The Oakton Cougars completed the regular season with a perfect 10-0 record following last Friday night’s 38-13 Concorde District football win over visiting Herndon.
Next up for coach Joe Thompson’s team is the postseason where Oakton will host South County in a first round game of the eight-team, Northern Region Div. 6 playoffs. The Cougars are the No. 1-seed of the playoffs, while South County is a No. 8-seed.
Herndon (6-4), meanwhile, will travel to Westfield for a first round playoff contest.
Oakton took control of Herndon right from the start, grabbing a 14-0 lead after one quarter and surging ahead by a 24-0 score at the half. Senior running back Trey Watts scored two first half touchdowns, and senior back Jonathan Meadows also ran for a score. The Cougars got a first half field goal (22 yards) from Derek Gleich.
In the second half, Oakton got touchdowns from receiver Jay Young, who caught a 15-yard pass from quarterback Chris Coyer (9-of-12, 121 yards), and a 12-yard scoring run from Meadows.
Herndon scored all its points in the fourth quarter, the first coming on a 70-yard scoring run by Zach Leach and the second on a one-yard run by Sam Groter.
<b>HERNDON</b> is making its first playoff appearance since 2003. But coach Joe Sheaffer said his team must play better than it has in recent weeks if it is to have a chance of beating Westfield this Friday night. Since defeating Westfield in a dramatic overtime affair at Herndon’s homecoming on Oct. 17, the Hornets have lost lopsided affairs to both Robinson and now Oakton.
"That’s my biggest concern," said Sheaffer, Herndon’s second-year head coach. "After we won that game a few weeks ago, for some reason we’ve had no consistency in practice. It’s almost like [the homecoming win over Westfield] was our defining moment. My thing is to get the kids some confidence back and to have a real good week of practice. We’ve been very inconsistent in practice and it’s very frustrating. Last year at this time we were getting better and better."
The 2007 Herndon squad, indeed, was playing its best football at season’s end after a tough 1-4 start to the fall. The Hornets won four of their last five games and barely missed a playoff berth. This season, the team is struggling but has gotten into the postseason. The Hornets will need a dramatic turnaround to defeat a tough and perennial winning Westfield team for a second time this season.
"I can handle us not winning," said Sheaffer, of his team’s recent games. "What I can’t handle is we’re not playing well. That’s discouraging."
But Sheaffer is not discouraged by his teams’ overall play throughout the season. Herndon was a respectable 3-3 in the brutally tough Concorde District, one of the elite football district’s in the state.
"Overall, I’m really happy about the season," said Sheaffer. "We know the Concorde District is a dog fight."