By Angela Watts
Content Editor
With just :11 seconds left in regulation Friday night at Edison, the Eagles’ players stood huddled together on the sideline at the 25-yard line, one hand resting on the shoulder pad of the player either next to or in front of himself. At the same moment on the other side of the field, Chantilly players were more restless, some of them jumping up-and-down, some crouched low and others standing side-by-side.
Both sets of fans were on their feet in the stands — some screaming and some undoubtedly holding their breath. It was an tension-filled scene that seemed most unlikely earlier in the night, when the visiting Chargers had jumped to a three-touchdown lead.
But there they all stood, with Edison trailing by just seven points, out of time outs and facing a 4th-and-8 from the Chantilly 20-yard line with 11 seconds to play.
Eagles’ standout senior quarterback Ben Barber, who had been sensational all night, dropped back and rolled to his right looking to pass. He spotted a wide-open receiver — but he wasn’t the only one who noticed the player had gotten separation in the middle of the field.
“They had run that same combination route a few times tonight and so I saw the post coming across the middle,” Chantilly senior quarterback and safety Austin Decker said. “I read the quarterbacks’ eyes a little bit and saw that we had great coverage on the outside so I decided to break up on him in the middle while I had the chance.”
Barber delivered the ball on time and on target — and it would have been enough for a first down and one last opportunity to score. But instead Decker came flying at the intended receiver and hit him hard square on the back, knocking the ball free for an incomplete pass and a Charger victory.
“I didn’t get my hand on the ball, but I just timed it right and got him,” said Decker, who just three plays after his teammate, senior Mike Quigg, had recovered a fumble at the Chargers’ 22-yard line to halt another Edison drive lost a handle on the football himself and saw it recovered by junior Stephon Robertson to give it back to the Eagles at the Chantilly 22 with :39 seconds remaining. “Luckily I had a chance to redeem myself after that horrible mistake at the end that almost cost us the game.
“And this was huge for us. We needed to get our motivation and our morale back up after that loss to Centreville [on Monday.] And the actual repercussions are we get a higher seed in the playoffs, so it’s a big win all the way around, whichever way you look at it.”
Both Division 6 Chantilly, the Concorde District runner-up, and Division 5 Edison, the National District champion, have already secured a home game in its respective upcoming Northern Region playoffs. And truth be told, this narrow loss did as much to boost the Eagles’ morale as holding on for the win did for their counterparts.
Edison (8-2) experienced a disastrous start the game. Eagles’ senior punter Paul Bergstrom mis-handled the long snap at the end of their first drive, and though he recovered and got the punt off, its hurried nature left the ball traveling just 13 yards. Chantilly (8-2) took over at the Edison 24 and scored five plays later on an 11-yard pass from Decker to senior Jacob Barren in the right corner of the end zone.
The Eagles’ second drive ended in a fumble deep in Charger territory, and though this time the Edison defense held Chantilly to just one first down, when Decker punted the ball it hit the grass and bounced high, hitting an Eagle coverage man in the back. Quigg recovered the ball at the Edison 34-yard line, and just four plays later senior tailback Torrian Pace went around left end for a 5-yard touchdown on a 14-0 lead.
Edison’s third drive proved more of the same. After being held to a three-and-out, Bergstrom dropped back to punt. But the snap was low, and as he bent to field it officials ruled his knee touched the ground, ending the play. Chantilly took over at the Edison 16-yard line and scored just three plays later, this time on a 12-yard touchdown run by senior Bugsy Urrutia for a 21-0 lead.
“In the first half, if we take away those turnovers we can win this ballgame,” Edison Coach Vaughn Lewis said. “But I’m real proud of the way we hung in there, we didn’t give up and we played tough. I’m just proud of them. I’ll be honest, at the beginning of the season when I saw Chantilly as the 10th game of the year I wasn’t happy. But as it turned out, it ended up really helping us out because we got to find out what kind of character our kids have. And they had great character tonight.”
The Chargers attempted an onside kick after their third score, but the ball did not travel the required 10 yards that would have made it a live ball. So this time it was the Eagles who benefited from a Charger error, taking possession at Chantilly’s 48-yard line. A 5-yard scoring run by Barber with 9:10 still to play in the first half finally put Edison on the board.
“It was just one word: Pride,” Barber said of his team’s performance. “Our team has a lot of pride and it showed in
the second half. As long as we play every game like we played in the
second half we’ll have a chance to win every game. This game right here
is a statement because it shows that we can play against any team in
Division 5 or Division 6. We’re ready to make a run in the playoffs.”
The two teams exchanged punts for the remainder of the first half and throughout the third quarter until Edison mounted a long, 12-play drive that started at their own 27-yard line with just under two minutes left in the third quarter and ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Barber to close the gap to 21-14 with 8:24 remaining.
Barber, who recently committed to play wide receiver at Virginia Tech next season, led everyone with 117 yards rushing and two touchdowns while also passing for 107 more yards.
“He’s very, very talented,” Chantilly Coach Michael Lalli said of Barber. “He’s the best player in the region, they say, and he probably is. He’s a very athletic kid who does a lot for his team.”
But Lalli has some big play-makers on his roster, too, including Quigg and Decker.
Quigg put an end to another promising Edison drive when he recovered the first of three fumbles in the final minute-and-a-half of play at the Chargers’ 22-yard line. Chantilly was trying to run out the clock when Decker lost his handle on the football and handed it right back to the Edison, but his jarring hit on the ensuing Eagles’ fourth down play sealed the Chargers’ victory.
“He’s a winner,” Lalli said of Decker. “He’s a leader. He’s a great competitor. It’ll bug him that he made the mistake, but I also knew he wouldn’t go in the bucket over it. I knew he’d recover … and he sure did.”
** Got to http://www.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?userid=dsmvp&gallery_id=899253 to view a photo gallery taken by professional photographer Jesse Neider.
Processing your request, Please wait....
