Big Plays Add Up For Centreville HS In High-Scoring Victory Over South Lakes

By BRIAN McNICOLL

It was not the best moment of the season for South Lakes High’s Sebastian Valencia, but it was still one in which the junior defensive lineman could take some pride.

“We did step up tonight,” said Valencia of the defense on Thursday night at Centreville. “We did pressure the quarterback. We had a mix of new guys in there, and we did get some sacks and some good rush on him, and we did a good job against the run.”

But it wasn’t enough. The Seahawks played what appears to be the Northern Region's best team to a draw for three quarters, but two lost fumbles in the fourth quarter which allowed Centreville (7-1, 4-0) to pull away for a 49-35 victory and wrap up the Concorde District title.

South Lakes, now 5-4 overall, 2-2 in the district, clinched a playoff spot by virtue of Oakton's 47-12 loss to Madison. The Seahawks can improve their seeding next week when they close the regular season at home against Westfield, now 6-3 overall, 3-1 in district.

South Lakes fought Centreville to a 35-35 draw over the game’s first 37 minutes. But over the final nine, the Wildcats drove 65 yards in five plays, stopped South Lakes, scored again on a 57-yard run by Cardin Stover, then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff to seal the deal.

“It was just a good ol’ high school football shootout,” said South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock, whose team returns to the playoffs after a one-year absence. “We were just as good as them for almost the entire game, but we made a few mistakes and could not recover.”

Many of those mistakes involved Jourdan Simpson, Centreville’s all-everything wide receiver. He seemed to be able to get not just open but wide open almost no matter what South Lakes did on defense. And Will Shields, the Wildcats’ rocket-armed three-year starter at quarterback, made the Seahawks pay. The two linked up 12 times for 278 yards – by far the most by a single receiver against South Lakes this year – and two touchdowns.

Along the way were catches of 20, 23, 28, 67, 39, 22, 24 and 25 yards. The 67-yard catch and the 22-yard grab both went for scores.

The Seahawks also contained Stover for almost the entire game. He had just 39 yards on 12 carries until he busted the 57-yarder for a touchdown for the game’s final score.

Centreville has played back-and-forth games all season, but the Seahawks scored more against the Wildcats than any other team in the Concorde. Indeed they got off to a start that suggested they could do more than just give the home team a good battle.

South Lakes scored on its first two possessions – driving to a 20-yard from Christian Wyatt to Henry Strickland, then marching to a 1-yard scoring run by Dalton Blakeney. It was Blakeney’s 11th touchdown of the season but first since Week 6 against Oakton. It also was the eighth time Blakeney had scored from a yard out.

They were moving with breakneck speed in their “tempo” offense, throwing first to Joshua Dagbe on one side and then back to Nick Picarelli on the other with runs by Wyatt and Blakeney mixed in.

“We were really clicking there early,” said Picarelli, who led South Lakes with nine catches for 104 yards. “We had bubble screens working, the ball was coming out early, and we were hard to cover.”

But Centreville kept pace with a TD between the two South Lakes scores and two field goals from Emiliano Lucero to be within 14-13 at half.

The Wildcats opened the second half with the long bomb down the middle to Sampson – one of the few scores that resulted from a coverage breakdown as opposed to a great play by Sampson – and led for the first time at 21-14 after a two-point conversion pass from Shields to David Campbell.

South Lakes roared back to score and converted a 2-pointer of its own to make it 28-28 and appeared to get the upper hand when Labeed Zaib intercepted a Shields pass. But a convoluted offsetting penalty call gave the ball back to the Wildcats, and they marched in five plays later on the other scoring pass to Sampson to make it 35-28.

“That was a huge call,” Hescock said. “We get that interception, we have all the momentum. When they got it back, you could feel the momentum shift to them.”

The Seahawks still wouldn’t give in. They moved from their 25 to the Centreville 38 on two passes, then scored on a double reserve to Picarelli who worked his way down the right sideline and dodged tacklers to get in for the score.

But the Wildcats had some more scoring drives in them and the Seahawks did not. South Lakes twice had Centreville pinned in on the ensuing drive only to have the Wildcats escape thanks to the 24- and 25-yard completions to Sampson then score on a 2-yard sneak by Shields to make it 42-35 and put the Wildcats ahead to stay.

South Lakes would fail to move and the Wildcats would tack on one more score on Stover’s run to make it 49-35 with still 3:26 left. But the fumble on the ensuing kickoff essentially clinched it.

“We worked real hard this week and did a lot of good things,” Hescock said after the game. “We have things to fix before we play a very good Westfield team next week. But we played a good game against a very good team here. It’s definitely something we can build on.”

South Lakes 14 0 14 7 – 35
Centreville 7 6 15 21 – 49
SL-Henry Strickland, 20 pass from Christian Wyatt (Nick Bertoni kick)
C-Denzel Dixon, 48 pass from Will Shields (Emiliano Lucero kick)
SL-Dalton Blakeney, 1 run (Bertoni kick)
C-Lucero, FG 23
C-Lucero, FG 27
C-Jourdan Simpson, 67 pass from Shields (David Campbell pass from Shields)
SL-Wyatt, 1 run (run failed)
C-Shields, 7 run (Lucero kick)
SL-Wyatt, 3 run (Wyatt run)
C-Simpson, 22 pass from Shields (Lucero kick)
SL-Nick Picarelli, 38 run (Bertoni kick)
C-Shields, 1 run (Lucero kick)
C-Cardin Stover, 57 run (Lucero kick)

SL Cville

First Downs 16 16
Rushes-Yards 31-159 29-181
Passing Yards 174 379
Passes (A-C-I) 23-18-0 25-18-0
Punts-Avg. 2-30.5 0
Fumbles-Lost 3-3 1-1
Penalties-Yards 5-60 6-60

Rushing – South Lakes: Blakeney 18-29, Wyatt 11-91, Picarelli 2-39. Centreville: Stover 16-113, Shields 12-66, Sampson 1-1.
Passing – South Lakes: Wyatt 23-18-0, 174 yards, 1 TD. Centreville: Shields 25-18-1, 379 yards, 3 TDs.
Receiving – South Lakes: Picarelli 9-104, Joshua Dagbe 3-12, Strickland 2-25, TD; Blakeney 1-16, George Zarechnak 2-18, Nate Zschunke 1-13. Centerville: Sampson 12-278, TDs; Dixon 3-72, TD; John Poythress 2-1, Nick Solomon 1-15.