by James Peters
Germantown Gazette
09-20-2006

Rain, rain, go away. If not, we’ll pass anyway.

Playing against a team much more suited for Friday’s muddy, sloppy game conditions, which got worse following a lengthy rain shower during the second quarter, the Northwest football coaching staff decided to stick with its diversified offensive game plan.

Although that strategy seemed ill-suited for the setting, it more than worked out as senior quarterback Josh Volpe threw for 218 yards and three touchdowns to help lead the Jaguars to a thrilling 21-19 win over arch-rival Seneca Valley to reclaim the King’s Trophy (annually given to the winner of the contest) after losing the last two seasons to the Screaming Eagles.

Northwest improved to 2-0 with the win, while the Screaming Eagles dropped to 1-1.

‘‘Sometimes in the elements, [passing] can favor the offense,” Northwest coach Randy Trivers said. ‘‘The slippery field, the defense has bad footing in some cases. If you look at some of the big programs in college and in the NFL, rain doesn’t stop them from throwing. They don’t have to go exclusively to the ground.”

Volpe, who has now thrown for 355 yards and four touchdowns this season, hooked up with tailback Chase Williams from 14 yards out on the team’s first drive for a 7-0 lead. He then tossed a 74-yard strike to Joe Lefeged down the Seneca Valley sideline for a 13-7 advantage with 58 seconds left in the half.

Then with four minutes, four seconds left in the game, Volpe connected with Anthony King from 17 yards away for a 19-13 lead. Following an encroachment penalty on the Screaming Eagles, King (22 carries, 81 yards; 3 catches, 40 yards) converted a two-point conversion run over the left side of the offensive line for a 21-13 advantage.

‘‘It started raining at the end of the first quarter but we kept with our game plan,” Volpe said. ‘‘We wanted to keep passing the ball, throw it down field. That’s what we did and it was successful for us. We just thought we could attack the corners deep. They were coming in on the run a little bit.”

King’s two-point run proved to be the difference as Seneca Valley struck right back on a 69-yard touchdown run by fullback Jourdan Brooks (11 carries for 161 yards). Shawn Perry’s halfback option pass on the two-point try failed, however, as Lefeged intercepted the attempt.

‘‘They threw a pitch to Shawn Perry,” Lefeged said. ‘‘I could tell that he was dropping back to pass. He went out a little wide. I dropped into my zone. I saw a receiver. I picked him up and stepped in front of the ball.

‘‘I was very surprised [Seneca passed]. They were [three] yards away from the end zone and they had been running all day.”

The Screaming Eagles, in fact, threw just two passes all game – the other being a 7-yard touchdown strike from sophomore George Lerch to Alex Betancourt — while rushing for 279 yards on 48 carries. Perry, coming off a 196-yard performance against Wheaton in week one, produced 126 yards and a score on 28 carries.

‘‘The one thing that we ... always tell the defense, you’ve always got to look at the next play as an opportunity,” Trivers said. ‘‘If they score, they’ve got to kick a PAT or they’re going to go for two ... it’s an opportunity to make a play. You have to have a short memory. I think our defense did a nice job with coming up with a stop on the two-point conversion. Our defense hung in there and made some plays when we needed to. It was just a hard-fought battle.”

Northwest opened the contest with an impressive eight-play, 87-yard drive that featured three Volpe passes for 66 yards, including the touchdown pass to Williams on a screen pass for a 7-0 lead with 8:17 left in the first quarter.

Seneca Valley drove right back down the field but was stopped on fourth and one from the Northwest 9-yard line. The Eagles got a break, however, when Volpe fumbled the ball back. Three plays later, Perry scored from three yards out to knot the score at 7-7.

The second quarter deluge seemed to slow both offenses until Volpe’s scoring pass to Lefeged. Looking content to run out the clock on third down deep inside their own territory, the Jaguars instead executed a perfect play-action pass. Volpe sent the ball just over cornerback Charles Hobson and into the hands of Lefeged who outran the Seneca safety to the end zone for the 13-7 halftime lead. The extra-point try was blocked.

‘‘At the end of the second quarter, we thought, `Hey, let’s give it a shot,’” Volpe said.

Both teams started the second half with fumbles. But King’s proved much more costly as Seneca Valley used another short field to tie the score at 13-13 on Lerch’s 7-yard pass to a wide-open Betancourt with 7:43 left in the third quarter. King fumbled on Northwest’s 13-yard line.

A possible lead was negated when a bad snap forced Seneca kicker Freddy Santos to run instead of kick. He nearly reached the end zone but was instead knocked out of bounds by Chris Patterson (team-high 11 tackles).

King, who blamed himself for last year’s 14-7 loss to Seneca because of a late fumble, gained a measure of redemption in the fourth quarter. Not only did he score the touchdown and the crucial two-point conversion but he also rushed for two first downs and 26 yards total in the final 3:46 to seal the victory.

‘‘I had to redeem myself,” King said. ‘‘My team stuck with me. I was protecting the football. My offensive line stuck with me. They said they were going to do their job. All I had to do was my job and protect the football and just get first downs.”