Cougars Pounce Chantilly 52-14, Win Title
Oakton's Trey Watts Sees A Hole That A Truck Could Fit Through Early In Saturday's Northern Region Championship Against Chantilly. Watts Scored Twice On The Day And The Cougars Rolled To A 52-14 Win Over Chantilly.
Photo By: Marc Gold / Gameday Magazine | VIEW GALLERY
Oakton's Chris Coyer could not be stopped by Chantilly on Saturday, accounting for 5 scores. Coyer threw for 2 touchdowns and ran for 3 more in the 52-14 win over the Chargers.
Photo By: Marc Gold / Gameday Magazine | VIEW GALLERY
Everywhere Chantilly's Torrian Pace went on Saturday, the Oakton defense was right by his side. The Cougars limited Pace to one big play, and the rest of the day the area's leading rusher was bottled up by the agressive Oakton defense.
Photo By: Marc Gold / Gameday Magazine | VIEW GALLERY
VIENNA, VA - The Oakton Cougars have continually shown the rest of the Northern Region that they were in fact the most dominating team in 2008, and in Saturday's regional championship game against Chantilly, they did it again.
Chantilly had entered the game arguably the hottest team in the post-season with tailback Torrian Pace leading the way. However, Oakton's defense didn't get that memo, because they bottled up the area's leading rusher all day long, and intercepted two passes to set up touchdowns for the Cougar offense.
Oakton got on the scoreboard on their first drive of the game when quarterback Chris Coyer found the end-zone from 10 yards out. After the Ray Goins extra point, Oakton led 7-0.
On the next drive, Chantilly's Roger Strittmatter went to the air, but it was tipped up and snagged by Cougar defensive back Andrew Leonard. Leonard returned the interception deep inside Charger territory to setup the next Oakton touchdown.
Senior Jonathan Meadows made sure Chantilly paid for the mistake, racing 19 yards with 4:03 left in the 1st quarter to give the Cougars a 14-0 lead.
Things got worse for Chantilly, as Oakton held them on the next drive, then on the first play of their 3rd drive, Oakton's Chris Coyer pump faked, then tossed a beautiful pass down the sideline to Matt Chandler, who brought it in and scored easily to put the Cougars up 21-0.
Falling behind three touchdowns is not something Chantilly has overcome this season, and they wouldn't find a way to do it on Saturday as Oakton continued to pour it on. In the second quarter, the Cougars scored four more times. Coyer gave the Cougars a 28-0 lead with 8:57 left in the half on a 2 yard run, then scored again from 1 yard out after Oakton's Joey Kopfman picked off Strittmatter and nearly scored. The Cougars led 35-0 before anyone wearing purple could blink.
Trey Watts then got into the action, racing 22 yards 2:01 left in the half to give Oakton a 42-0 lead over Chantilly. Just when the Charger fans thought the onslaught was over, Oakton added insult to injury with a 28 yard field goal from Ray Goins with no time left on the clock. The Cougars led 45-0 at the half, and it is safe to say that everyone was shocked at what they had witnessed.
As he walked off the field though, Oakton's Joe Thompson said he wasn't going to allow his players to get comfortable leading 45-0.
"We saw last week that you have to play four full quarters," Thompson said. "I'm going to tell them that we can't let up, we have to keep playing like this is a close game."
Just to explain the dominance the Cougars showcased in the first half, Oakton had 351 yards of total offense to Chantilly's 51 after two quarters. The Cougars had already earned 10 first downs to Chantilly's 2, and the score was 45-0.
Thompson wanted to see more of that dominance in the final two quarters, and the Cougars responded. In the second half the Cougars found the scoreboard first when Coyer hit Watts from 8 yards out to make the score 52-0 with 6:26 left in the 3rd.
Chantilly finally got on the scoreboard late in the 3rd quarter when Torrian Pace found room to run down the sideline, but the 63 yard touchdown was too little too late. With 7:53 left in the 4th quarter, Strittmatter hit Chris Vaughn on a 49 yard touchdown pass, but the punches Oakton had thrown in the first three quarters were more than enough to secure the win.
After the game, Thompson said the key to the quick start was achieved in practice last week.
"We just had a great week of practice, and we really felt like we knew what we wanted to do," Thompson said. "We really felt like we had a great game plan on offense and defense, and we really executed well."
Thompson's 13-0 Oakton team will now face Oscar Smith (13-0) next Saturday, and the Northern Region's most successful coach this year said he was excited about hosting the big game next week.
In the 52-14 win over Chantilly, Chris Coyer accounted for 5 touchdowns. He ran for 3 scores and threw for 2 more to garner the Moe's Southwest Grill Player of the Game honors. Coyer was unstoppable on Saturday, and his play was instrumental in putting the Chargers away early. After the game, Coyer said Oakton's first half was the best they had played all year long on offense.
"The first half was definitely the best half of football we've played all year," Coyer said. "We know we can play better than we did in the second half though, and we have to get better this week."
Senior tailback Trey Watts also had a big day, as did teammate Jonathan Meadows. Watts scored twice on the day, and Meadows added a touchdown as well. For Watts, the Northern Region Championship win over Chantilly was special given the fact that just last year, Oakton was sitting at home watching the playoffs.
"It's just amazing," Watts said. "Today was the biggest game I've played in here, and we came out as a team and got the job done. It's just a great feeling knowing we will host the state semifinals on our home field next week."
Stay tuned for more coverage of Oakton's big win Saturday and the rest of the playoff action from around the region with Video, Photos, and Interviews with the players and the coaches.
