South Lakes Falls On Last Play Of Game At Chantilly

First there was the stunning comeback. Then there was the stunning ending.

South Lakes High scored two touchdowns in 10 seconds to take a late lead at Chantilly, but the Chargers stormed back with a drive of their own, which culminated in a 1-yard run by Charlie Boucher with no time on the clock as Chantilly escaped with a 30-28 victory.

Chantilly, now 4-2, evened its Concorde District record at 1-1. South Lakes fell to 2-4, 0-1, going into its bye week.

With 10 minutes to go in the game, the Chargers, who were celebrating Senior Night, looked on their way to an easy victory. They led 21-7 on the strength of three Boucher touchdown runs, South Lakes had 25 total yards and two first downs since the first quarter, and the Seahawks’ defense seemed incapable of getting off the field in big spots.

Indeed, the Chargers were 6 of 7 on third-down conversions in the first half and 3-for-3 in the red zone in the first half.

And when South Lakes finally got a meaningful stop just on its side of the 50, the Charger punt carried down to the one.

But Cody Wood, who was stifled like never before this season in the running game – he finished with 10 yards on nine carries – banged out a 1-yard gain to create some space, then Mohamed Shuaib, South Lakes’ senior quarterback, hit Nicholas Picarelli on a hitch on the left side.

Picarelli, a sophomore who has demonstrated escapability, shook one tackler then outran the Chantilly defense for a 98-yard touchdown. Hescock said the Seahawks have had a 99-yard run for a score, but he believes the 98-yard touchdown pass to be a school record.

“He just broke a tackle and we had a big play,” Hescock said.

The South Lakes defense then made another stand. After Garrett Carper (5 catches-107 yards) caught a 41-yard pass down to the South Lakes seven on a third-and-9, the Seahawks stiffened and made the Chargers settle for a 24-yard field goal by Ryan McDonald that gave Chantilly a 24-14 edge.

Suddenly, the Seahawks offense could get what it needed. A 7-yard run for Wood for a first down – his longest gain of the night. Consecutive 13-yard completions to Alec Saunders and Matthew McArthur for first downs, then still another 13-yard pass to Sammy Alfred down to the one, then Shuaib sneaking in from there to make it 24-21.

South Lakes then pulled off an onside kick when Jonathan Campos-Galicia, a senior defensive back, jumped on an onside kick at the Chantilly 49. On the next play, Shuaib hit Saunders for a 49-yard pass to make it 28-24.

Saunders also ran a hitch, shook a tackler and was off to the races. “We wanted to make the person on that side make tackles,” Hescock said. “And it worked out.”

The problem for South Lakes was that it’s quick touchdown gave Chantilly 2:20 to mount a comeback. Starting at their 30, the Chargers got a 23-yard pass to Carper, then a 15-yard penalty for personal foul to reach the South Lakes 20 with 37 seconds left. Boucher missed on a pass. Chantilly quarterback Sahir Mantri missed on a pass. Then Mantri hit Andy Fletcher down to the 4.

Boucher banged his way down to the one on first down, then Chantilly used its final timeout with six seconds left. The Chargers then went back to Boucher. He was staggered by a hit and wobbled to his left but then regained his footing and got into the end zone to win the game.

Boucher scored all four touchdowns for Chantilly and rushed for 160 yards, the most by any back against South Lakes this season.

Hescock told his team after the game that the score could’ve easily been 42-7 if they hadn’t stayed with it and that they have to keep getting 1% better every day to achieve their goals.

But he said last night marked a turning point for his team. “We hadn’t seen that before,” Hescock said of the team’s comeback spirit. “I wasn’t sure we had that in us. But now that we know we do, it’s better. We have a lot to fix. We’re still doing little things that hurt us. We have to establish the running game. But we did something tonight we hadn’t been able to do before, and we definitely can build on that.”

South Lakes 7 0 0 21 - 28
Chantilly 14 7 0 9 - 30
C-Charlie Boucher, 7 run (Ryan McDonald kick)
SL-Matthew McArthur, 57 pass from Mohamed Shuaib (Nicholas Bertoni kick)
C-Boucher, 7 run (McDonald kick)
C-Boucher, 10 run (McDonald kick)
SL-Nicholas Picarelli, 98 pass from Shuaib (Bertoni kick)
C-McDonald, FG 24
SL-Shuaib, 1 run (Bertoni kick)
SL-Alec Saunders, 49 pass from Shuaib (Bertoni kick)
C-Boucher, 1 run (no attempt)

SL C
First Downs 8 13
Rushes-Yds 17-31 41-173
Passing Yards 338 128
Passes (A-C-I) 27-15-1 29-16-1
Punts-Avg. 3-30.5 3-36
Fum-Loss 0-0 1-0
Penalties-Yds 4-70 4-36

Rushing – SL: Cody Wood 9-10, Shuaib 7-14, Picarelli 1-7. C: Boucher 26-160, Nicholas Caywood 2-14, Treveon Jackson 2-4, Andrew Fletcher 7-1, Sahir Mantri 4-minus 7.
Passing – SL: Shuaib 27-15-1, 338 yards, 3 TDs. Chantilly: Mantri 27-15-1, 120 yards. Boucher 1-1-0, 8 yards; Fletcher 1-0-0.
Receiving – Picarelli 3-114, TD; McArthur 3-81, TD; Saunders 5-82, TD; Wood 2-47, Sammy Alfred 2-13. C: Garrett Carper 5-107, Skylar Dougherty 1-20, Caywood 2-7,Jayden Harris 1-35, Boucher 3-16, Fletcher 1-6, Qua’mere Rogers 1-31, Jackson 2-13.