By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Manager, Washington D.C. Metro Area
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No. 8 Oakton (5-5) vs. No. 1 W.T. Woodson (9-1) at Fairfax on Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Offensive Rank (ppg): Oakton – 12th (19.5); Woodson – 3rd (32.0)
Defensive Rank (ppg): Oakton – 6th (19.2); Woodson – 5th (16.2)
Series Since 1998: Oakton leads, 1-0
Last meeting: 1998 — Week 10 — Oakton won, 34-0
Recent history is nonexistent in this series.
The last time the teams met was November 1998, a 34-point win for Oakton. The Cougars reached the regional final that year. The Cavaliers were 1-9.
Defending regional champion Oakton needed to win and get significant help to even get here, but now find themselves as the strongest eight-seed since the playoffs expanded in 2007. The Cougars held the Chargers to 44 rushing yards in Week 10.
They’ll need more of that this week.
Woodson is arguably the most balanced offense in the Northern Region, featuring Temple-bound senior quarterback Connor Reilly, too many receivers to name and the solid running back tandem of senior James Johnson and sophomore Jonathan Stokes.
Though schematically different, the roster of this team shapes up favorably to the 2007 Chantilly team that reached the AAA State final.
Reilly’s footwork in the pocket is almost impossible to prepare for and, once the Cavaliers submit the proper paperwork to the VHSL, he’ll hold an all-time single-game Northern Region record for passing yards in a game, 502 at Lake Braddock in Week 2.
Also, he lost out on the most hotly contested first-team all-district position race, ending up as the second-team Patriot District quarterback to the Bruins’ Michael Nebrich. Historically, that’s served as added motivation.
Oakton, which graduated a nice Temple-bound quarterback of its own last year, has a handful of more-than-capable underclassmen in junior quarterback Jimmy Boone, sophomore receiver Tuck Masker, junior athlete Luke Willis, junior defensive back Akil Jones and junior defensive end Geoff McLaughlin.
The Cougars’ issue has been consistency. The team that shut out Madison, outgunned West Springfield and beat Chantilly on the road is the same one that lost by 14 points at Centreville, blew a fourth-quarter lead at Edison and fumbled away a win at T.C. Williams.
That’s typical of young talent and the Oakton’s outstanding coaching staff has molded ripe skill into regional titles every third year since 2002.
The match-up to watch is the Cougars’ offensive line against the Cavaliers’ defensive front seven.
Oakton senior Nick Koutris was a second-team Concorde District tackle, while senior center Austin Mayhugh and guard Jonathan Hart each made the first team. While the skill positions saw high offseason turnover, the line from last year’s regional title remained in tact.
Woodson, for its part, had seniors Tim Herberg and Patrick Bulger make first-team All-Patriot at defensive end and tackle, respectively. Senior James Johnson and junior Logan Hancock were second-team linebackers.
And, P.S., Cavalier senior Josh Hogan was named Defensive Defensive Player of the Year.
And that’s with six projected Division-I commitments named on the first team in the district.
Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com
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