Another Heartbreak For South Lakes

Another week, another gut-wrenching loss on the last play of the game for the South Lakes High Seahawks.

After allowing a touchdown as time expired the previous week, the Seahawks went beyond the time clock and into overtime for Friday’s defeat at Oakton, falling 48-47 when a Seahawk extra-point attempt was partially blocked, hit the left upright and bounced away.

The uprights got quite a workout on the evening. Oakton kicker Dillan Losee hit them three times – and two of the three went through for successful extra points. South Lakes kicker Nicholas Bertoni made all his kicks until the last one, but the Seahawks missed a point-after try in the second quarter when they attempted a play off the swinging gate formation.

In between the teams traded roundhouse blows as neither defense, nor the kickoff teams, could corral the opponent’s offensive weapons. South Lakes got three touchdowns each from seniors Cody Wood, who leads the team with 13 touchdowns, and Alec Saunders, who has six.

Jack Martin, Oakton’s speedy and big-armed sophomore quarterback, threw for 261 yards and five touchdowns. His top receiver, freshman Collin Henriquez, had 11 catches for 143 yards and a touchdown.

Of the 16 kickoffs in the game, three went out of bounds, but four were returned 44 yards or more. The highlight was the 72-yard touchdown return for Oakton by Isaiah Coleman that gave Oakton a 34-27 lead late in the third quarter. But the Seahawks got into the act as well with returns of 62 yards by Saunders and 44 by sophomore Nicholas Picarelli.

Bertoni, who made a tackle to stop a touchdown last season and has three times this season slowed up runners enough for others to tackle them, including once Friday night, knew the Seahawks were in trouble the second he saw Coleman catch the ball.

“I saw the gap he had immediately, and I knew we couldn’t catch him,” Bertoni said.”The ball was supposed to come down between the 20 and 25, we got out of our lanes a little and he had a clear path.”

That lead lasted three plays. After Picarelli’s return set up South Lakes at the Oakton 26, Wood threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Saunders on a halfback pass play to tie it at 34.

South Lakes then took a 41-34 lead on a 5-yard run by Saunders that was set up by 32-yard pass from Shuaib to Matthew McArthur.

And then the Seahawks got what they’d worked hard for but fallen short of most of the night – a key stop. Oakton’s scoring drives had been lengthy struggles, the Seahawks giving just enough ground to keep them alive. One Oakton scoring drive took 12 plays, another 11. But this time South Lakes got the stop by forcing a turnover – an interception by junior Dalton Blakeney – and had the ball and a 41-34 lead with 7:31 to go.

But the Seahawks went hurry-up, and Oakton met the moment. South Lakes gained just three yards on the possession and had to punt it back with 6:21 to go. “They were playing a lot of people both ways, so we wanted to go tempo and try to wear them out,” Hescock said.

A 35-yard pass from Martin to Timothy Volciak, a talented Cougar sophomore, and a 15-yard scoring pass to Trevor Wolff tied the game with a little over four minutes to go.

This was perfect for a team needing to turn the tables and win a game late, as South Lakes surely did after falling to Chantilly, 30-28, on a touchdown with no time on the clock the previous week. But it was not to be.

South Lakes moved from its 22 to the Oakton 9 thanks to breaking out the Wild Seahawk offensive set with direct snaps to Saunders, one of the best athletes in the school, who had a solid sophomore season but hurt his hamstring in the first game of his junior year, got sick as he was recovering and didn’t play all last season.

And now he was quarterback, running back and wide receiver all in the same game. "When I came here my goal was to play running back and wide receiver," Saunders said. "I didn't ask for quarterback, but I'm glad it happened."

“It was a change of pace,” said South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock. “It’s something we have been working on since last season. We finally got Alec in position to do it in a game.”

But after reaching the 9, South Lakes went backwards thanks to a holding penalty and a running play that was thrown for a loss.

Out came Bertoni, who has been a reliable kicker for the Seahawks since missing Week 1 with a glute strain. He’s made all 18 of his extra-point attempts and is 4-of-8 on field goals with a long of 36. But when he tried a 29-yard field goal on the last play of the game, the Cougars got a hand on it to sent the game to overtime.

In overtime, Oakton scored in three plays, then kicked its extra point. South Lakes responded in two with a 3-yard TD run by Saunders. Hescock said he thought about going for two after the blocked field goal but decided to try to kick it. The Cougars again busted through the middle and got a hand on the kick, sending it careening into the left upright and the Cougars onto the field to celebrate.

“They were jumping over us, which they’re not supposed to do,” Bertoni said. “They were hitting Marty (long snapper Marty McNicoll), which they’re also not supposed to do. But it happens a lot, and it doesn’t get called.”

South Lakes fell to 2-5, 0-2 in the district and must run the board against Madison (7-0), Westfield (6-1) and Centreville (2-5) to have any shot at the postseason.

Oakton improved to 4-3 overall and won its first Concorde District game since 2017 to even its league record at 1-1.

“Oakton has always been personal for me after the way they beat us our freshman year,” Saunders said. “I’ve always had good performances against them too. Now we have to play for each other, pick each other up. We’ve shown we can compete with the best teams in our league. Time to play our best football these last three games.”

South Lakes 7 13 14 7 6 – 47
Oakton 7 14 13 7 7 – 48
SL-Cody Wood, 35 run (Nicholas Bertoni kick)
O-Ryan Henriques, 1 run (Dillon Losee kick)
SL-Wood, 4 run (Bertoni kick)
SL-Alec Saunders, 8 run (run failed)
O-Brayden Vazquez, 6 pass from Jack Martin (Losee kick)
O-Ryan Henriques, 6 pass from Martin (Losee kick)
O-Collin Henriques, 22 pass from Martin (kick failed)
SL-Wood, 1 run (Bertoni kick)
O-Isaiah Coleman, 72 kickoff return (Losee kick)
SL-Saunders, 23 pass from Wood (Bertoni kick)
O-Trevor Wolff, 15 pass from Martin (Losee kick)
O-Vazquez, 6 pass from Martin (Losee kick)
SL-Saunders, 5 run (kick failed)

SL O
First Downs 11 20
Rushes-Yds 39-147 31-116
Passing Yards 222 261
Att-Comp-Int 17-10-0 34-23-1
Punts-Avg 3-32.3 2-27
Fum-Loss 2-0 2-0
Penalties-Yds 9-77 4-30

Rushing – South Lakes: Wood 21-41, Shuaib 9-58, Saunders 7-49, Sammy Alfred 1-6. Oakton: Martin 10-61, Isaiah Coleman 13-39, CHenriquez 3-12, RHenriquez 3-4, Timothy Vociak 2-0.
Passing – South Lakes: Shuaib 15-8-0, 167 yards, 1 TD; Saunders 1-1-0, 32 yards, Wood 1-1-0, 23 yards, 1 TD.
Receiving: South Lakes: Saunders 3-57, 1 TD; Nicholas Picarelli 3-21, Matthew McArthur 2-49=8, Alfred 1-15. Oakton: CHenriquez 11-143, 1 TD; Deylen Jones 1-9, Zachary Amani 1-0, Vazquez 2-12, 2 TDs; Volciak 2-48, Coleman 2-11, RHenriquez 2-0, 1 TD; Wulff 1-15, 1 TD.