By Angela Watts
Assistant General Manager, Washington D.C.
** Click the links to the left, above the video, to find a full photo gallery as well as interviews with Mount Vernon seniors Robert Coleman and Brian Green and dozens more video highlights from Friday’s game.
For four years now, Mount Vernon Coach Thomas Glynn has talked to his players about being part a building process. He told them it would be slow — and sometimes even painful.
But he also promised them that if they worked hard and believed in the program, it would work.
And after Friday night’s 17-10 victory over visiting Washington-Lee in the quarterfinal round of the Northern Region Division 5 playoffs, it was the players who were dispensing the words of wisdom.
“Don’t get too happy, Coach,” senior linebacker Kyle Ricks said amidst the celebration — which included an impromptu team dance to the sounds of the Majors’ band. “We ain’t done yet.”
No, indeed, they are not.
With the victory Mount Vernon (9-2 overall) earns a semifinal date with defending Division 5 state champion and top-ranked Stone Bridge (11-0) next Friday in Ashburn.
And that is exactly what the Majors wanted.
Two years ag,o Mount Vernon narrowly missed the playoffs. Last year, with the newly-expanded eight-team format, the Majors qualified at the five seed for the first time since 2001 but was promptly eliminated by fourth-seeded Marshall, 35-14, in the quarterfinal round. So this year’s goal was different.
Making the playoffs was no longer enough. Mount Vernon wanted to win in the playoffs and advance.
“Things have come a long way for this team and, really, for this program,” Glynn said. “It’s the continued incremental building that we wanted to do. Last year we went to the playoffs, but we just weren’t quite ready mentally to play that kind of game. This year was different. We wanted to start fast and keep it going throughout the season and with a win in the playoffs … and that’s exactly what we did.”
But Washington-Lee, in its first playoff appearance in recent memory, certainly did not make it easy for Mount Vernon. Trailing 10-0 at half time, the Generals (5-6) scored first on a 72-yard touchdown pass from senior standout Charles Fuller to junior Karl Lendenmann, who made one quick move, broke a tackle and then burst free for the long scoring play. Washington-Lee then knotted the score at 10 with 4 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard field goal by junior Chris Almquist.
The Majors, though, showed no signs of panic. Sophomore Emmanual Tackie, who was moved up from the junior varsity team and portrayed Fuller in scout team drills all week, returned the ensuing kickoff into General territory and was awarded 15 more yards for being brought down by his face mask. That set the Majors up at the Washington-Lee 28-yard line.
Two big runs later — one each by Ricks (17 carries, 80 yards) and senior Robert Coleman (12 carries, 57 yards, touchdown)– and the Majors were on the doorstep of victory.
“Really, it was the defense that started it by holding them and forcing a field goal,” Glynn said. “That was big. Now that gave us an opportunity with the kickoff return. We had a real nice run back and then two big runs, and all of the sudden we’re down by the goal line. And now our kids could sniff it.
“So we just wanted to let them get in there and find it.”
Mount Vernon senior quarterback Brian Green, who scored himself on a 60-yard run in the first quarter, this time handed off to Coleman, who went through a huge hole in the left side created by the offensive line and eased into the end zone with 2:22 remaining.
“The lineman said they were blocking to the whistle, so we were like, ‘We’re running behind you,'” said Green, who led the Majors with 110 yards rushing and a touchdown on 11 carries . “I knew Robert was going to score as soon as he touched the ball. He told me … he was going to get in that end zone for me so we could win the game.”
Majors’ junior defensive back Sean Stewart then forced a fumble on the Generals’ final drive to seal the victory.
But now, the task becomes significantly tougher against the undefeated Bulldogs. Stone Bridge has not only won its first 11 games by an incredible average of 42.6 points per game, but also is remarkably stout against the run — which is the Majors’ strength offensively.
Five of Stone Bridge’s front seven defensively have already committed to playing Division I football next year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and in their quarterfinal game against Thomas Jefferson the Bulldogs held the Colonials to minus-89 yards rushing on 16 attempts, an average of minus-5.6 yards per carry.
“They have an oustanding football program up there,” Glynn said of Stone Bridge. “They won the state championship last year and are just rolling through everybody this year. But we’ll go up there and do our best. I think the kids believe that we’re going to have a shot. I mean, hey, we’ll go up there and have just as much of a shot as W-L had against us, right? It’s not like we’re little. If they’ve got anybody bigger than [6-feet-4, 310-pound senior lineman Zach] Quigley then I’d be worried … but I haven’t seen that.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
Washington-Lee 0 0 7 3 — 10
No. 8 Mount Vernon 10 0 0 7 — 17
Scoring Summary
1Q — MV — Amerau 31 field goal
1Q — MV — Green 60 run (Amerau kick)
3Q — WL — Lendenmann 72 pass Fuller (Almquist kick)
4Q — WL — Almquist 22 field goal
4Q — MV — Coleman 5 run (Amerau kick)
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