Miguel's FG Lifts Storm Over East Rock
The only thing brighter than the lights at James Madison's Bridgeforth Stadium on Saturday was the smile on the face of Staunton sophomore Agustin Miguel.
The standout soccer player for the Storm hasn't been playing football very long.
In fact, when asked about the tenure of his time with the team, he misspoke.
"I just started kicking yesterday," the soft-spoken Miguel said before laughing and quickly correcting himself. "Actually, no. I started kicking last year."
The Staunton kicker's first field-goal attempt of his varsity career turned out to be a memorable one as he connected on a 20-yard boot through the uprights as time expired to life the Storm to a thrilling 17-15 win over East Rockingham.
“That was my first time," Miguel said. "Last year, I didn’t really kick that much. I was just trying to get used to kicking. This year, I started kicking a bit more in practice. It all came down to the hold and the snap. I just kicked it.”
The moments leading up to Miguel's kick were hectic. It started with an East Rockingham fumble with just over a minute remaining when it appeared the Eagles would be able to run out the clock and preserve a one-point victory.
The Storm then started with possession at the ERHS 30 and after a 10-yard run from Ryan Bosserman and a 14-yard rush from Jaquante Scott, they were set up at the East Rock 6-yard line with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.
“It’s one of those things where we went through a whole lot of scenarios and situations tonight that we have not practiced," Staunton coach Jake Phillips said. "A lot of things — two-point plays, two-point defense, trick plays — we didn’t have enough timeouts in our bag to coach guys up during the game.”
The lack of timeouts proved to be pivotal late. After Dasani Alton ran for 3 yards and Scott followed it up with a 2-yard rush that was stopped at the 1, the clock slowly winded down as the Storm desperately tried to stop the clock.
Scott ran up the line at the last moment and attempted to spike the ball. At that time, both sidelines appeared to celebrate as the Eagles believed Staunton was too late and the SHS sideline believed it had successfully stopped the clock.
“I was really kicking myself for not having a timeout late, but it was one of those things where we had guys step up," Phillips said. "We have a lot of young guys, a whole lot of young guys. It was a great experience for them.”
After a lengthy meeting from the officials, they ruled that Scott had successfully spiked the ball with a second to go and that set up Miguel's game-winning kick.
“You have to stay cool in those types of moments," Miguel said. "I was honestly confused at first and when we lined up for the field goal, I was pretty nervous. As soon as I kicked it, though, I was happy.”
The second half provided all of the action after a scoreless first half in which the two teams combined for four turnovers and the offenses sputtered at times.
“In the first half, we all could look at ourselves in the mirror and know that we left a lot on the table," Phillips said. "We drove inside the 30 four times and came away with no points. We were flashing like a light bulb and then we would just fizzle out. We’d show signs of greatness and then we’d fizzle out.”
Logan Frye's 12-yard touchdown run in the third gave East Rockingham the first score of the contest, but Staunton responded in the fourth with an 18-yard toss from Scott to Rik'Avian Carey with 10:43 remaining to even up the score at 7-7.
On the ensuing Eagles possession, Kayden Jackson blocked the East Rockingham punt attempt and scooped it up for a score to give the Storm a 14-7 lead.
Staunton used a two-quarterback approach with Scott and sophomore Walker Darby splitting time throughout the game. Scott finished 8-of-14 passing for 114 yards and a score while Darby was 7-of-11 for 69 yards with an interception.
Bosserman had 116 yards of total offense for the Storm (1-0) while Carey had six catches for 62 yards, Scott had seven carries for 69 and Alston had 10 rushes for 28 yards of his own. Seven different rushers touched the ball for Staunton.
“Ideally, we’ll have that big-strike offense this year," Phillips said. "That’s what I’m hoping to have. We got a lot of guys in space tonight, which helped. This was the first live action we’ve seen. We knew some things were going to be a little bit off and a little bit missed, but I think our guys handled it pretty well. We got to handle a lot of adversity tonight, which I think is good.”
The most impressive drive of the night for the Eagles was a 13-play, 70-yard drive that ate up 5:08 off the clock and was capped with Frye hitting Zachary Joyner for a 25-yard score. After the score, East Rock opted to go for the two-point conversion and running back Jacob Williams took a toss off a sweep before hitting Joyner successfully to put the Eagles up 15-14 with 4:14 remaining.
“I could blame it on a lot of different things but we’re just going to look ourselves in the mirror and we’re going to figure out the problems and move forward and get better," East Rockingham veteran coach Donnie Coleman said. 'We aren’t going to point the finger at any one individual. We’re going to take it as a group. That’s a team loss on the last play of the game."
Frye finished 6-of-10 passing for 82 yards, a touchdown and a score. He also added 15 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown. Williams finished with 24 carries for 106 yards for East Rock (0-2) while Joyner had three catches for 43 yards.
“This is a great group of kids," Coleman said. "I know I say that a lot, but this is a special group. They’ve been through a lot. I could sit here and say, ‘Well, we’re young.’ And we are young. Sooner than later, we’re going to grow up. These kids are fighting. … They pick me up. Teenagers are resilient. I can’t say enough good things about them."
While the Eagles remain winless and will have a tough turnaround with a home game against Turner Ashby on Wednesday in Elkon, the Storm left Harrisonburg on Saturday with a season-opening win after earning just two a year ago.
And much like Miguel's time as a kicker has continued to get better during his two-year tenure with the team, he believes the program as a whole will continue to grow after a gritty win over a solid East Rockingham squad on Saturday night.
“It’s getting us ready," Miguel said. "Hey, next time we’ll try to work on our offense and defense and we’ll improve from here.”
