After falling into a 3-touchdown hole to Manassas Park in its Eastern Sectional first round playoff game, William Monroe clawed back to make it a game. A 15-yard touchdown pass from Jack Morris to Zach Duprey put the Dragons on the board late in second quarter, and a long opening drive to start the third quarter capped with a 4-yard Doug Sizemore scoring run had just about everyone in Stanardsville that the first home playoff game in the town was going to something to watch. It was and it wasn’t.
“It’s one of those things where as a coach, I’m still searching for answers,” said Monroe coach Mark Sanford. “I don’t understand what happened to us.”
What happened was a statistical anomaly, something that’s almost impossible to see or imagine. The Cougars only ran eight plays in the third quarter and only had six minutes to do so. They scored seven touchdowns in those eight plays. Take that stretch into the first part of the fourth and it was eight touchdowns on 10 plays run in the second half. And so like that, Monroe’s turn around season came to an end thanks to a 64-20 loss to Manassas.
“We got to a point where we were just trying to run some time, some straight plays,” said Manassas Park coach Joe McElfish. “But (John Byrd) is a talented tail back. He made a few people miss and had a great night.”
Taking advantage of more than a handful of turnovers, almost all of them fumbles, Manassas rode its big horse, running back John Byrd, who ran for a total of six touchdowns and a school record of 314 yards.
“For the past two years, I’ve had the most tremendous (offensive) line,” Byrd said. “It’s been a blessing to be able to do things we’ve done, the blocking and we had some injuries to key players but people just keep stepping up and that’s what a good team does, you step up and overcome adversity.”
Byrd had four runs of 40 yard or more for a touchdowns and two of them were for 65. And when it wasn’t Byrd it was Zach Johnson, who also broke the century mark or quarterback . The seven turnovers played directly into Manassas’ hands and they made hey with it, running for nearly 500 yards on the night.
“I was seeing my line get out there make the good blocks, cut off that and I just kept my feet moving,” Byrd said. “My coach told me for real ‘Just stop trying to out-run people, just lower my shoulder, keep your feet moving and that’s what I did. Once I made the first hit, I just kept my feet moving, get into the open field. Don’t look back.”
After making it a 5-point game on Sizemore’s lone rushing touchdown of the night, the Dragons did not see another score until the fourth quarter with well beyond reach when the Cougars substituted out their starters. Monroe capped it’s last scoring drive of the season on a fullback rushing strike from Brennan Lawson. And mercifully after that, the game was over as Manassas went to work on the clock — there is no running clock in the post season, as opposed to the regular season where a 35-point lead rule during the regular season bleeds away time.
“In that third quarter when its 19-14, we’re expecting a dog fight at that point,” Sanford said before referencing a James Whitcomb Riley poem. “It was just ‘Katy bar the door’, after that. It fell apart.”
And so for Monroe, it was sorrowful end to what was otherwise, an uncanny year where the Dragons finished above .500 for the first time since 1998. As tough as this loss was, especially since Monroe defeated Manassas just two weeks ago, the message from Sanford to his team after the loss was one of long term — even with this loss, much was accomplished for a program that’s made major strides the last two seasons since going 0-10 in 2009.
“Obviously the pain is tremendous right now, especially for the seniors who are realizing its over,” Sanford said. “7-4 season, first time in the playoffs in 20 years and in the (Bull Run) District hunt until the end. A lot of positives came out of this season. Hopefully the foundation has been layed for the future. So (this team) has a lot to be proud of.”
