Oakton Dips Into Its “Fifth-Down Playbook” To Defeat South Lakes in Concorde Opener

By BRIAN McNICOLL

Oakton High turned a rare fifth-down conversion into a touchdown and parlayed that touchdown and two more late scores into a wild 42-38 come-from-behind victory over South Lakes Friday night at Oakton.

South Lakes kicker James Marburg had just made it 38-21 with his longest of the year, a 45-yard field goal, on a drive set up by a sack and a blocked punt.

On Oakton’s next possession, the Seahawks gave up one first down on a penalty.

But quarterback Jack Martin threw an incomplete pass on first down, then completed a nine-yard pass to Brayden Vazquez on second down. On third down, Oakton’s Deylen Jones was thrown for a two-yard loss, but the “box”, the sideline down indicator, didn't flip, and the linesmen didn't notice.

South Lakes’ bench and fans went nuts trying to inform the officials, but to no avail. Then, on fourth down, Martin was thrown for a 4-yard loss, which should’ve given South Lakes the ball. But because of the officials’ blunder, Oakton got another play, and the Cougars made the most of it.

On 5th-and-7, Martin scrambled to his right and was bottled up, but he stepped over one defender, eluded another, and was hauled out of bounds after a 13-yard gain and a first down at the South Lakes 40. On the next play, he fired a pass backward to wide receiver Collin Henriquez, and Henriquez threw a pass that hit Jones in stride for a 40-yard touchdown.

“Oh, I absolutely knew,” said senior Nick Picarelli, South Lakes’ all-time wide receiver. “I’m the punt returner. It’s my job to know when fourth down comes.”

Instead of South Lakes taking over with 11:13 to go in the game and a 17-point lead, the margin was 10, and the Cougars had all the momentum.

From that point forward, Oakton scored two touchdowns – a 34-yard pass from Martin to Timmy Volciak with 8:59 left and a 44-yard strike from Martin to Henriquez to clinch it with 2:06 left. South Lakes generated -14 yards of total offense and did not complete a pass or gain a first down.

South Lakes’ last hope ended when quarterback Christian Wyatt sailed a pass too high, and Henriquez intercepted it with 1:50 to go.

“Totally on me,” Wyatt said of the final pass. “I overthrew it. Completely missed him. We were a couple of bad plays and a couple of mixed-up calls from winning that game.”

Picarelli, the intended receiver, said, “We pretty much gave it to them,” and “If we could play them 10 times, we’d win nine.”

He may have a point. South Lakes lost three fumbles in the first half, all of which killed promising drives and two of which led directly to Oakton touchdowns. “That’s at least a 14-point swing and maybe as much as a 28-point swing,” said South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock.

Two plays into the game, James Smith fumbled for South Lakes, and four plays later, Oakton converted it into a touchdown on a 38-yard pass from Martin to Jones. South Lakes tied it 7-7 in the final minute of the period on a 13-yard run by Wyatt, one of his best scampers of the night.

After forcing a punt that backed them up to their own 6, the Seahawks carefully worked their way out of the hole, gaining three first downs and moving the ball out beyond the 30. But Wyatt mishandled a snap, and the Cougars got the ball at the 33. Two plays later, Martin hooked up with Henriquez for a 26-yard touchdown pass that made it 14-7 Oakton.

South Lakes tied it midway through the second quarter when Smith ran 47 yards to the Cougar one, then scored on the next play. Yusef Atiya then intercepted a Martin pass near midfield and returned it to the Oakton 23, and, after a 22-yard jet sweep by Picarelli, Smith plowed in from a yard out to make it 21-14 South Lakes.

The Seahawks had yet another chance before halftime when a short punt gave them first down on the Oakton 36. But three plays later. Wyatt ran for what would’ve been first-down yardage, got stood up, then had the ball taken from him by the Oakton defense.

Early in the second half, South Lakes recovered a Martin fumble and turned it into instant points when Picarelli scored on a double-reverse to make it 28-14. The teams traded touchdowns over the next 3 ½ minutes with Oakton scoring on a 42-yard Martin-to-Volciak hookup and South Lakes answering with a 61-yard catch-and-run by Joshua Dagbe, his only score of the night.

From that point on, the Seahawks stopped moving the ball. They had just three positive plays for the rest of the game: a 3-yard gain and two 1-yard gains. Meanwhile, the Cougars scored three more touchdowns, all on long passes, and held on once they took the lead.

The Cougars improved to 6-0 for the first time since the dawn of the new century, and South Lakes fell to 5-1 in the Concorde District opener for both teams. South Lakes will play at Chantilly, 3-3, on Friday night, then close the season against Centreville, Madison and Westfield – the league’s traditional heavyweights.

“Maybe we needed a game like this,” Picarelli said. “Maybe we needed to be shown that we have to play a whole game … we have to put people away and not let them back in the game.”

South Lakes 7 14 7 10 - 38

Oakton 7 7 14 14 - 42

O-Deylen Jones, 38 pass from Jack Martin (Marco Ruiz kick)

SL-Christian Wyatt, 13 run (James Marburg kick)

O-Collin Henriques, 26 pass from Martin (Ruiz kick)

SL-James Smith, 1 run (Marburg kick)

SL-Smith, 1 run (Marburg kick)

SL-Nick Picarelli, 29 run (Marburg kick)

O-Timmy Volciak, 42 pass from Martin (Ruiz kick)

SL-Joshua Dagbe, 61 pass from Wyatt (Marburg kick)

SL-Marburg, FG 45

O-Jones, 40 pass from Henriques (Ruiz kick)

O-Volciak, 34 pass from Martin (Ruiz kick)

O-Henriques, 44 pass from Martin (Ruiz kick)

SL O

First Downs 10 12

Rushes-Yards 29-120 31-151

Passing Yards 147 317

Passes (Atts-Compl-Int) 15-10-1 31-21-1

Punts-Average 3-31.3 4-28

Fumbles-Lost 3-3 1-1

Penalties-Yards 7-75 2-10

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – South Lakes: Smith 15-52, Picarelli 4-60, Dagbe 1-4, Wyatt 9-4. Oakton: Martin 15-27, Jones 12-25, Jake Grimsley 2-minus 3, Volciak 1-minus 1, Brayden Vazquez 1-3.

Passing – South Lakes: Wyatt 15-10-1, 147 yards. Oakton: Martin 30-20-1, 277 yards, 5 TDs; Henriques 1-1-0, 40 yards, TD.

Receiving – South Lakes: Picarelli 3-25, George Zarechnak 2-21, Smith 1-21, Dagbe 4-80, TD. Oakton: Jones 9-96, 2 TDs; Henriques 4-91, 3 TDs; Volciak 5-109, 2 TDs; Vazquez 2-13, Aidan Hyderkhan 1-4.