Who saw this one coming?

The Battlefield varsity football team pulled off probably one of its finest upsets in program history Friday night in Woodbridge as the Bobcats defeated the undefeated Cardinal District champion Hylton Bulldogs 48-14 in the Northwest region Division 6 semi-final.

"We just took what they gave us," said BHS quarterback Ryan Swingle, mentioning that his teammates kept "revenge" in their minds during practices leading up to the big game.

After all, Hylton (10-1 overall) was one of only two teams to top Battlefield (10-2) during the regular season when the Bulldogs came back to win 19-14 on Sept. 24 in Woodbridge.

Something changed in Haymarket afterward. Swingle and fellow quarterback Devon Greene began to develop a passing game, transitioning away from a completely one-dimension offense built entirely around the team's rushing game.

What threw off Hylton on Friday was that just because Swingle learned how to become an ace passer since their last encounter did not mean the Battlefield ground game slowed down at all.

In fact, it only got better.

Senior running back Nagee Jackson rushed for three touchdowns while Swingle passed for another three, connecting with seniors Bobo Beathard, Chris Wendle and Darion Duncan. Senior rusher Tarrell Tapscott eclipsed the 100-yard mark on the ground strictly through second half rushing, adding a late fourth quarter touchdown of his own.

"We were just really fired up," said Beathard.

The senior receiver said picking up on the Hylton blitzes made a big difference compared to the September meeting.

"(The) last game we played the, they shut us down," said Beathard.

Perhaps confidence, if nothing else, propelled Battlefield to do just the opposite this time around.

Battlefield picked up four first downs during the team's first possession of the game, which came after a Hylton three-and-out on a rugged field that featured yellow and brown spots resembling more of a sandlot than a high school football field. The biggest completion of the drive came immediately on the first play when Greene connected with Duncan for a 21-yard gain after a fake hand off, putting the ball at the Hylton 39.

Jackson capped off the original drive with a 6-yard touchdown run resulting in him barreling through the right-center portion of his offensive line and over the end zone plane.

The first strike stayed deadly for Battlefield on the Bobcats' next possession. Swingle launched a deep ball to Beathard, who caught the floater pass over an outstretched arm of his Hylton defender, turned and darted to paydirt with 5:55 remaining in the first quarter.

"I told Coach (Mark Cox) I could beat my man," said Beathard.

Defensively, another senior played a big role for Battlefield. Quantray Wilkerson nabbed three interceptions against Hylton starting quarterback Dominique Miller while junior linebacker Andrew Smith picked off one pass as well in the second quarter. Greene used his hard count behind center as his own defensive mechanism as he drew the Bulldogs offsides three times just from faking out the front line before snaps.

Hylton's first score made the game competitive, but the second served as little more than an afterthought. The Bulldogs completed an eight-play drive on the with a touchdown pass from Dominique Miller to Michael James on Hylton's first play of the second quarter. That narrowed the Battlefield lead to 14-7.

Yet Swingle responded with a 26-yard completion to tight end Turner Meeks on a third-and-12 at the BHS 20 during the Bobcats' next possession. Two first-down conversions later, with the ball at the 28-yard-line, Hylton held its own on a Beathard rush and a dropped passed, setting up third and 10. That's when the sophomore quarterback launched a pass over two Hylton defenders to Wendle, who eyed the ball the whole time it stayed in the air.

Wendle roped in the pass near the 10 yard line and dotted the sideline toward the end zone as confusion washed over the Bulldogs defense.

Tapscott said that when Wilkerson picked off Miller two plays later, and Jackson broke free for his second touchdown of the half, the game, Battlefield essentially had the game locked.

The Bobcats went on to miss a field goal before half time but came out in a fury in the second half as Swingle launched a 61-yard touchdown bomb to Duncan on the Bobcats' second play from scrimmage.

Miller answered with a touchdown strike to Jaleel Dukes one possession later, but with the score at 35-14, Hylton had little chance to regain momentum.

The final stakes came in the fourth quarter. Jackson opened the last period with a five-yard touchdown run on a handoff from Greene to put the score at 42-14 following Jason Hoepker's sixth extra point of the game.

Tapscott put a bookend on Battlefield's scoring by rushing in a 10-yard score during Battlefield's final possession. Hoepker missed the extra point.

Entering the weekend, Battlefield is set to tangle with another undefeated team in Colonial Forge for the Northwest Region championship this Saturday, Nov. 27 at 1 p.m in Stafford. Only once all season has any team lost to the Eagles by less than 10 points. Colonial Forge never scored less than 35 points and broke 50 three times.

However, returning to the regional finale for the opportunity to take on another favorite is an accomplishment not lost on the BHS players given that they earned it by defeating another team with championship ambitions.

"If we play like this every game, we can win states," said Beathard.