A damp evening of Liberty District high-school football action Oct. 29 produced a big win for the Wakefield Warriors and a loss for the Washington-Liberty Generals.
In a showdown for second place and possible region-tournament playoff berth, host Wakefield rallied from a 10-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Marshall Statesmen, 14-10. As a result, Wakefield (5-4, 4-1) took over sole possession of second place in the district, while Marshall fell into third at 4-5, 3-2.
Wakefield had lost the last five meetings between the teams, last winning 33-19 in the 2015 season.
“It was senior night, and I think we came out a little flat in the first half. We were making mistakes and we weren’t mentally where we needed to be,” Wakefield coach Wayne Hogwood said. “At halftime we talked. We got physical in the second half, our defense played lights-out and we responded.”
Wakefield had no first downs in the first half and never penetrated Marshall territory.
In the second half, the Warriors’ winning touchdown came with 4:33 left in the game when Jack McAvoy threw 16 yards to Caine Poythress and Mario Pinedo added the extra point. The score capped a 51-yard drive when Wakefield took over after Marshall failed on a fourth-down fake punt attempt.
Wakefield’s first touchdown was in the third quarter on a 30-yard McAvoy to Poythress pass, with Pinedo converting.
McAvoy was 7 of 12 passing for 92 yards, with Poythress having four catches for 65 yards and Brandon Cohen three for 27. Michael Guruli was Wakefield’s leading rusher with 89 yards.
Wakefield did not have any turnovers, and Marshall had two.
On defense, Carl Thomas had a late-game interception to help clinch the victory. Late in the first half, Kobe Davis had an interception, and lineman Andrew Lersten had multiple tackles throughout the contest for Wakefield.
Washington-Liberty (2-7, 2-3) fell to the host McLean Highlanders, 30-16. The game was tied at 10, then McLean scored a late second-quarter touchdown to take a 17-10 halftime lead and was ahead the rest of the game.
The Generals were hurt by multiple turnovers, including a lost fumble on an exchange between the quarterback and runningback inside the McLean 10-yard line with 2:03 left in the first half. McLean drove the length of the field to score a touchdown, taking the halftime 17-10 lead.
On defense for W-L, Elijah Hughes had multiple sacks.
Fullback Herbert Sovula was W-L’s leading rusher in the game with nearly 100 yards and Ryan Jones completed multiple passes, one for a touchdown to Jackson Nowinski. Hughes had a short run for the Generals’ first touchdown.
Jack Myers and Michael Dertke also had multiple catches for the Generals, and Anthony Ceballos-Medina booted a 36-yard field goal and an extra point. Starting runningback Jackson Broadwell missed the game with an injury for W-L.
“We moved the ball some, and Herbert ran hard, but not having Broadwell really hurt our running game, and we had too many turnovers,” Washington-Liberty coach Josh Shapiro said. “The fumble late in the first half changed everything. We could have had a 17-10 lead; instead, they had that lead. We made too many mistakes and other things didn’t go well. It’s frustrating.”
* The Liberty-District leading Yorktown Patriots (6-3, 5-0) had a bye and did not play this past weekend.
Yorktown ends the regular season with a Nov. 6 home game at 3:30 p.m. against Washington-Liberty. If the Patriots win, they will be the outright district champions with an undefeated league record.
The Patriots have already clinched a region playoff berth.
Yorktown has won four straight games, averaging 38 points per contest in those victories.
“Yorktown is playing well, we are beat up with injuries and that will be a difficult game,” W-L coach Josh Shapiro said.