South Lakes Trying To Contain Enthusiasm After Dominant Victory at Robinson

By BRIAN McNICOLL

It was clear from the postgame comments that South Lakes High football coach Jason Hescock’s message to his team after Friday night’s 24-7 victory over Robinson was to curb the enthusiasm and keep their heads down.

“We still have a lot to work on … getting lower, controlling the A gap,” said Aidan Hileman, a senior defensive lineman whose tackle for a 3-yard loss prevented Robinson from converting a key fourth down in the third quarter.

“We have work to do, but I believe in my defense,” said Chris Kishomoto, a senior defensive lineman who recovered a fumble to end a promising Robinson drive early in the fourth quarter.

“There’s so much for us to clean up,” said Hescock. “There’s a LOT of room for improvement.”

The concern is not misplaced. The Seahawks are so excited about their start that quarterback Christian Wyatt was doing full standing back flips on the track at Robinson after the game to the delight of the substantial student crowd that made the trip down to Fairfax.

Wyatt, who has gotten better every week, had plenty to celebrate. He threw for one touchdown, ran for another and accounted for 280 total yards. Dalton Blakeney had his second straight 100-yard game – 130 on 21 carries – and scored on a 30-yard run.

The South Lakes defense limited Robinson to 194 yards – 60 on one play – and didn’t allow a drive of more than six plays after the opening possession of the game.

“We feel like we’re just picking up the trash,” Kishomoto said. “Just whatever’s there, we take it.”

The result was a solid victory in which the Seahawks took control early and never looked back.

South Lakes scored on its second possession of the game on Wyatt’s 10-yard run up the middle, where he had to bulldoze his way in the final yard. It went to 14-0 less than three minutes later when South Lakes took advantage of good field position and scored on a 17-yard pass to Henry Strickland, who also had to overcome a hard hit at the goal line.

South Lakes went up 21-0 on Blakeney’s tough 30-yard run. “That was a big run for him,” Hescock said. “It was nice to see him leg one out like that. I suspect we’ll see many more of those.”

The Seahawks had a chance at a field goal late in the half following an interception by senior defensive back Labeed Zaib. But the 31-yard attempt barely missed, and settled for the three-touchdown lead at halftime.

South Lakes’ fast start put the Rams, who didn’t play in Week 1, on their heels. “We were able to get away with some stuff early on because of it,” Hescock said. “They will be a much better team as the season goes on.”

Robinson got its crowd back in the game with a 60-yard run on the second play after halftime and scored a play later from a yard out to make it 21-7.

But from then on, Robinson had one first down and 48 total yards. The Rams’ possessions ended on a punt, Kishomoto’s fumble recovery, a 14-yard loss after a bad shotgun snap by Robinson and the 3-yard loss inflicted by Hileman. “He dropped it and sort of fell on it, and I was disappointed because I really wanted to tackle him,” Hileman said.

The Rams couldn’t find ways to keep drives going, but the Seahawks could. They stayed ahead of the chains, facing only eight third-downs all night. Blakeney’s touchdown run was made possible by South Lakes converting a second-and-28 with a 16-yard pass to Zschunke and a 12-yard run by Wyatt. On another first-and-20, Wyatt hit Zschunke for 19. On a second-and-11 earlier in the drive, he hit Nick Picarelli for 22.

The formula was Picarelli in the flat to isolate against defenders and Zschunke over the middle. “We saw they brought up their linebackers up aggressively against the run, so we had Nate run just behind them and found a lot of open ground,” Hescock said.

The Seahawks, who improved to 2-0 and matched last year’s win total, travel to Haymarket next week to take on Battlefield, which is 2-0 this season and finished 11-1 in 2024.

South Lakes 0 21 0 3-24
Robinson 0 0 7 0-7
SL-Christian Wyatt, 10 run (Nicholas Bertoni kick)
SL-Henry Strickland, 17 pass from Wyatt (Bertoni kick)
SL-Dalton Blakeney, 30 run (Bertoni kick)
R-Garrett Simonsen, 1 run (Ethan Jacobs kick)
SL-Bertoni, FG 24

SL R
First Downs 15 8
Rushes-Yds 34-218 31-132
Pass Yds 203 62
Passes (A-C-I) 24-16-0 14-5-1
Punts-Avg. 3-27 4-34
Fumbles-Lost 0 2-1
Penalties-Yds 12-100 5-30

RUSHING – SL: Blakeney 21-130, Wyatt 10-62, Nick Picarelli 2-23, Riggins Legler 1-3. R: Simonsen 11-101, Tyler Cabrera 14-50, Tyler Nelson-Nicol 3-minus 19.
PASSING – SL: Wyatt 24-16-0, 203 yds., 1 TD. R: Nelson-Nicol 14-5-1, 62 yards.
RECEIVING – SL: Picarelli 5-88, Nate Zschunke 5-67, Blakeney 3-13, George Zarechnak 2-18, Strickland 1-17, 1 TD. R: Brockton Riley 2-49, Keagan Fitzgerald 1-8, Simonsen 1-7, Luke Riley 1-minus 2.