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Brentsville drops home football opener to Freedom 22-14
As soon as Brentsville District quarterback P.J. Borko heard the comment that his team’s 22-14 loss to Freedom (South Riding) was not the way he wanted to start the football season, the senior quickly concurred. “Not at all,” said the long-time fixture in coach Dean Reedy’s offensive backfield. Winds and rain brought on by Tropical Storm Hanna made for miserable playing last Friday in Nokesville as the game drew on.By the time senior defensive back Dakota Porter intercepted Borko (3-7 passing, 40 yards, one rushing TD) for his second time that night with only seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, rain was streaming from the clouds like water being rung out of a just-soaked giant sponge.“Tonight, weather wasn’t in our favor. It wasn’t our night,” said the third-year starter Borko. “It wasn’t our night.”
Indeed, it was Freedom’s night. The win marked the first for the team from Loudoun County in two years, according to Porter who could be seen after the game pressing flesh with his elated teammates.
“Well, our coaches told us to get (even) and not let anybody get behind us,” said Porter about how he managed to pick off the Brentsville QB twice. “So I didn’t; I didn’t let anyone get behind me. I did what my coaches told me to do.”
Neither of Porter’s interceptions resulted in touchdowns for Freedom. But they did allow the Eagles to kill Tiger drives at the end of each half.
With Freedom leading 10-7 on the strength of a Michael Lehnertz rushing touchdown and a 32-yard Nico Vivaldi field goal, Brentsville started its last run of the second quarter from its own 24.
Borko converted on a third-and-4 pass to teammate Erik Kelly for a 12-yard pick up and connected with the senior wide out again four plays later for another 12-yarder, putting Brentsville on the Freedom 38 with about 45 seconds left.
Then, after a timeout on second-and-5, Borko rolled to his left on a bootleg only to be picked off by Porter.
Off-setting penalties gave Brentsville new life, but there was Porter again on the next play, roping in a wet, wobbling throw right in the middle of the field at the Freedom 24-yard-line.
“I mean, we pretty well had the ball all the second quarter, you know?” Reedy said as he explained what went wrong for his team. “I don’t know. I think it was a culmination of things there in a couple of series. We had where we got off track of things, some misreads, [and] they may have been where we should have checked where they were slanting.”
Reedy opted to keep the ball on the ground virtually the entire game. Only once did that backfire as a third quarter fumble in Tiger territory led to Freedom’s go-ahead touchdown that put the Eagles up 16-14. Porter put the game out of reach 3:05 into the fourth quarter with a 45-yard touchdown reception.
Borko only attempted passes once in the first quarter and once in the third quarter. But the running game proved to be good enough for a score in the third quarter as the Brentsville offensive line routinely opened up holds for leading-rusher Danny Hoosier (73 yards) and senior Philip Johnson, the latter of whom rushed into the end zone at the end of a 16-play, 78-yard drive.
“Tonight, for the most part, we played perfect fundamental football and lost it in the end,” said Borko. “To be honest, there wasn’t anything hard about (Freedom’s) defense. They were a good, strong team but the outcome should have been different and we’re going to start working on that tomorrow morning.
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