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CJ Jones and Joe Rankin combined to pace the Seneca Valley running game and bring the Screaming Eagles from behind.
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By Ryan Mink and Katherine Rocha
rmink@digitalsports.com

With Seneca Valley trailing Damascus by two touchdowns entering the fourth quarter of Friday’s 3A West semifinal, Eagles Coach Fred Kim simply asked for one thing.

Make it happen.

“We took it as an order,” Seneca Valley senior Joe Rankin said.

With that, Rankin and Seneca Valley charged back and held on in the final minutes to beat Damascus, 27-26, and keep its undefeated record intact and title chase alive.

The Eagles had lost five of their past six playoff games since winning the school’s 12th state championship in 2002. They will now advance to the 3A West finals where they will face Urbana.

“You can’t get any worse than that situation -- down two scores against a great football team,” Kim said. “I’m sure everyone thought we were dead in the water. … We just told our guys to ‘Fight, fight, fight. We still have plenty of football left.’ I’m just happy they didn’t give up and they stepped up.”

With Seneca Valley trailing, 26-15, entering the fourth quarter, Rankin set up a George Lerch 2-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown with a 7-yard run and then caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Lerch three minutes later for the game-winning score.

Damascus (7-4) of course put on the pressure on its final drive just one week after converting on three fourth downs in a game-winning drive against Paint Branch that vaulted the Hornets into the playoffs. Offensive coordinator Terry Changuris couldn’t even watch as he paced behind the bench and the rest of the Eagles’ nerves weren’t much better.

“I ain’t going to fake, I was real scared,” defensive tackle Reuben Vample said. “I told my whole team, ‘If you got my back, I’ve got your back.’”

Damascus sophomore quarterback Connor Frazier converted one fourth-and-long with a long scramble, but Vample recorded a key sack on the next series to stall Damascus. The ending played out much like the two teams’ earlier meeting when the Eagles came out with a 13-7 victory, but that was with Frazier injured and on the bench.

“We thought it was going to be a lot easier this week,” said Damascus running back Brian Lucas, who rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns. “This is hard. Last week we came back from behind in a real big finish. We were hoping to do that tonight.”

With usual running workhorse Jaiquan Moore limited, Eagles tailback CJ Jones picked up the slack. He rushed 18 times for 109 yards and notched the game's first touchdown with a 26-yard run. Seneca Valley went up 14-0 on a King Yassara 39-yard punt return for a touchdown.

But that's when Damascus came charging back. The Hornets up up 26 straight points behind a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown. Brian Lucas then bulled his way into the endzone on a 3-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the first half to make it 14-12.

Seneca Valley was stuffing players into the box to try to stop Lucas but on the third play of the second half he still busted through for a 76-yard touchdown to give Damascus its first lead at 20-14. Frazier then connected with Kane Brennamen, the big tight end who made the game-winning catch against Paint Branch, for an 11-yard touchdown to put the score at 26-14 with less than two minutes left in the third quarter.

"Brian Lucas, he's a [heck] of a player." Jones said. "I mean, he's a great player. You really can't stop him, you can only contain him. But when it came down to crunch time, our defense held it down for the win in the fourth quarter."

But first the Seneca Valley offense had to do its part. Lerch hit Dmitri Parker for a 58-yard gain to bring the Eagles to within one touchdown and the Seneca Valley defense held Damscus to a three-and-out on its next drive. Seneca Valley faced a third and five from the Damascus 25 when Lerch hit Rankin in the flats for the game-winning touchdown.

"We were just waiting for the right opportunity to go in there and make a play," the ever-cool Rankin said. "When times were getting hard I knew my team was going to be there to back me up."

Following the win, Kim gathered his team around and said that maybe this come-from-behind, improbable win meant something, that maybe it was a sign that the Eagles are destined to reach the 3A state finals.

And after sweating out this win over an arch-rival, his players believed it.

"If we can pull something out like this we can do anything," Lerch said. "We can go all the way to states."


BOX SCORE

Seneca Valley 27, Damascus 26

Line Score:
Damascus           0     12     14    0   -  26
Seneca Valley     7       7       0    13 -  27

Scoring Summary:
Q1 - SV - Jones run 26 (Black kick)
Q2 - SV - Yassara punt return 39 (Black kick)
Q2 - D - Lee interception return 35 (kick fail)
Q2 - D - Lucas run 3 (pass fail)
Q3 - D - Lucas run 76 (Lucas run)
Q3 - D - Brenneman pass 11 from Frazier (run fail)
Q4 - SV - Lerch run 2 (Black kick)
Q4 - SV - Rankin pass 25 from Lerch (pass fail)

Stat Leaders:
Rushing: D - Brian Lucas 21-121; SV - CJ Jones 18-109, Joe Rankin 7-75
Passing: D - Connor Frazier 10-25-0 83; George Lerch 5-12-1 99
Receiving: D - Kane Brenneman 3-28, Marc Magas 2-19; SV Dimitri Parker 1-58, Joe Rankin 3-37