Northern Region Takes Second Annual Football Rumble

On one stormy summer night after many graduations had already commenced, high school football returned to Northern Virginia.

On Sunday, South County hosted the second annual Region Rumble, a football match up pitting senior all-stars from the Northern and Northwest Regions against each other. For the second straight year, the Northern Region came out on top with a come from behind, 20-12 win led primarily by an offensive trio from Hayfield.

Quarterback Jason Stewart twice carried the ball for scores, and South County’s Josh Butler picked up a fumble on the final play of the game and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown. Stewart was named offensive MVP and Lake Braddock’s Andrew Weidinger earned that honor on the defensive side.

Notably missing from the game were seven of the eight All-Met first team selections from the Northern Region, including Offensive Player of the Year Mike Nebrick. The Lake Braddock quarterback graduated high school early to get a jumpstart on his career at UConn. Matt Zannellato, Nebrick’s favorite target during the Bruins run to a Division 6 title, was the only first teamer represented on the roster.

For a game billed as the best of the best, both team’s offenses failed to click for much of the game. Robinson’s Mike Lopresti engineered a couple of promising drives in the first quarter but struggled in the red zone, finishing the game with a fumble and three interceptions. Both quarterbacks were aided greatly by two more Hawks - Cody Whitlow at wide receiver and Justin Marshall at running back. But it was Stewart’s play in the second and fourth quarters that made the difference.

“You’ve just got to make as many plays as you can when you’re in,” Stewart said of the rotation at quarterback. “You can’t be selfish with it though, you have to be smart.”

He showed plenty of football I.Q. when he scored from eight yards out with 37 seconds left in the game to give Northern the lead for good. After executing the option well all night, Stewart again faked a handoff and bowled his way across the goal line.

“We just ran the option,” he said of the winning play. “I saw a hole, so I tried to go Cam Newton on it. The coach told me to just read the end, and if he goes after the back, then take it.”

Northwest had held the lead since 4:48 remained in the third quarter when Matt Deakins hit with Lucky Whitehead down the sideline for an 80-yard touchdown. That was the second time the pair had connected, the first coming less than a minute before halftime on a 25-yard strike where Whitehead out jumped his defender in the end zone to earn the touchdown and cut the score to 7-6. Stewart had scored from six yards out with 6:02 remaining in the second quarter to open the scoring for the Northern Region.

Josh Butler gave the home crowd something to cheer about when he picked up Deakins’ fumble on Northwest’s final effort and rumbled 58 yards, including a nice cutback to follow his blockers, to cap the scoring.

“After the season we had, to come out here and do what we did feels great,” Butler said, referring to the Stallions’ disappointing 5-6 regular season finish.

For players from schools that had, for the most part, never faced off against each other, there was a surprising amount of extracurricular pushing and shoving after several plays. Close to a dozen personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called, though Butler claims it was Northwest’s players were the instigators.

“Oh my goodness, they were talking so much smack,” he said. “They would get tackled, get up and start talking trash. It kind of got under our skin a little bit.”

On a more positive note, the majority of the Northern Region’s players swapped helmet decals in a show of unity. Stewart added the logos of National District rival Mount Vernon, among three or four others, and some players wore another school’s helmet entirely.

“We’ve been joking around all week, just having fun with all the guys in the locker room,” Stewart said of the quick preparations in the days leading up to the game. “It’s real cool because I forgot what family was like with a football team.”