This Week in Loudoun Co. Football

By B.J. Koubaroulis, Paul Tenorio

Thursday, November 20, 2008

No. 2 Stone Bridge at No. 9 Edison, 7:30 p.m. Friday

It's all about the scout team.

When No. 9 Edison (12-0) welcomes No. 2 Stone Bridge (12-0) for tomorrow's Virginia AAA Northern Region Division 5 championship game, the Eagles will hope that their second-string unit will have mimicked the Bulldogs' single-wing offense well enough in this week's practices.

Stone Bridge ran the intricate offense en route to a 14-1 record and a state championship last season and has run it ever since Coach Mickey Thompson started the program at the Ashburn school in 2000.

"In order to prepare for it, your scout team has to do a good job," Edison Coach Vaughn Lewis said. "It's hard to teach your scout team. They do the best that they can. [Stone Bridge] works on it for hours a day, every day now, for how many years has [Thompson] been running it? And now our scout team, in three days, has to give us the best look they can. And that's the biggest difference we've found over the years."

This is the fourth straight year Stone Bridge and Edison will meet in the region final, with the Bulldogs winning in 2005 and 2007 and the Eagles winning in 2006.

It's the first home game in the series for Edison.

Stone Bridge quarterback Patrick Thompson (Wake Forest) returned to action late in last week's 42-0 semifinal victory over Mount Vernon and will be part of a cast of previously injured Bulldogs that will return.

The senior has thrown for 1,864 yards and 23 touchdowns in 10 games, while running backs Daniel Allen (156 carries, 1,331 yards, 22 touchdowns), Marcus Harris (600 yards, seven touchdowns) and Michael Prince (468 yards, 10 touchdowns) have combined to make Stone Bridge the area's most potent offense with 50.4 points per game.

And though both teams are undefeated, Edison - which beat Division 6 powers West Springfield, South County and Chantilly - is rated higher in the Virginia High School League's power point system, which is used to create playoff berths and seedings.

"I don't think we look at ourselves as the underdog," Mickey Thompson said. "Well, I don't know if there really is [an underdog]. I feel good about us, but, in high school, it's all about matchups."

And those matchups might favor Stone Bridge because Edison is battling several key injuries.

The Eagles have been without their second-leading rusher, Angus Harper (knee), and their leading rusher and star linebacker Stephon Robertson (knee) is limited this postseason. In Friday's 47-7 semifinal victory over Madison, Edison quarterback Levi Barber injured his right foot and ankle, and he could miss tomorrow's final, Lewis said.

Wide receiver and defensive back Corey Washington, a 5-foot-10 speedster who filled in for Barber on Friday, would start in his absence.

"They are going to change the way they do things," Thompson said. "You might feel like you get a beat on them in film - what they like to run and what they like to do - but if they are going to use a different kid, a more of a running quarterback kid, then they are going to adapt and change some things. Maybe run more option or maybe run more whatever, so you have to be more prepared for that stuff."

Potomac Falls at No. 14 Broad Run, 7:30 p.m. Friday

Since Broad Run opened its doors in 1969, not one of its football teams has won a region title. But the Spartans will have an opportunity to end that drought tomorrow night as they host Potomac Falls in the Virginia AA Region II Division 4 championship.

The top-seeded Spartans already halted one streak this season, winning the program's first playoff game since 1991 with a 47-28 victory over Loudoun County on Friday. Now Broad Run (11-0) will look to snap the other against a Panthers team it defeated 38-0 in the regular season.

"We talk about our goals we kind of set are, we want to win every play, and then we want to win every game, and then we want to win our region, and then we want to win the state," Broad Run Coach Mike Burnett said. "You can't get to the last one until you get to the first one. I think winning the region would tell us we did a pretty good job of meeting our goals and would leave one."

The Spartans are led by running backs Breon Earl and T.J. Peeler, who have rushed for a combined 1,542 yards and scored 28 total touchdowns, and a defense that has allowed less than 14 points per game this season.

Potomac Falls (10-1), which made the playoffs for the first time in school history, defeated James Wood last week, 26-17. The Panthers are led by all-district running back Michael Baker, who has rushed for 1,424 yards and scored 22 total touchdowns this season.

Baker was held to just 29 yards rushing against the Spartans earlier this season, and Burnett said the game plan will again be to limit the star senior.

"Absolutely, that's what you have to do," Burnett said. "When you look at an opponent what you say is, 'What do they do best?' What we think they do best is run the ball to Baker, and we will try to take that away and make them go to what they do second best."

Tagged: Broad Run High School, football, high school sports, Potomac Falls High School, Stone Bridge High School

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