Bruins Roll Into Second Round Of Regionals With 34-10 Win Over Langley

In a battle of two of the area's best quarterbacks, Michael Nebrich and Lake Braddock reigned supreme, advancing to the semifinals of the Division 6 Northern Region playoffs with a 34-10 win over Langley. The Patriot District Offensive Player of the Year accounted for four touchdowns to pace a surprisingly well-balanced Bruin attack.

Teams that thought they could ignore the Lake Braddock run game could be in trouble, but Andrew Fletcher, in his second game back from a broken collarbone that kept him out of the first nine games, gained 128 yards on 15 carries.

"Any time you have a player of his quality, it helps to be healthy," Lake Braddock Coach Jim Poythress said of the senior who is in his first year of varsity action. "He's probably the hardest working kid in terms of preparation for the season. He had paid all his dues, and it was terrible to see him in that situation, but he came out when it counted."

Langley struck first on a 24-yard field goal by Farhan Khan. The Saxons failed to find the end zone thanks to a sack by Emmanuel Adetunji as Anderson attempted to buy time to find an open receiver.

Fletcher then made his presence immediately felt. The diminutive back displayed great burst at the line of scrimmage on runs of 20 and 12 yards, the second of which went for the Bruins' first score.

"It's the best feeling in the world to be back," Fletcher said. "It's been painful to watch from the sidelines and know that I can't help out. I'm still just getting back into it."

With Fletcher back, the Bruins second-round rematch with Robinson, who beat Lake Braddock 10-7 on October 1 for the Bruins' only loss of the season, could look very different. Lake Braddock only handed the ball off five times that game for 19 yards.

For those expecting to see big numbers from Nebrich, the first quarter proved to be a letdown, as he was hesitant to scramble and often settled for throwing the ball away. He was still able to lead systematic drives that kept the Saxon defense on the field for long stretches of time, and a 12-yard TD pass to Chris Williams and a 9-yard scramble for a score put the Bruins up 21-3 at the half.

Langley got one back in the third quarter after Nebrich made his only real mistake of the night, hanging a pass toward the end zone just a little too long and allowing Austin Vasiliadid to step in and grab an interception. On the next play, Anderson hit Robert Hood for a 75-yard pass to set up Phillip Mun's 9-yard touchdown run, which pulled Langley to within 11.

It was all Nebrich after that though, as running lanes started to open for him and his short passes turned into big gains thanks to some nice moves by Bruin receivers.

"They've been doing that all year long," said Nebrich, who finished 16-24 for 210 yards through the air and 118 yards on the ground on 19 carries. "At halftime, we talked about how there were a lot of open lanes for me to run, and that's when I started to pick up yards."

After a quiet first half from All-District receiver Matt Zanellato, Nebrich was finally able to connect with his favorite target for a 22-yard gain, and the duo immediately hooked up again for a 23-yard TD to make it 27-10.

The Bruins defense had a bend-but-don't-break mentality, allowing Anderson to pick up 219 yards through the air, but intercepting him twice, once in the red zone. After a 65-yard pass to Tanner Quigley, Nebrich finished things off with a TD run from a yard out.

"At the end of the day, I think we have the best player in the tournament, and he showed up tonight," Poythress said.

Box Score

Scoring Plays

First quarter

3:20 - Langley: 25-yard field goal by Khan

1:13 - Lake Braddock: 12-yard touchdown run by Fletcher (Weiler PAT)

Second quarter

6:36 - Lake Braddock: 12-yard touchdown pass from Nebrich to Williams (Weiler PAT)

1:15 - Lake Braddock: 9-yard touchdown run by Nebrich (Weiler PAT)

Third quarter

4:46 - Langley: 4-yard run by Mun (Khan PAT)

3:20 - Lake Braddock: 23-yard touchdown pass from Nebrich to Zanellato (PAT no good)

Fourth quarter

8:30 - Lake Braddock: 1-yard touchdown run by Nebrich (Weiler PAT)

Lake Braddock Statistics