South Lakes Seahawks Seek Historic 250th Win, First Victory At Westfield

By BRIAN McNICOLL

In America’s 250th year, the South Lakes High Seahawks will go for their 250th victory in football when they travel to Westfield on Friday night to take on the Bulldogs in a key Concorde District matchup.

The Seahawks are 249-256-1 – they tied Washington-Lee (now Washington-Liberty) in 1981. They have outscored their opponents 10,286 to 10,221.

It won’t be easy. South Lakes has never won a game at Westfield. The Seahawks’ last two seasons have ended there – a 49-21 loss to cap the 2-8 season in 2024 and a 31-21 loss in the second round of the regional playoffs last year. For good measure, Westfield also visited Reston last year during the regular season and defeated South Lakes, 40-13.

Playoff Seeding On The Line In Friday's Showdown

And the Seahawks definitely don’t want to visit Westfield in the postseason. They have played six playoff games there and lost them all.

Friday night’s game won’t end either team’s season. Both Westfield, 7-2 overall, 2-2 in the Concorde, and South Lakes, 8-1 overall and 3-1 in the Concorde, have qualified for the playoffs. But the winner will be the second seed and get a home game in the first round. If South Lakes loses, it would be the third seed; if Westfield loses, the Bulldogs would be seeded fourth.

Results from the last four weeks make the game hard to handicap. Westfield lost to Madison; South Lakes beat Madison. Westfield lost to Oakton by five points; South Lakes lost by four. South Lakes had an easy time with Chantilly, winning 41-6. Westfield struggled to a 17-3 victory over the Chargers. But against Centreville it was the other way around – Westfield won 48-20, and South Lakes hung on to win, 16-14.

“I don’t know if there’s really a good answer to why stuff like that happens,” said South Lakes Coach Jason Hescock. “A lot of it has to do with matchups. Different teams are good at different things and so forth. Those kinds of things can mess with your psyche … but only if you let it. What we’re happy about is we didn’t play well against Centreville in a number of aspects, and we managed to win anyway.”

Second-Half Struggles Remain A Concern For Seahawks

The Seahawks have been a first half team all year. They’ve scored 233 points before halftime this year and 85 after. In two of the games, the score did not change after halftime for either team. They haven’t scored more in the second half than the first in any game this season.

They had seemed to shake that habit somewhat in recent weeks – they held off Madison with two second-half touchdowns and had 17 second half points in the 42-38 loss to Oakton.

But it was back with a vengeance last week. The Seahawks had one decent drive the entire half, moving from their 25 to first-and-goal on the Centreville 1 only to have to settle for an 18-yard field goal by James Marburg, which did provide the winning margin.

Other than that, the Seahawks had one first down, lost a fumble, took a 17-yard sack on a 4th-and-4 at the Centreville 40 and completed just one pass.

“I gave us an A for the defense and a B+ for the offense in the first half,” Hescock said. “But in the second half, I’d say a C for the offense, a B- for the defense and a C for special teams.”

Wyatt, Dagbe Lead South Lakes' Offensive Attack

Wyatt, who has completed 67% of his passes for 1,573 yards, 17 touchdowns and only three interceptions, was 10 of 18 for 186 yards against Centreville. But 99 of those yards came on the two touchdown completions to Joshua Dagbe - of 54 and 45 yards respectively.

The defense got big games from Yusef Atiya and Sebastian Valencia, who has moved within a sack and a half of becoming the Seahawks’ all-time sack leader, but they gave up a long drive for a score in the second half.

As for the special teams, South Lakes missed three field goals and an extra point on Friday night, and the Seahawks are working to simplify the operations to get the kicks off more efficiently. Hescock said they may shorten Marburg’s approach to the ball. “He has such a strong leg, he doesn’t need a long approach.”

Marburg agreed. “It’s a matter of getting our timing more consistent.”

What has been consistent is the South Lakes offense. Dagbe leads the team with 878 yards receiving on 49 catches. Nick Picarelli, South Lakes’ all-time leader in yards and catches, has 56 receptions this year for 511 yards.

Wyatt, Dagbe and Picarelli, along with power back James Smith, now up to 878 yards rushing after gaining 110 on 25 carries last week, form the nucleus of a Seahawk attack that has kept the team ahead for all but about 11 minutes this season.

Stopping Westfield's Running Game Will Be Key

Westfield’s attack is less diverse, but PJ Sutherland averages 100 yards rushing and 31 receiving per game. Aaron Preti, the Bulldogs’ sophomore quarterback, has some mobility – “They roll him out, play action, waggle,” Hescock said – but the mission will be to “pound the rock.

“Shutting down their running game will be the key for us. Like it says on our helmets, we’ll have to find a way.”