook, we just don’t want to use them. That one was probably only good once a year,” said Broad Run coach Michael Burnett, who has turned the Spartan program around since taking over the reigns last season.

Broad Run, 1-9 in 2005, went 5-5 in Burnett’s first season in 2006 and the Spartans are now 2-0 in district and 5-0 for the first time in recent memory. Broad Run sandwiched geographically between perennial playoff teams Stone Bridge and Park View, is looking for its first postseason action since 1991.

Heritage (1-1, 3-2) had held the Spartans to one first down in the second half when the subterfuge broke things open.

Facing 2nd-and-9 from their own 46, the Spartans put both of their quarterbacks on the field with senior Cole Shain taking the snap and junior Chris Jessop lining up at receiver. Shain then handed it to junior running back Breon Earl sweeping towards the packed home stands. Earl then reversed the ball to Jessop, who pulled up after a couple of steps, and found Earl running down the Spartan sidelines for a 29-yard gain to the Pride 25.

“There was only one option on the play and that was to Breon,” said Jessop.

Considering that junior kicker Graham Allen had booted a 40-yarder in the final minute of the first half, the Spartans only needed a couple of yards to get in game-winning field goal range, but the BR backs, led by Earl, junior Kenny McAdow and senior Billy Rocca, weren’t taking any chances and they chewed up the 25 yards in five plays, along with the aid of Heritage’s defense jumping offsides for the fourth time on the night.

McAdow, who had a big game on defense, including a key open field stop to halt Heritage in Spartan territory just before the bit of trickery, took it the final two carries, plowing in from the 2 on 3rd-and- 1 with just 1:22 remaining in the contest.

“We go through 12 months of intense training because of Friday night’s like this,” said McAdow.

On a night where every yard on the ground was earned by both teams, McAdow finished with 66 yards on nine carries with Earl gaining 49 on 19 attempts and Rocca 29 on seven attempts. Ross Madison led Heritage with 49 yards on 12 attempts and he scored the Pride’s only touchdown on a 21-yard swing pass from senior Kyle Nelson on Heritage’s first drive of the game.

“A lot of people didn’t think we should be on the field with them,” said Heritage coach Wes Driskill. “My guys played their butts off.”

After halting Broad Run on its first drive, Nelson (13 of 24 for 127 yards) guided the Pride on a quick four-play, 46-yard touchdown drive. Nelson picked up 16 on a keeper on the first play and then gained three yards. Madison turned the corner for six more yards before Nelson floated a pass to the left and Madison grabbed it and went 21 yards for the touchdown.

Broad Run, which started Jessop ( 4 of 4, 33 yards) on the first drive, came back behind Shain (5 of 11, 66 yards) on the next drive, and he took the team 65 yards on nine plays to even the score at 7-7. Key plays in the drive included a 24-yard Shain to McAdow pass, and runs of 11 and 6 yards by Rocca behind the blocking of McAdow.

Facing 3rd-and-7 from the Pride 13 after a motion penalty, the Spartans got five back when Heritage jumped offsides on a hard count. McAdow took the next handoff and was stopped just short of the goal line. On the next play, Shain sneaked in for the score.

Both defenses, Broad Run’s led by McAdow, Rocca and George Black, and Heritage’s led by Nick Cadwell and Madison, owned almost the rest of the night.

Heritage had its next two drives stopped on sacks. The drive made it to the Broad Run 39 before Bryan Morrison and Black sacked Nelson on 3rd-and-6. The next drive made it to the Broad Run 25 but Black and McAdow threw Nelson for an 11-yard loss on 3rd-and-9.

The Pride elected to punt from the 36 to pin Broad Run deep rather than going for it on 4th-and-20. Chris Rossie put Broad Run on its own 10 with a nice punt, but the Spartans managed a scoring drive that ate up seven minutes and appeared doomed on several occasions.

To start, Broad Run was looking at 2nd-and-14 from their own six when Shain found Tommy Meier for a gain of 13 and some breathing room. On 3rd-and-1, McAdow was big  again, gaining 13 after busting loose on a dive play.

Then on 4th-and-8, Heritage jumped off sides to give the Spartans a chance at picking up the first down and Burnett rolled the dice and went for it from his own 39, giving it to Earl, who needed a second effort to pick up the first down the length of half the football.

A blindside sack by a blitzing Cadwell on Shain put Broad Run in third-and-long again from the 50, but sophomore receiver Adrian Flemming turned a short gain on a quick pass into 13 yards by breaking several tackles. That left 4th-and-1 from the Pride 37 and Shain kept it for the first down.

On the next play with 1:23 remaining in the half, disaster almost struck for the Spartans as a Heritage defensive back jumped a sideline pattern, but he couldn’t hold on for the interception and possible quick six the other way.
The Spartans took that second life and worked into field goal range with Shain and Meier hooking up gain, this time for 10, and Earl gaining six. Heritage’s 292-pound defensive tackle Sharewan Salih stalled the drive by grabbing the 150-pound Earl and tossing him back into the backfield for a 4-yard loss. After an incompletion, Allen calmly made it 10-7 Broad Run with a 40-yard field goal with 36 seconds left in the half.

Much as they had started the game, Heritage came out strong on offense in the second half, moving the ball 69 yards on 11 plays. The Pride served up a mixture of Madison running plays and Nelson passes to Michael Massey and Bryan McCarthy.

A Nelson scramble for 15 yards plus a late hit penalty gave the Pride 1st-and-goal at the BR 4 but Heritage could not punch the ball in. Madison was swarmed on first down for no gain and then Nelson had back-to-back incompletions including a ball dropped at the goal line. The settled for Josh Thiel’s 21-yard field goal to tie the game at 10-10 with 8:12 to go in the third quarter.

On the next two drives for both teams, similar things happened. Broad Run was stopped on fourth down attempts, first on the Heritage 41 when Earl slipped trying to make a first down on 4th-and-2 and then on 4th-and-1 from the Heritage 46 when Cadwell stormed into the backfield to halt Earl for a loss.

“They were just able to get stops on us. I was impressed with their defensive effort,” said Burnett.

Heritage had two punts partially blocked and this would be key, perhaps, in a late decision to fake a punt prior to Broad Run’s game-wining drive. The first partial block gave BR the ball at midfield at the end of the third quarter but the Pride defense held. The next partial block was actually just a finger tip on the ball but that was important as two Spartans took out the Heritage punter. A roughing call would have given the Pride first down on the Spartan 38 but since the ball was touched there was no penalty.

After forcing BR to three-and-out, Heritage took over in great field position, at the Broad Run 45 with 6:51 left in the game. On 2nd-and12, Nelson found Massey for eight yards and then on third down, it looked like Heritage would move the chains as Nelson hit Curtis Rustin on a crossing route, but McAdow made the stop for a 1-yard loss.

“He’s a special kid on both sides of the ball,” said Burnett about the 5-foot-10, 200-pound McAdow.

On 4th-and-5 from the Broad Run 40, it appeared that Heritage wanted to attempt a fake punt, but there was some confusion and a low snap to Chris Groomes resulted in a 5-yard loss. Just two plays later, it was Broad Run’s trick play that broke the game open.

“I tip my hat to Heritage. We had to earn everything,” said Burnett.

Despite the bitter defeat, Driskill was keeping hopes alive to come back for the district title, such as the Pride did two years ago when they tied Park View for the Dulles crown. Heritage did not make the playoffs that year and the Pride are looking for the school’s first trip to postseason since opening in 2002.

“We are not out of this. There are still some playoff spots left,” said Driskill.

Broad Run travels to Dominion next week, while Heritage hosts Freedom.

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