Football: Falcons Soar to 53-7 Playoff Win Over Orange County

By Wayne Schofield
Special to VivaLoudoun

Ashburn (Nov. 12, 2010) - Briar Woods High School senior running back Michael Brownlee took the first snap from scrimmage Friday night for a 64-yard touchdown and the Falcons never looked back as they put points on the scoreboard in almost every way imaginable in a 53-7 Region II Division 4 quarterfinal victory over Orange County.

Brownlee finished the night with an impressive 217 yards rushing on 17 carries and accounted for all three of the Briar Woods scores in the first half -- scoring on runs of 28 and 5 yards in addition to the game opener -- as they built a commanding 26-0 halftime lead.


The Falcons spent most of the night in the Wildcat formation with Brownlee at the helm. It appeared early that Briar Woods would be content with running Brownlee left, right and middle and Orange County had no answer on defense.

The Briar Woods offense, utilizing a number of runners, managed to gain 414 yards on the ground with J.T. Logan contributing 114 yards and two touchdowns to the Briar Woods bottom line.

Dulles District Division 4 Offensive Player of the Year, freshman quarterback Trace McSorley, saw limited action, throwing for 1 of 4 for 4 yards and he had one carry for 9 yards that resulted in a touchdown.

The Orange County defense was over matched in the trenches as Briar Woods was able to move the ball down the field at will.

The Orange County offense did not fare much better than the defense. On the first play from scrimmage the ball was snapped over quarterback Amir Waller’s head and recovered by Orange County on their own 1 yard line. Falcon Zach Pierce broke through the Hornets offensive line on the next play and brought running back Isaiah Ferguson down in the end zone for a safety pushing the Briar Woods lead to 9-0.

Orange County’s next two possessions produced negative yards and they were forced to punt. The Briar Woods defense never let Orange County get anything going on offense until early in the 4th quarter when they finally managed to get on the scoreboard.

McSorley made his presence known on defense midway through the 4th quarter as he blocked a punt which was caught by teammate Joe Rizzardi and returned 17 yards for a touchdown.

The Falcons defense was led by the Dulles District Division Defensive Player of the Year Scott Rolin led the way with 11 tackles.

In the semifinals the Falcons will host a Liberty team that beat Briar Woods, 13-10, earlier in the season, but the Falcons played that game without Brownlee, who was injured on the first carry of the season and didn't not return until three weeks ago. This should make for an extremely interesting rematch “in downtown Brambleton!”

Briar Woods 53, Orange County 7
Orange County    0  0   0    7 -- 7
Briar Woods       9 17 13 14 -- 53

Scoring summary Qtr Time Scoring play OC BW
Briar Woods 1 11:40 Brownlee 65 run (Clements kick)
Briar Woods 1 10:47 safety
Briar Woods 2 10:30 Brownlee 28 run (Clements kick)
Briar Woods 2 4:47 Clements 35 FG
Briar Woods 2 2:46 Brownlee 4 run (Clements kick)
Briar Woods 3 6:03 Logan 1 run
Briar Woods 3 1:36 McSorley 8 run (Clements kick)
Orange County 4 11:00 Waller 9 pass from Washington (Ferguson kick)
Briar Woods 4 9:11 Logan 59 run (Clements kick)
Briar Woods 4 6:36 #20 Joe Rizzardi 17 blocked punt return (Clements kick)

Team stats               OC         BW
First downs              15             18
Rushing yardage        51           414
Pass comp-at          2-31         2-6
Passing yardage       122          42
Pass td- int               1-2         0-2
Total plays                59           48
Total offense           173         456
Fumbles - lost         3-2         2-0
Penalties - yards     9-89       7-85
Def. sacks - yds lost 0-0       1-12
Time of possession 23:37      24:23
3rd down efficiency 5-12        2-6
4th down efficiency 1-1          0-1
Punts - average     6-25.0     1-40.0

Orange County
Rushing
#10 Amir Waller 7-42
#34 2-13
#22 Tyrone Ellis 6-7
#25 Isiah Ferguson 8-7
#1 Tyler Seal 1-(-1)
#5 Eric Washington 3-(-12)
Total: 28-51

Briar Woods
Rushing
#35 Michael Brownlee 17-217
#32 JT Logan 7-120
#1 Ryan Bumbray 6-21
#16 Anthony Frattali 1-19
#18 Blake Ratliff 3-10
#24 Cory Colder 2-9
#7 Trace McSorley 1-8
#10 Mark Leith 1-6
#2 Alex Carter 2-4
#66 Trei Germany 1-0
Total: 42-414

Orange
Passing
#5 Eric Washington 8-19-0 83
#10 Amir Waller 4-12-2 39
Total: 12-31-2 122

Briar Woods
Passing
Name Cmp Att Yds TD Int
#1 Ryan Bumbray 1-1-0 39
#7 Trace McSorley 1-4-1 3
#35 Michael Brownlee 0-1-1 0
Total: 2-6-2 42

Orange
Receiving
#80 Dillon Morrow 4-51
#1 Tyler Seal 3-31
#25 Isiah Ferguson 3-27
#10 Amir Waller 1-9
#14 Isiah Ferguson 1-4

Briar Woods
#39 DeVontae O'Bannion 1-39
#5 Scott Rolin 1-3