Eagles get their kicks

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo David S. Spence⁄The Gazette Running back Shawn Perry rushed 23 times for 114 yards and both of Seneca Valley’s touchdowns in a 14-7 win over arch-rival Northwest Friday. The win was the Screaming Eagles’ second straight over the defending Class 3A state champions. Click here to enlarge this photo David S. Spence⁄The Gazette Running back Anthony King led Northwest with 75 yards Friday but fumbled in the fourth quarter with the Jaguars clinging to a 7-6 lead, giving Seneca Valley possession at the Northwest 1-yard line. Three plays later (after getting moved back to the 16 because of a celebration penalty), Seneca Valley scored the game-winning touchdown on running back Shawn Perry’s 2-yard run.

In the final 12 1⁄2 minutes he unloaded three punts, totaling 151 yards, which kept Northwest deep in its own territory. The second of those, a 52-yarder, pinned the Jaguars at their own 1, setting up the Screaming Eagles’ winning touchdown in a sloppy, 14-7 win before an overflow crowd at Seneca Valley.

‘‘Field position is key,” said Seneca Valley head coach Fred Kim. ‘‘Coach [Terry] Changuris, I learned everything from him, always told me, ‘Play field position, play field position. Play great defense and play great field position.’ So having a great punter is a great weapon for us. He stepped it up tonight. He jammed them down in there and that makes all the difference in the world. When you’re pinned down there inside your own 5-yard line that’s big problems for an offense, because it takes you out of sync for what you want to do.”

The punt to the 1 came with 7 minutes, 36 seconds left to play, and with Northwest clinging to a 7-6 lead — Veith had missed an extra point in the first quarter after a Seneca touchdown. On the first play of the ensuing possession, Jaguars junior running back Anthony King fumbled and senior linebacker Christian Stahl recovered at the 1. Stahl was subsequently whistled for a celebration penalty and the ball was brought back out to the 16, but junior running back Shawn Perry (game-high 23 carries, 114 yards, 2 TDs) only needed three carries, the final one from two yards out to score the go-ahead points. Senior T.J. Radzilowski rumbled in with the 2-point conversion to make it a 14-7 game with 6:15 to play. Northwest had two more possessions in the game, but Veith made sure it didn’t have good field position. His 46-yard punt with 2:04 remaining forced the Jaguars to start at their own 29, 71 yards away from the end zone. They drove 46 yards before turning it over on downs at the Seneca 25 with 29 seconds left and the game was over.

‘‘This sends our confidence straight through the roof,” Veith said. ‘‘We feel we can win states after this win. They were a good team, but we’re better.”

There were some good moments in the game, but it was nothing like the last two Seneca-Northwest contests, which were classics, producing 142 points between them — 37-34 Northwest in 2003 and 36-35 Seneca last year. The contest was marred by turnovers, penalties and injuries to key players. Northwest had six penalties for 40 yards (all in the first quarter). The biggest erased an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by senior Abu Morlai. The Jaguars also committed four turnovers (two fumbles, two interceptions). The Eagles weren’t much better, committing eight penalties for 50 yards and losing three fumbles. Also, Northwest lost talented running back Chuck Burton (broken ankle) for the year on the first play of the season last week. Seneca tight end⁄defensive end Andre Smith (verbally committed to Virginia Tech) missed almost the whole game with a high ankle sprain.

‘‘It’s early and when you play a game early in the season of this magnitude, maybe there was a little bit of jitters,” said Northwest head coach Randy Trivers. ‘‘But when you talk about two complex offenses – Seneca runs some complex stuff, as we do – it takes a while to get into a groove, especially when you don’t have a whole lot of experience, as we do not have. Hopefully, we’ll keep working at it and hit our stride and put together some wins.”

After Peter Marratto muffed a punt at the Northwest 15, which Seneca recovered late in the first period, Perry scored an 8-yard run to give the Eagles a 6-0 lead (Veith’s extra-point attempt sailed wide left).

There was no scoring until late in the third period, when Marratto set up a short Jaguars’ scoring drive with a nifty 17-yard punt return. It took Northwest eight plays to go 29 yards, but finally on fourth down from the 1 senior Dexter Korto dove into the end zone for the Jaguars’ only touchdown. Morgan Cammack drilled the point after to give them a 7-6 edge. But the lead didn’t last, and Seneca Valley earned the right to be called the Kings of Germantown and to carry away the King’s Trophy (given to the annual winner of this game) for the second consecutive season. Seneca now leads the series, 4-3.

‘‘They’re our biggest rivals,” said Kim. ‘‘It used to be Gaithersburg, then it was Damascus but now it’s Northwest. They’re a great football team. They’re our next-door neighbors. We have kids that have played on the same football teams, that have grown up in the same neighborhoods. It’s personal, definitely. It’s kind of like playing your best friend one-on-one, you want to always kick his butt, and make sure you have bragging rights — that’s really what it’s all about.”

Notes: After rolling up over 1,000 yards of offense between them in last year’s tilt, the teams managed just 347 combined in this year’s game. ... On offense, Northwest was led by King’s 75 yards on 14 carries. On defense, Korto had a pair of sacks and forced a fumble. ... For Seneca, Aron McDonald and David Purvis both had interceptions.