THE HUDDLE - Dulles Crown Starting To Slip?
The Potomac Falls Panthers and Broad Run Spartans are on a collision course to do battle over the Dulles District crown on October 24th. Both teams are 6-0 after this week, and should still be unblemished when they meet in Ashburn...
Broad Run senior QB Chris Jessop is the leader of a Spartan team that hasn't lost a regular season game in 2 seasons. The Spartans are trying to repaet as Dulles district champions.
Photo By Marc Gold \ Gameday Magazine
Junior WR Tarrell Owens is emerging as one of the top pass catchers in the District. Teamed with fellow recievers Chad McMichael and Chris Pelto, the Panther passing game is flourishing...
STERLING, VA - With Week 6 now in the books in the Dulles District race, the 2 teams that were undefeated going into last weekend's action remained untarnished. But from my vantage point, after watching both teams play the past 2 weeks, the records are the only thing that is untarnished. Don't look now, but that shiny crown that used to sit firmly on top of the collective heads of the Broad Run Spartans is starting to discolor, and slip off maybe just a bit!
First, let's study the challenger...the Potomac Falls Panthers. I have become increasingly convinced from week to week that the Panthers are for real this season. I admit that I was like many who were just sitting back, and waiting to see the Potomac Falls program implode...either by key injuries along the way, or by simply underachieving, and letting historically high strung emotions get the better of them in big games. But this has not been the case, nor does it look like it will ever happen. This team has a cohesiveness that I have not seen from the program in years. They fight for each other, instead of themselves. Plus they continue to punch adversity in the mouth, and roll through the opposition impressively. Take this past Friday night for example. A trip to Park View has usually spelled disaster for the Panthers. The Patriots gave this team all they were worth, and the Panthers softened every Park View blow, and countered with bigger punches and came away the victors. Looking back over the past 3 weeks, Potomac Falls has not had a cake schedule, and yet had won handily, over Heritage and Loudoun County, respectfully. Not a flaw was shown by the Panthers in any of the past 3 games, and they are looking like the top contender for the 2008 Dulles district title.
Now let's take a look at Broad Run over the same period of time. Sure...they dismantled the Briar Woods Falcons, scoring 29 points on the stingiest defense in the District, while forbidding any Falcons score. No problems there. They then traveled to Heritage, and had to hang on at the end, while looking particularly sloppy on offense most of the 2nd half. But they did win, and survived their first big test of the season. So a homecoming game this past Saturday, against a struggling 1-4 Dominion team, would be the heal-all to any notable broken patterns or system flaws, right? Well, anyone who just looked at the final score (27-6) and saw it to be a handily won game by the Spartans should have witnessed what I did on this day. The Titans had nothing to lose, and it showed most of the game. Aside from the opening Spartan drive that barely made the Spartans break a sweat, the Titans came at Broad Run with everything they had from that point on, and just ran out of gas towards the end. The Spartans had a hard time moving the ball on offense most of the rest of the game, as penalties and miscues wreaked havoc on Broad Run most of the day. If Dominion had just a 20% better offense, this game could have gone the other way. But the Spartans did survive, and got the win to stay perfect on the season...at least with their record.
So fundamentalists would say a win is a win. But I say...not so fast! If Potomac Falls were to watch film of the past 2 Broad Run games, they will see many flaws that I feel they can exploit, and come away with the October 24th victory (in Ashburn). I see no flaws in the Potomac Falls offensive and defensive schemes and personnel, so far. I see many on both sides of the ball for Broad Run. Penalties are getting the worse out of this team, and the offense doesn't seem to click with a regular pattern. If the Spartans play the way they did this past Saturday when they travel to Loudoun County, they very well could have their 1st loss, as the Raiders are a very good ball club, in spite of their 3-3 record. Should that unthinkable happen, the October 24th game with Potomac Falls takes on a whole different flavor, as the Panthers will be in control over their own destiny, instead of the other way around with the Spartans, as we all predicted should be at the beginning of the season.
As a result of the aforementioned analysis, the crown that everyone was so quick to keep on the heads of the Spartans at the beginning of the season isn't such a foregone conclusion anymore. Maybe the Spartans will regroup and play flawless football from here on out...maybe this is the year of the Panthers. Who really knows, the way the Dulles District has played out thus far in the season. But I do know that there are a lot of uneasy emotions among Spartan Faithful today, and rightly so. One thing is for certain, however...October 24th is going to be a big night for football in Ashburn!
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