South Lakes Football To Open With a Chance to Avenge a Tragic Loss

By BRIAN McNICOLL

Last season, South Lakes High’s football team went 2-8 and lost four games because they could not stop power-based running attacks at key times in the game.

Two of those losses were decisive – to Herndon and Centreville, which uncorked a 28-point third quarter on the Seahawks to win 31-21. Two others – to Chantilly and Oakton – were decided on the final play by a combined three points.;

This year, South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock wants his team to be the one dishing out misery at the goal line at the ends of games. He has a running back in Dalton Blakeney who is physical and determined, a quarterback in Christian Wyatt who is speedy and spirited – “he has that fire like Drew Brees and Brett Favre,” Hescock said – and an offensive line led by Chris Kishimoto, a 5-11, 250-pound guard who runs a 4.9 40-yard dash.

That means South Lakes’s running attack will look more like an attack and less like trickeration when the season gets under way Thursday night at home against Yorktown.

The offensive line led by Kishimoto, Kamrann Choudhry, senior Matthew Cruz and Milo Wilkins, with Nate Zschunke at tight end, willl lead an attack that is both more smashmouth and more about short-range accuracy in the passing game than the longer passes of last year.

“Christian’s a different kind of thrower,” Hescock said of his junior quarterback. “He’s more nickel and dime, but he can beat you with his feet. He just needs to get adjusted to the faster speed of the varsity game.”

Blakeney, who gained 135 yards on 25 carries in spot duty last year, no longer pulls double duty as a linebacker so he can endure the punishment of what Hescock said may be 20-25 carries per game or more. Scrimmages afford teams the opportunity to see most of their players in action, but in South Lakes’s last scrimmage, Blakeney got nearly all the carries as the coaches worked to get him geared up for a punishing season.

South Lakes won’t be without threats on the outside. Zschunke caught a 36-yard touchdown pass down the middle in the scrimmage against Hayfield, and Nic Picarelli, who had a school-record 98-yard TD catch last season, is back at wide receiver and kick returner, where he was one of the Concorde District’s best in 2025. Henry Strickland also has had a good camp and is expected to contribute at wide receiver.

Defensively, Hescock is excited about the Legler brothers – senior middle linebacker Logan and younger brother Riggins, who could see action at tight end, linebacker or running back. He said Logan leads the key middle layer in a unit that features Kishimoto up front and Cameron Soto in the back.

Hescock of course has no problem getting motivated for the first opponent. His best season at South Lakes – a 10-0 romp through the powerful Concorde District – ended in frustrating fashion with a 7-6 loss to Yorktown in the first round of the regional playoffs in 2023. A memorably talented class with legitimate region title dreams was done after one tragic game.

Hescock said the Yorktown matchup was originally to be South Lakes’s second game, but a scheduling snafu caused it to be moved to the first game. He approved of this because he can’t wait to get after it.

He said only Blakeney, who started as a sophomore in place of injured running back Isaac Copeland, and Kishimoto played much in that game in 2023. But he has reminded the rest what happened that night and the opportunity it presents.

“Let’s just say I’ve had this game circled on my calendar for a long time,” Hescock said. “We’re excited. I told the team it’s not often you get to go make something right in the universe, but this is your chance.”