Paulsen: Beware of the Cougars
Oakton's Chris Coyer has emerged this season as a very legitimate dual-threat quarterback and one of the best offensive playmakers in the Northern Region...
Photo By: Marc Gold / Gameday Magazine
Oakton quarterback Ryan Harris's ability to run, pass and catch the ball symbolizes everything about the Cougars' offense and their ability to be flexible when they have the ball...
Photo By: Marc Gold / Gameday Magazine
Oakton's Chris Coyer escapes from Chantilly's defense last Saturday as the Cougars rolled to a 52-14 win over the Chargers. Oakton now will play Oscar Smith, ranked in the top 10 in the United States.....
Photo By: Marc Gold / Gameday Magazine
VIENNA, VA - The Oakton Cougars (13-0) have been the class of the Concorde district throughout the 2008 football season. On Saturday afternoon, while playing in frigidly cold conditions at home, Oakton won its second Northern Region championship in the past four years.
The Cougars throttled an impressive adversary in the Chantilly Chargers (9-4). The Chargers, who were coming off of an upset win at Westfield in the Northern Region semi-finals, seemed to be peaking at the right time. That was until Saturday's Concorde collision in Vienna.
You'd be hard pressed to find a team with more weapons on offense than Joe Thompson's Cougars. Quarterbacks Chris Coyer and Ryan Harris, both of whom have operated Oakton's offense this year, have proven to be game-breaking talents, and so too are running backs Jonathan Meadows and Trey Watts.
Each of the "fabulous four" has played a prodigious role in Oakton's offensive successes this season. Coyer, who has over 1,000 yards in both passing and rushing this season, is a stellar downfield passer. However, at 6-3 and 220-pounds, the strong-armed signal caller runs like a fullback.
Watts is a dual-threat in his own right. The shifty back makes eluding defenders look easy. When he isn't lined up in the backfield Watts is generally running routes out of the slot position in the Oakton offense. The club's leading receiver and number two rusher, Watts also returns punts and kicks.
Meadows is smaller in stature than his ball-carrying counterpart, but he doesn't run any less hard. He led Oakton in both rushes and rushing yards this season, and the majority of those carries and most of the yards he compiled came on rushes between the tackles.
Harris - who spells Coyer at quarterback - has proven to be a bigger threat running the football than he has passing it. Like Coyer, though, he can beat you both with his arm and with his legs. And he can also beat you, as Chantilly found out, with his hands. Harris caught two long passes in the middle of the field as a receiver on Saturday afternoon.
The versatility of a player like Harris - who can run, pass, and catch the ball - is the symbolism of the type of team that Oakton has become this season. There isn't much this team can't do. They have won close low-scoring games (like a 17-15 squeaker over Chantilly earlier this year) and close shootouts (like last weekends overtime thriller against West Springfield).
And if Oakton needs to make plays on defense to get a win, they have done that too. Saturday's performance in the regional title game may have been the Cougars' top defensive effort of the season.
The Oakton front-seven, led by standout linebacker Jack Tyler, suffocated a revered Chantilly front-five for the entire duration of Saturday's championship game. Running back Torian Pace, who had rushed for over 1,100 yards in the month leading up to Saturday's showdown, was taken out of the game early.
The Cougars' secondary, comprised of a couple of corners who are 5-7 and below, played exceptionally well in negating Roger Stritmatter and the Chantilly aerial assault. Stritmatter had plenty of time to deliver the football down the field. He just didn't have any targets running free.
Having only seen Oakton once before Saturday's blowout win, I could not have been more impressed with Coach Thompson's club. The Cougars scored on each of their first eight offensive possessions of the game. The Cougars posted 21 points in the first-quarter and 24 more in the second period to take a decisive 45-0 lead at halftime.
Late in the second-half Pace was able to hit one home run for Chantilly's rushing attack, on a stretch carry off right-tackle. But the score was way too little and way too late. The Chargers didn't just need one touchdown run. They needed a 30-point play to get back into the game.
I don't think it matters who Oakton was playing on Saturday. As well as the Cougars executed, I think you could have thrown any team in the state of Virginia onto the field opposite Oakton on Saturday and the result wouldn't have been a whole lot different.
Each of Coyer's passes was hitting his receivers in stride down the field. Meadows and Watts were gashing the Chantilly front on the ground, and the Oakton defense wasn't missing any tackles. The performance was one of the region's most complete of the year, fitting considering that it netted Oakton the regional crown.
Next up for the Cougars is Oscar Smith, a team loaded with playmakers that has also yet to lose a game this season. The State Semifinal tilt promises to be one of next weekend's best.
If Oakton plays like it did today, though, even Oscar Smith - a team recognized nationally for some of its prospects - could be in trouble.
