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(Oct. 29, 2011) - Tuscarora High School trailed for the first three quarters Friday night against a determined Woodgrove squad, including a 12-point deficit in the second quarter, before riding senior Cameron Molina's four rushing touchdowns to a 43-28 Dulles District comeback win.
Both the Huskies and Wolverines football programs are in their second seasons but Tuscarora is bound for the playoffs with a 8-1 record and hopes of a share of the district title. The Huskies (6-1 in district) need to beat Leesburg neighbor Heritage (5-2, 6-3) next Friday and hope that Loudoun County (6-1, 8-1) can knock off Briar Woods (7-0, 8-1). In that scenario, Briar Woods, Loudoun County and Tuscarora would finish as tri-champs.
Woodgrove (1-6, 3-6) opened the year with two non-district wins but has dropped six of the next seven, but for most of Friday night the Wolverines, behind the running of Josh Sweet, who had three touchdown runs, were poised for the upset.
Molina rushed for 156 yards on 25 carries and scored on TD runs of 2, 4, 12 and 10 yards.
Tuscarora sophomore quarterback Chad Carrera was an efficient 6 of 8 for 125 yards, including a 47-yard pass to senior Alden Carpenter. The big-play Carpenter also picked off a ball went 70 yards for the game's final score.
For Tuscarora, which averages 26.3 points per game, the 43 points was more than the Huskies scored combined in their previous two wins over Dominion (27-7) and Park View (13-9).
After Tuscarora led early on an early 29-yard field goal by Chris Miller, Woodgrove went ahead on a long Sweet TD run with 4:53 left in the first. Woodgrove extended that lead to 14-3 with 9:06 left before half on a Tyler Workman TD run.
The two teams had plenty of scoring left to do in the first half as Tuscarora cut the lead to 14-10 on Molina's first TD with 6:50 left. Woodgrove came back with another Sweet score and a two-point conversion game them their biggest lead of the night, 22-10, with 2:25 left before half.
Tuscarora cut into that margin before the break as Molina scored and tacked on a 2-point conversion with 43 seconds left in the second, making it 22-18.
Tuscarora finally got the lead back with Molina's third TD with 9:38 left in the third but Woodgrove would not go away, as Sweet broke off a long TD run on a 4th down play to make it, 28-24, Woodgrove with 5:41 left in the third.
The Huskies took control just inside the final quarter as Carrerra found Carpenter for a TD pass with 11:50 left. That put Tuscarora up, 30-28, and that lead was stretched with 7:32 to go on Molina's final score. Carpenter put the exclamation point on the win for the Huskies with a "Pick Six" with 50 seconds left.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
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This game was a battle of Woodgrove's "Big and Strong" vs. Tuscarora's "Fast.” Depth was Woodgrove’s undoing as the game wore on into the 4th quarter.
ReplyDeleteWoodgrove’s “big and strong” five man d-line outweighed Tuscarora’s o-line by roughly 200 lbs. After a quick march to the Wolverine 5, the d-line stopped two Molina attempts up the middle, followed by a sack of Carrera by Matthew Reed (aided by tight coverage of Carpenter by Caleb Welsh) forcing the Huskies to settle for a field goal.
On offense, the 300 pound advantage meant the Wolverines owned the line of scrimmage securing a solid running and passing game. Woodgrove's 290lb right tackle Dylan O’Connor, and 309lb center Daniel Wehr stood out early as they sprung a hole for Sweet’s 75 yard TD run right up the middle.
The strength of the Wolverine’s d-line was again shown in the next Husky drive when they held up the running back so that the ball could be stripped.
From the Husky 9, a pulling Riley Johnson helped Sweet get down to the one. Husky defensive substitutions brought in a larger d-line which held on Workman’s first QB keeper, but couldn’t hold a second time making the score, after the PAT, 14-3.
Sophomore kicker Andrew Harper used a squib kick all game. The bouncing ball proved difficult to handle by the Husky return team – but more importantly kept the ball out of the hands of Molina. Molina finally got a hold of one kick and returned it 64 yards to the Wolverine 10 and scored three plays later.
The Huskies tried their first trick of the night with an on side kick that appeared from both stands like it was successful. A referee disagreed, giving Woodgrove the ball on the Husky 48. Then the lack of depth at Woodgrove started to show its ugly head. While Tuscarora was able to bring in fresh legs on the d-line, the Wolverine o-line were unable to get the same push. That meant that RB Sweet and blocking back Reed had to carry the load. Which they did. Bruising runs brought the ball to the Husky five when Reed and pulling left guard Stephen Root made a clear path for Sweet, leaving Sweet to make it past the final two Huskies on his own to make the score 22 to 10.
On the next Husky drive, Jonathan Sarty intercepted Carrera’s pass sealing the win for the Wolverines. That is the way it would have gone if not for a roughing-the-passer penalty. Steady runs by Molina and his two point add on made the score 22 to 18.
With a tiring o-line unable to keep the running game going, the Wolverines tried their hand with trickery with a fake punt from their own 30. A successful 20 yard pass to Reed, however, was called back by a procedure penalty with an unsportsmanlike call pushing the ball back to the Woodgrove 10.
After a real punt, the fresher Tuscarora o-line pulled and trapped a steady diet of Molina down to the Wolverine 10 yard line. Left tackle Evan Cowling and left guard Adarsh Grewal opened a large hole to enable blocking back Chris Holoman to make the final blocks before Molina scored, giving Tuscarora the 24-22 lead.
The Wolverines were able to score one last time on a drive that mixed up pass and run, capped with a Sweet 31 yard TD run on 4th and 1. Even with a following interception, the Wolverines were unable to move the ball much in the 4th quarter – leaving the Husky offense to score and score again.
Tuscarora is bound for the play offs and has had a phenomenal second year.
Woodgrove, on the other hand, has had a rougher time – and this game showed their lack of depth as several players played both sides. The lack of depth also prevents the players from playing only their strength – offense or defense.
With both schools opening the same year, the Woodgrove Tuscarora rivalry will be here for quite some time.
I’m sure the headlines heading into next week will be about Tuscarora vying for the Leesburg crown. But, if I wanted to see a better game, I’d be at Valley watching the “Battle of the Ville.”