South Lakes Looks To Take Big Step Up With Journey To Battlefield

By BRIAN McNICOLL

There’s no painful loss to avenge this week for the South Lakes High football team.

Unlike the last two weeks, when South Lakes avenged a playoff loss with a victory over Yorktown and a devastating regular season loss last year to Robinson, the Seahawks have no real history with this week’s opponent – the Battlefield Bobcats.

But the game Friday at 7 in Haymarket gives South Lakes a chance to get on the regional and even state map as a contender in 6A. Battlefield went 11-1 last year and reached the second round of the playoffs, and the Bobcats are the second-highest ranked public school in the entire DC area.

Even with a 2-0 start, South Lakes has yet to capture any such attention. A victory Friday night would change that abruptly.

It won’t be easy. The Bobcats bring in a seasoned defense, a breakaway wideout, Keton Ramey, who had a career-high 170 yards receiving in Battlefield’s 35-7 victory over Mountain View, a team it narrowly beat the year before. Running back Ty Brown added 116 yards on just 11 carries, and a freshman back, had 105 on 11.

“It’s wing-T. It’s physical downhill football with a good passing game to compliment it,” said South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock. “They’re good. They’re used to winning. They expect to win. We have to take the air out of their sails quickly.”

That’s what South Lakes did last week, scoring touchdowns on its second, third and fourth possessions of the game to pull away for a 24-7 victory. One of the drives consisted of two pass plays, but the others were long, determined marches that featured both the pass and run – the kind of balance Hescock said is necessary for his team to succeed.

From then on, other than a 60-yard run on the second play of the second half, South Lakes’ defense kept the Rams at bay, holding them to 67 total yards.

Asked which players had particularly good weeks of practice, Hescock pointed to a number on both sides of the ball who will be critical to success on Friday night. Milo Wilkins, Jose Velazquez up front, linebackers Colin Wall and Logan Leger, and quarterback Christian Wyatt, wide receiver/kick returner Nick Picarelli and wide receiver George Zarechnak.

Wyatt is 33 of 47 so far for 396 yards and three touchdowns. Picarelli has 10 catches for 123 yards, and Zarechnak has six for 97 yards, including the game-winner against Yorktown.

Also working in South Lakes’ favor is this is Game 3, and that’s the game when Hescock says his teams commonly have the scheme down and are ready to perform. It won’t be easy. “They have great defensive backs, great linebackers, good athletes all over the field,” Hescock said.

But it does help that the Seahawks have had some early success. “This is the point where we should be perfecting our craft,” Hescock said. “In high school it’s all about confidence. It’s not the name on the jersey, it’s the dude inside the jersey that you’re actually playing. That’s what we’ve been focused on – the dude inside the jersey.”