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Park View blanks Western

Western Albemarle’s explosive offense had Park View’s coaching staff scared, but against the Patriots’ nickel defense and with two-way star Brandon Lee leading the way, coach Andy Hill apparently didn’t have to worry.

“We went up 14-0 and we’re supposed to feel good about that except I watched Orange County (on tape against Western) get up 14-0 and then get destroyed for the next 45 minutes of the game,” Hill said. “About three minutes left, I started thinking I don’t think they can score five times, but up until then we were kind of on edge.”

A week after torching Skyline for 46 points in the regional quarterfinals, Western ground to a halt again against the Patriots on the road and fell 35-0 to a talented Park View squad in the Region II, Division 3 final.

Park View kicked things off with a 63-yard touchdown on a basic counter play that running back Tommy Sedeski broke for the monster gain. The Patriots followed with a series of game-changing plays in the first half that led to a 35-0 lead at the break, with Lee sparking the run.

“They had a lot of weapons,” said Ed Pierce. “They game-planned very well — they were very well prepared for what we did.”

Lee, a 6-foot-1 senior and the Dulles District’s Division 3 offensive player of the year, ripped off a 55-yard run on Park View’s third drive that set up a 1-yard touchdown plunge. On the Patriots’ next drive he found wideout J.R. Shooks down the left side of the field on a jump ball that went for 67 yards and a touchdown.

Park View set up its next drive with an interception by Shooks on the 1-yardline after Western drove all the way to the Park View five. But the Western defense forced a fourth and seven with the Patriots kicking out of the back of their endzone. Park View faked the punt in a highly unorthodox move that worked as it picked up a first down with Ben Pick tossing the ball to Lee for the conversion.

“I didn’t want to get a punt block for a touchdown,” Hill said. “We put it in this week and we won’t run it again because everybody is going to be sitting on it.”

Lee found Nathan Santana for a 71-yard catch and run to cap that drive. That gave the Patriots 256 yards of total offense on just four plays before the break.

But it was Lee’s performance on defense that stood out as he locked up with Western’s top wideout Dom Losco all night and came up with an interception.

“He’s a freak—there’s a chance we might see Brandon play in the NFL someday,” Hill said. “He’s still learning how to play in space…he’s a monster.”

Western’s offense and defense both had frustrating starts with Sedeski’s sprint off the counter starting the defense’s night and a fumble that lost 12 yards starting the offense’s outing. The Warriors never seemed to recover. Each time they moved into Park View’s territory, costly turnovers cut the Warriors short, including a pair of redzone turnovers early in the third quarter, one on downs and another an interception.

Western quarterback Stephen Schuler was on the run, and made several spectacular plays on long scrambles in the backfield, but the senior struggled to find the same rhythm the Warriors had a week ago in the regional quarterfinals.

Losco played through a shoulder injury suffered against Skyline and managed several solid runs despite the offense’s struggles and the fact that Lee, an outside linebacker, was blanketing him in the slot the entire night.

“He probably shouldn’t have been out there but he wanted to play so badly that he was going to go out there regardless,” Pierce said. “He had limited mobility and a lot of pain but he gutted through all of that.”

Western’s loaded senior class’ run comes to an end with the loss.

“I will for the rest of my life be amazed at what this group of young men accomplished because they shouldn’t have done it—everything on paper will say they should not have been able to accomplish what they did,” Pierce said. “We could not be more proud of these guys.”

Park View takes on the Goochland/Handley winner in the regional final.

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