By Greg Young, 2008 Annandale Graduate
and Jeffery Gibert, West Potomac Senior
Digital Sports Interns
DigitalSports coverage of the 2008 Football Playoffs is proudly brought to you by Dynamic Sports Performance of Northern Virginia
*Check the tabs on the top-left of the article for complete video highlights and a photo gallery from Saturday’s playoff game*
With less than six minutes left in the fourth quarter of Oakton’s Virginia AAA Division 6 state semifinal against visiting — and heavily favored — Oscar Smith, the Cougars looked primed-and-ready to pull off a stunning upset.
The Cougars and Tigers, a highly-regarded football program from Chesapeake that gave Westfield its only challenge on it’s road to the state championship last year, were tied with one touchdown a piece and Oakton had driven to Oscar Smith’s 15-yard line. All the Cougars had to do was run out the clock and kick a field goal to secure a berth into next week’s state finale.
Oakton ran a seemingly fail-safe draw play, but things were horribly wrong. Oscar Smith defensive end Jamar Graves went around the block, entered the backfield and stripped the ball.
And, as it turned out, he helped spark Oscar Smith to a 10-7 victory and its own date in that state finale.
“Graves is an all-state defensive end,” Tigers’ Coach Richard Morgan said. “It was huge. But that’s what good teams do.”
After that turnover, Oscar Smith not only had the ball but also plenty of time for one final drive. As they had all game, the Tigers went to its star wide receiver, Tim Smith, who had a huge 35-yard catch with two minutes remaining to put his team inside the Cougars’ 5-yard line. From there, kicker Ryan Trotman connected from 24 yards away for the game-winning score.
Smith, who will attend the University of Virginia next season on an athletic scholarship, finished with eight catches for 140 yards and accounted for Oscar Smith’s only touchdown on the day.
“Me and Tim do this all of the time,” said Phillip Sims, the junior quarterback for the Tigers who completed 19-of-33 passes for 243 yards. “I gave him the opportunity; he made the play. So when he made the catch, I was relieved, but I knew he was going to do it all of the time.”
Smith reflected the same sentiment, saying he promised that if Sims threw the ball up to him he would, “come down with it.”
Although Oscar Smith had its lowest point total of the season, it stayed in the game with a stout defense. They held Oakton to 250 total yards, and limited backup quarterback Ryan Harris to 95 yards passing and one touchdown, which came with 2 minutes, 49 second left in the first half.
Harris was forced to enter the game when dynamic Oakton senior quarterback Chris Coyer was knocked unconscious during the first quarter of play and never returned.
Coyer was carted off in a stretcher after being down on the field for more than 15 minutes and was taken to the hospital.
The extent of his injuries — which Coyer suffered when he was sandwiched between a pair of Oscar Smith defenders and one of them inadvertently hit him in the head — are unknown. But he was alert when he left the field and did have both feeling and movement in his extremities.
For Oscar Smith, the win was the first time since 1998 that a team has gone into a Northern Region stadium and won, a fact that was not lost on the team afterwards.
“There have been a lot of great teams from the Eastern Region that have come up here and lost,” Morgan said. “Getting this win is huge and it proves what a good football team we are.”
Despite the three-and-a-half hour drive, Oscar Smith fans filled their opposing section, creating an atmosphere that the team said was very friendly.
“It was crazy,” Smith said. “We had a lot of fans that came out. [I was] surprised about that, so our stands were packed when we got here and warmin’ up, so that was a good thing.”
Meanwhile, Oakton’s storybook season ends at 13-1. Although they were heavy underdogs against a traditionally strong Oscar Smith team, the Cougars led the Tigers at half time, 7-0.
“They played just like we thought they would,” Morgan said. “They are tough, they played disciplined and they played well.”
Oscar Smith is currently #11 in the USA Today High School football poll and will face Osbourn for the state title in Blacksburg on Saturday.
“We are definitely ready,” Sims said. “We are going to go out there, play our hardest, and we’ll see what happens.”
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