Because of pending thunderstorms a couple of weeks ago I chose not to attempt going to the scheduled Centreville – Hylton scrimmage so I missed an early chance to see the 2017 version of the Centreville Wildcats.
But tonight I headed over to John Champe High School in Aldie to take in one of the better games of the weekend here in NOVA as Centreville made the 15 mile trek into southern Loudoun County to play John Champe.
If Champe was looking for a signature win to show their program will a force to be reckoned with in the newly configured Potomac District – mission accomplished.
Centreville won the coin toss and promptly went on an 11 play, 73 yard drive. It was a nice mix of runs and couple of short passes that culminated in a 8-yard TD run by #10 Charlie Salette. Centreville 7 – Champe 0.
After a touchback (the Centreville kicker sent several into the end zone tonight), Champe answered with their own 11 play, 80 yard drive. It was also a mix of runs and passes, although unlike Centreville’s running by committee (#10 Charlie Salette, #24 Bassie Kanu, #26 DaeQuan Williams-Person and #5 Jordan Wright), Champe’s rushing duties were entirely on the nifty and shifty #4 Carl Garmon III. Garmon finished the drive with a 1-yard TD run to tie the score 7-7.
Champe’s defense then held Centreville as they failed to convert a first down after three short runs. The Centreville punt left Champe on their 37 yard line and on first down the elusive Garman ran for another nice gainer. Centreville’s defense geared up to stop Garman but instead QB #3 Cameron Parson hit a streaking WR #2 Branden Caffrey for a 54-yard TD pass giving the Knights a 14-7 lead.
Centreville responded themselves piecing together a 16 play, 76 yard drive. All but 2 of plays were runs and they picked up 7 first downs on this time consuming drive. Keeping Garmon off the field seemed like a good idea at this point. After a fumble on bad Center-QB exchange on a second-and-goal play from the 3, #24 Kanu scored on a 4-yard TD carry to tie the game again 14-14 midway through the second quarter.
At this point in the game #4 Garmon started to take over the game for Champe. The Knights quickly drove 80 yards on 10 plays ending with 38-yard TD run by the speedy Garmon. His speed and elusiveness in the open field was giving the Wildcats problems. Compounding the situation was the efficiency of Champe passing game. Parsons was hitting his targets with precision the few times they chose to mix in a passing play. Champe’s attempt at a 2-point conversion failed leaving them with a 20-14 lead.
Centreville got the ball back at their own 36-yard line with about a minute left in the first half. They ran three plays. Punted. Champe ran one play and the first half ended with Champe leading 20-14.
The second half started with Champe on their own 42 yard line following a personal foul penalty on Centreville during the kickoff. Champe then ran 8 plays – all runs (several QB keepers by Parson) – to cover the 56 yards to the Centreville end zone. #4 Garmon could not be contained and he scored on a short 1-yard run and then also ran in the 2-point conversion giving the Knights a 28-14 lead.
The Wildcat offense started their first drive of the second half on their 35 yard line and after a first down pass to #5 Wright, they fumbled the ball in the backfield leaving them with a 2nd and 18 play. After two incompletions (QB #15 Presley Egbers narrowly missed an open receiver on a deep ball) Centreville was forced to punt, putting the ball back into the hands of the gifted Garmon.
And indeed, the Carl Garmon III show continued as on the fifth play of the series Garmon dashed through the Wildcat defense scoring on 55-yard TD run. Garmon’s running and a big pass completion to #5 Brandon Burdick dug Champe out of two offensive holding call holds on this drive. The extra point gave the Champe Knights a seemingly insurmountable 35-14 lead.
But Centreville was not done. With 4:40 left on the 3rd quarter clock, Centreville put together a 10 play, 63 yard drive with #26 DaeQuan Williams-Person scoring a 2-yard TD run on a third-and-goal play. Score: Champe 35 – Centreville 21.
Champe started their next drive on their own 20. Only running plays followed. Twelve of them, all but one by Garmon. The drive eventually stalled as the Wildcat defense got a stop on a fourth down turning the ball over on downs. But much time was run off the clock as ten of the running plays were after the start of the 4th quarter.
Centreville had about 6:18 remaining in the game and the ball on their own 35 yard line. After five plays and two first downs, Centreville appeared to be on the verge of making the game interesting. But another lost Centreville fumble gave the Champe Knights the ball back at the Champe 36 yard line.
Champe ran five times – gaining one first down – and then punted the ball back to Centreville.
Centreville had one last opportunity, but starting at their own 10 yard line with 3:41 left in the game was not an ideal situation. And Centreville’s last possession ended here when the ball was fumbled back to Champe at the 18 yard line.
Champe was able to run for a first down and then take a knee to end the game.
Champe’s offensive line and defense were quite serviceable but it was the incredible quickness of the wiry Carl Garmon III that made the difference in this game in my mind. It has been quite a while since I have seen a high school running back like that and considering he ran for 179 yards and 4 TDs in Champe’s win over Bishop O’Connell I am wondering why I am not hearing more about him. Stats say he ran for 1,777 yards and 21 TDs last year – I can see he is easily going to surpass those numbers in 2017. I would guess he had about 40 carries and 200+ yards tonight.
When I checked the score of the Centreville – Stonewall Jackson game last week and saw it was 7-0 at the half and then only 14-0 in the third quarter it had me wondering if I had overestimated Centreville. This game certainly showed they have some work to do. The passing game for the Wildcats was not working tonight (6-16 I think) – a number of missed passes to open receivers and drops when the ball was on target. And the defense had no answer for Mr. Garmon & the Champe offensive line. But not every team has a player like Garmon and the season is young yet.
***In the interest of being reasonably accurate, I corrected a couple of additional player identification errors and misspelled names.
But tonight I headed over to John Champe High School in Aldie to take in one of the better games of the weekend here in NOVA as Centreville made the 15 mile trek into southern Loudoun County to play John Champe.
If Champe was looking for a signature win to show their program will a force to be reckoned with in the newly configured Potomac District – mission accomplished.
Centreville won the coin toss and promptly went on an 11 play, 73 yard drive. It was a nice mix of runs and couple of short passes that culminated in a 8-yard TD run by #10 Charlie Salette. Centreville 7 – Champe 0.
After a touchback (the Centreville kicker sent several into the end zone tonight), Champe answered with their own 11 play, 80 yard drive. It was also a mix of runs and passes, although unlike Centreville’s running by committee (#10 Charlie Salette, #24 Bassie Kanu, #26 DaeQuan Williams-Person and #5 Jordan Wright), Champe’s rushing duties were entirely on the nifty and shifty #4 Carl Garmon III. Garmon finished the drive with a 1-yard TD run to tie the score 7-7.
Champe’s defense then held Centreville as they failed to convert a first down after three short runs. The Centreville punt left Champe on their 37 yard line and on first down the elusive Garman ran for another nice gainer. Centreville’s defense geared up to stop Garman but instead QB #3 Cameron Parson hit a streaking WR #2 Branden Caffrey for a 54-yard TD pass giving the Knights a 14-7 lead.
Centreville responded themselves piecing together a 16 play, 76 yard drive. All but 2 of plays were runs and they picked up 7 first downs on this time consuming drive. Keeping Garmon off the field seemed like a good idea at this point. After a fumble on bad Center-QB exchange on a second-and-goal play from the 3, #24 Kanu scored on a 4-yard TD carry to tie the game again 14-14 midway through the second quarter.
At this point in the game #4 Garmon started to take over the game for Champe. The Knights quickly drove 80 yards on 10 plays ending with 38-yard TD run by the speedy Garmon. His speed and elusiveness in the open field was giving the Wildcats problems. Compounding the situation was the efficiency of Champe passing game. Parsons was hitting his targets with precision the few times they chose to mix in a passing play. Champe’s attempt at a 2-point conversion failed leaving them with a 20-14 lead.
Centreville got the ball back at their own 36-yard line with about a minute left in the first half. They ran three plays. Punted. Champe ran one play and the first half ended with Champe leading 20-14.
The second half started with Champe on their own 42 yard line following a personal foul penalty on Centreville during the kickoff. Champe then ran 8 plays – all runs (several QB keepers by Parson) – to cover the 56 yards to the Centreville end zone. #4 Garmon could not be contained and he scored on a short 1-yard run and then also ran in the 2-point conversion giving the Knights a 28-14 lead.
The Wildcat offense started their first drive of the second half on their 35 yard line and after a first down pass to #5 Wright, they fumbled the ball in the backfield leaving them with a 2nd and 18 play. After two incompletions (QB #15 Presley Egbers narrowly missed an open receiver on a deep ball) Centreville was forced to punt, putting the ball back into the hands of the gifted Garmon.
And indeed, the Carl Garmon III show continued as on the fifth play of the series Garmon dashed through the Wildcat defense scoring on 55-yard TD run. Garmon’s running and a big pass completion to #5 Brandon Burdick dug Champe out of two offensive holding call holds on this drive. The extra point gave the Champe Knights a seemingly insurmountable 35-14 lead.
But Centreville was not done. With 4:40 left on the 3rd quarter clock, Centreville put together a 10 play, 63 yard drive with #26 DaeQuan Williams-Person scoring a 2-yard TD run on a third-and-goal play. Score: Champe 35 – Centreville 21.
Champe started their next drive on their own 20. Only running plays followed. Twelve of them, all but one by Garmon. The drive eventually stalled as the Wildcat defense got a stop on a fourth down turning the ball over on downs. But much time was run off the clock as ten of the running plays were after the start of the 4th quarter.
Centreville had about 6:18 remaining in the game and the ball on their own 35 yard line. After five plays and two first downs, Centreville appeared to be on the verge of making the game interesting. But another lost Centreville fumble gave the Champe Knights the ball back at the Champe 36 yard line.
Champe ran five times – gaining one first down – and then punted the ball back to Centreville.
Centreville had one last opportunity, but starting at their own 10 yard line with 3:41 left in the game was not an ideal situation. And Centreville’s last possession ended here when the ball was fumbled back to Champe at the 18 yard line.
Champe was able to run for a first down and then take a knee to end the game.
Champe’s offensive line and defense were quite serviceable but it was the incredible quickness of the wiry Carl Garmon III that made the difference in this game in my mind. It has been quite a while since I have seen a high school running back like that and considering he ran for 179 yards and 4 TDs in Champe’s win over Bishop O’Connell I am wondering why I am not hearing more about him. Stats say he ran for 1,777 yards and 21 TDs last year – I can see he is easily going to surpass those numbers in 2017. I would guess he had about 40 carries and 200+ yards tonight.
When I checked the score of the Centreville – Stonewall Jackson game last week and saw it was 7-0 at the half and then only 14-0 in the third quarter it had me wondering if I had overestimated Centreville. This game certainly showed they have some work to do. The passing game for the Wildcats was not working tonight (6-16 I think) – a number of missed passes to open receivers and drops when the ball was on target. And the defense had no answer for Mr. Garmon & the Champe offensive line. But not every team has a player like Garmon and the season is young yet.
***In the interest of being reasonably accurate, I corrected a couple of additional player identification errors and misspelled names.
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