Late Touchdown Lets South Lakes Celebrate Homecoming Victory Over Oakton

By BRIAN McNICOLL

South Lakes High’s Christian Wyatt said he had to do a little coaching at halftime of Friday night in the Seahawks’ homecoming game battle with Oakton.

“Just getting a few peoples’ minds right … making sure people were in football mode.”

The Seahawks were pretty good once they got into football mode. South Lakes got off the mat from a slow first half, gave up a late score, then overcame with a 1-yard touchdown run by Dalton Blakeney with 29 seconds left to defeat the Cougars, 24-21, in the Concorde District opener for both teams.

Blakeney scored both of the Seahawks’ touchdowns on one-yard runs and finished with 22 carries for 82 yards as South Lakes improved to 4-2 overall, 1-0 in the district, and ended a five-game losing streak against Concorde opponents.. He leads South Lakes with 10 touchdowns on the season.

Nick Bertoni kicked field goals of 33, 22 and 23 yards and is now 8-of-11 on field goals this season, 5-of-5 the last two weeks.

But it all would have been for naught if South Lakes hadn’t gotten into not just football mode but Seahawk football mode. The Seahawks are at their best offensively when they can hit a successful play early in a possession then quicken the tempo

After a slow first half in which Oakton managed a touchdown drive late in the second quarter, then South Lakes dinked-and-dunked its way downfield to a Bertoni field goal with four seconds left to make it 8-3, the Seahawks were ready to got moving on their terms.

But things didn’t start out too well. The Seahawks blew a coverage on the first two plays after halftime, and Oakton’s Jack Martin hit all-purpose back Deylen Jones for a 49-yard touchdown to make it 14-3.

On the ensuing possession, the pattern that would characterize the rest of the game began to take shape. Blakeney gained six yards on first down, then Wyatt 10 yards the next play, then Blakeney four more – all in rapid succession. Then a 10-yard pass to Josh Dagbe, a sophomore who led the Seahawks in receiving with six catches for 91 yards.

South Lakes ended up with only a field goal there when Coach Jason Hescock decided not to go for a 4th-and-5 – “We wanted to take the points,” he said – and South Lakes closed to within 14-6.

The next possession was more of the same. After two unsuccessful plays, a 13-yard scramble for a first down by Wyatt, followed two plays later by a 28-yard completion from Nick Picarelli to Dagbe on a halfback pass, then tempo again. Five plays later, Blakeney banged in from a yard out and the game was tied with 13 seconds left in the third quarter.

Yet another tempo drive, this one keyed by a 15-yard completion to Dagbe on a third-and-8, reached the Oakton six before Bertoni had to add a third field goal on the day to give South Lakes its first lead of the game at 17-14 with 5:35 left in the game.

Then it was Oakton’s turn to try to spoil the homecoming celebration. Martin, a junior who threw for four touchdowns against South Lakes in the 48-47 overtime victory for Oakton last year, found his groove. He scrambled for 15, hit Jones for 15, then ran for 11 and hit Preston Schwartz for 40 yards down to the South Lakes 4. Two plays later, Martin hit Jones on a fade in the corner of the end zone to put Oakton back up 21-17 with 1:30 to go in the game.

South Lakes has three times asked its offense to score late to save a game, and the offense responded with touchdowns all three previous times, including both of the games South Lakes lost. The Seahawks were asked again, and again they produced.

Wyatt hit Dagbe for 19 yards down to the Oakton 33. He then scrambled for seven and hit Dagbe again for 19 down to the seven. This time the Seahawks would not stall. Blakeney gained two, then Wyatt gained four down to the one, before Blakeney got in with the game-winner.

Wyatt thought he got in on his run. “I didn’t really see what happened to me after I got hit, but I had both feet in the end zone and the ball was across the line,” he said.

The Seahawks led 24-21, but there were 29 seconds left and they had to kickoff. “Did I have flashbacks? Oh heck yeah,” said South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock, whose team lost one game on a kickoff return with nine seconds left and another on a 49-yard field goal with six seconds left.

But this time it was not to be. Martin missed on his first pass but hit on his second, but the Seahawks corralled Jones, the receiver, as time ran out.

The South Lakes defense limited Oakton to 246 total yards, just 31 on the ground – its lowest total allowed all season.

“We won the battle of field position just about the whole game,” Hescock said. “We got a lot of contributions.”

Oakton` 0 8 6 7 - 21
South Lakes 0 3 11 10 - 24
O-Daylen Jones, 29 pass from Jack Martin (Timothy Volciak pass from Martin)
SL-Nicholas Bertoni, FG 33
O-Jones, 49 pass from Martin (kick blocked)
SL-Bertoni, FG 22
SL-Dalton Blakeney, 1 run (Christian Wyatt run)
SL-Bertoni, FG 23
O-Jones, 5 pass from Martin (Marco Ruiz kick)
SL-Blakeney, 1 run (Bertoni kick)

Oakton South Lakes
First Downs 11 17
Rushes-Yards 20-31 42-178
Passing Yards 215 169
Passes (A-C-I) 27-18-0 26-17-0
Punts-Avg. 2-35.5 4-20.1
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 0
Penalties-Yds 5-55 5-60

Rushing – Oakton: Martin 8-28, Jones 5-11, Preston Schwartz 2-3, Collin Henriques 2-minus 9, Isaiah Coleman 2-0, Zachary Amani 1-0. South Lakes: Blakeney 22-82, Wyatt 15-74, Nick Picarelli 4-11, George Zarechnak 1-11.
Passing – Oakton: Martin 27-18-0, 215 yards, 3 TDs. South Lakes: Wyatt 25-16-0, 141 yards. Picarelli 1-10, 28 yards.
Receiving – Oakton: Jones 9-143, 3 TDs; Volciak 3-22, Schwartz 3-52, Valentin Deiray 2-6. South Lakes: Picarelli 6-45,Nate Zschunke 2-12, Josh Dagbe 6-91, Henry Strickland 3-26.