No. 3 Game of 2008
Defending state champion Westfield (7-0) traveled to Herndon (5-2) for the Hornets’ Homecoming game, which the Bulldogs had spoiled each of the previous two seasons.
In fact, Westfield had won seven consecutive games in this series — by a combined 220-26 margin, including four shutouts — and won 65 of its last 67 regular-season games overall, dating back to 2001. The Bulldogs entered with a 22-game winning streak, at the time the longest in the Virginia High School League.
But the Hornets had already equaled their previous season’s win total and were starting to open eyes around the Northern Region.
On the second play of the game, Herndon took an immediate lead on a 60-yard flea-flicker touchdown pass from junior Zack Ozycz to senior Zach Leach. Westfield, though, scored the next 15 points and appeared to have the closer-than-anticipated win well within its grasp.
However, with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, Leach tallied his third interception to give the Hornets possession in Bulldog territory. Eight plays later, Ozycz dove over the pile for a game-tying one-yard plunge to force overtime.
Both teams scored touchdowns in the first extra period — and converted their PATs — making the score 22-22.
But, after Ozycz found junior wide receiver Nick Impellizzeri on the Herndon possession of the second overtime, Westfield junior quarterback Danny Fenyak pulled his team within one point with a one-yard dive when the Bulldogs took possession.
Visiting Westfield, though, elected to go for two points and the win, rather than take the extra point.
The Hornets batted down the would-be-game-winning pass and a sea of red and black stormed the field to celebrate the streak-snapping, 29-28, double-overtime win.
The VHSL added a measure of intrigue when drawing up the schedule this year. Herndon travels to Westfield for both teams’ season finale on Nov. 6.
**CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE TOP 10 COUNTDOWN**
By Angela Watts
Assistant General Manager, Washington D.C.
**
Click the links above the video to find a complete photo gallery from
Herndon’s Homecoming festivities as well as post-game celebration
footage and video interviews with Hornet juniors Sam Groter and Zack
Ozycz and senior Zach Leach.
Full video highlights from the dramatic,
double-overtime game are HERE.
Third-year Herndon head coach Joe Sheaffer
said he has figured out the right formula for his team to find success,
and he’s been preaching it to them day-after-day and
practice-after-practice.
It’s a simple notion, really: Forty-eight minutes of hard work.
Only,
it was proved dead wrong when Herndon hosted defending Division 6 state
champion Westfield on a beautiful Homecoming afternoon on Saturday.
That’s because it took the seventh-ranked Hornets 48 minutes of hard work — and two
gut-wrenching overtime sessions — to seal their dramatic, 29-28
come-from-behind victory over the fourth-ranked Bulldogs.
The win
snapped Westfield’s 22-game win streak, the longest current steak among
Virginia High School League teams. The Bulldogs entered the contest
having won a remarkable 65 of its past 67 regular-season games.
“We
talked all week about how we’ve got a simple formula of 48 minutes of
work and I looked at our kids and said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do a little
extra now,’ ” Sheaffer said of his pre-overtime talk with the players.
“But I said, ‘Don’t surrender. You’ve put yourselves in this situation.
Don’t give up. Keep playing hard. We don’t have any reason to be down.
Just keep playing them hard and let’s see what happens.'”
What
happened was that, after being tied at 15 at the end of regulation, the
two squads founds themselves locked again at 22 after the first
overtime.
Westfield scored first in the extra session on a 6-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Danny Fenyak to senior wide receiver Cole McInturff on third-down-and-goal and added an extra point off the foot of junior A.V. Lawless. Herndon countered on its first play of overtime with a 10-yard scoring run by junior fullback Sam Groter on first down, and junior Joe Eftekhari added the point-after to send the game into double overtime.
This time it was the Hornets who went on offense first, using three plays to score on a 2-yard touchdown pass from junior Zack Ozycz to his favorite target on the day, junior wide receiver Nick Impellizzeri.
Sheaffer again elected to kick the point-after attempt, and Eftekhari’s
attempt sailed through the uprights to give Herndon a 29-22 lead.
But Westfield went back on the offensive, and a quick, nine-yard pass from Fenyak to senior Scott McAlister was
followed by a 1-yard touchdown run by Fenyak that pulled the Bulldogs
within 29-28 with the extra-point pending. Instead of kicking, however,
storied Westfield Coach Tom Verbanic elected to go for the two-point conversion — and the win — on the road.
“It
was time to go home,” Verbanic teased when asked why he opted to go for
two. “No, it just felt like the right thing to do. Sometimes you go
with your gut.”
But Fenyak’s two-point conversion attempt was
tipped and fell short, igniting a wild on-field celebration that left
the red-and-black clad fans pouring out of the stands and onto the
field to share hugs, high-fives and even a few tears of joy with the
Hornets players. Herndon had lost its previous seven games against
Westfield, being outscored by a whopping 220-26 margin.
Now,
though, the Hornets find themselves not only with a home playoff game
in sight, but with hopes of a Concorde District championship still
alive, too.
“You kind of play this stuff in your head how you
want it to go … but it was a little more dramatic than I had
expected,” Sheaffer said. “But that’s what you’ve got to do when you
play Westfield. You’ve got to believe you can win and you’ve got to
play to win, and that’s what our kids bought into all week.
“This
is obviously my best victory as a head coach, but it’s got to be right
up there [all-time for Herndon]. And for Homecoming, it may be the best
and I’ve been here 23 years. It’s gotta be the best. It was a great
crowd, a great day, a great opponent … and our kids played great. We
kind of talked about that all week how big of a game this would be if
we were to win the game … it’s definitely one of the biggest ever, I
can tell ya.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
No. 4 Westfield 7 2 6 0 (7) (6) — 28
No. 7 Herndon 7 0 0 8 (7) (7) — 29
Scoring Summary
1Q — HN — Leach 60 pass from Ozycz (Eftekhari kick)
1Q — WF — Doty 42 block punt return (Lawless kick)
2Q — WF — Tackled runner in end zone for safety
3Q — WF — Anderson 68 run (kick failed)
4Q — HN — Ozycz 1 run (Impellizzeri pass from Ozycz)
1OT — WF — McInturff 6 pass from Fenyak (Lawless kick)
1OT — HN — Groter 10 run (Eftekhari kick)
2OT — HN — Impellizzeri 2 pass from Ozycz (Eftekhari kick)
2OT — WF — Fenyak 1 run (pass failed)
Individual Leaders
Passing
WF — Fenyak 14-of-21 passing, 112 yards, 3 INTs; HN — Ozycz 15-of-25 passing, 180 yards, 2 TDs, INT.
Rushing
WF — Anderson 20 carries, 145 yards, TD; Jackson 2 carries, 9 yards; Fenyak 2 carries, 2 yards, TD; HN — Groter 15 carries, 71 yards, TD; Ozycz 9 carries, 26 yards, TD; Johnson 7 carries, 20 yards; Leach 6 carries, 18 yards.
Receiving
WF — McInturff
3 recpetions, TD; Sargent 3 receptions, 28 yards; Jackson 3 receptions,
14 yards; McAlister 2 receptions, 12 yards; Anderson 2 receptions, 4
yards; Jewell 1 reception 16 yards; HN —
Impellizzeri 7 receptions, 63 yards, TD; Leach 2 receptions, 64 yards,
TD; Totow 3 receptions, 29 yards; Stewart 2 receptions, 17 yards,
Johnson 1 reception, 7 yards.
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