Screaming Eagles turn bitter taste into sweet revenge
Written by heard on September 8th, 2010 at 10:03 amLosing on the final play of a football game – say on an interception return for a touchdown – leaves a bitter taste in the mouth that tends to stay with a team (players, coaches, fans alike) for awhile. When it happens against a rival school just a few miles away that you were supposed to beat, well, the pungency just won’t go away without a little retribution.
So for the entire community on opening night 2010 Friday at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown it was equal portions excitement and sweet relief when Screaming Eagles senior running back Eddie Cunningham powered into the end zone on fourth down from the 2-yard line in overtime, lifting Seneca to a 20-14 win over Clarksburg and finally rinsing their collective mouths of the 15-8 loss exactly a year earlier when Clarksburg’s Andrew Veith returned an interception 55 yards for a touchdown in the final seconds to send the Coyotes to the winner’s circle in the then-3-year-old school’s first meeting with mighty neighbor Seneca, winner’s of 12 state titles (most in state history).
The season-opening loss to Clarksburg a year ago was a sour start to the second-worst season in the 35 years of Screaming Eagles football history – a 6-4 record and out of the playoffs for the first time since 2000.
Little wonder than that Cunningham, who rushed for 173 yards on 20 carries and scored two touchdowns, and many other Eagles players left the field Friday in Germantown saying “We’re back. Seneca Valley is back”.
Senior defensive lineman/fullback Bernard Wolley, Seneca’s other touchdown-maker (a 1-yard plunge in the second quarter), said afterwards: “We weren’t gonna let it happen again. … We’re not gonna miss the playoffs again.”
For awhile, however, it seemed like it was gonna happen again.
The Coyotes, buoyed by a hard-hitting, staunch defense led by senior lineman Calvin Dove, and a methodical running game controlled the ball and the clock for the majority of the contest.
They grabbed the early lead, 7-0, after marching 64 yards in seven plays following the opening kickoff. Senior Zach Gallion, a transfer from Wootton, provided the score from 3 yards out.
Seneca rallied midway through the second quarter on Wolley’s 1-yard scoring run, but the extra-point attempt was botched and the score remained 7-6 until late in third quarter.
With just over two minutes remaining in the third, Clarksburg lined up for a 28-yard field-goal attempt, and this time it was the Coyotes’ turn to botch the kick attempt. On the ensuing play from scrimmage, Cunningham burst through the right side and down the right sideline for an electrifying 85-yard touchdown run. Seneca quarterback Max Nicholson ran in the two-point conversion to make the score 14-7.
But Clarksburg was unbowed and continued to pound the Eagles with their ground attack led by sophomores Naim Reid (23 carries, 138 yards) and Jaylen Little (14 carries, 63 yards). In fact, with Reid slowed by a leg cramp, Little carried the burden in a long, time-consuming march that culminated in another short touchdown run by Gallion (1 yard) to tie the score at 14 in the fourth.
“I’m not sure there were too many people who gave us a chance tonight,” said Clarksburg head coach Larry Hurd. “Seneca’s a great program and we respect them. But we’ve done some pretty good things here too.”
In overtime for the Coyotes, Vicente Kinney’s 34-yard field-goal try caromed off the right upright and just missed sliding through the uprights – no good. Seneca followed by running three plays to get it to the 2 and then decided to go for the touchdown as opposed to attempting a field goal. On the next play, Cunningham appeared to have been stopped short but he didn’t go down and kept his feet moving, eventually lunging across the goal line with the retribution the Eagles had been waiting an entire year for.
