Options halts game with Dunbar, West Potomac edges No. 13 Centreville

Options called off its game Friday against reigning D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association champion Dunbar midway through the third quarter, trailing 34-0.

With just less than five minutes to play in the quarter, Crimson Tide senior quarterback Lamel Matthews broke off a 50-yard run and was pushed out of bounds near the goal line. After that play, Options Coach Derek Deane asked that the game be halted.

“We had a lot of players who were completely dehydrated, to the point where a lot of injuries were being sustained,” Deane said. “And given the fact that a lot of our numbers are limited anyway, we dressed only 22 [players], we were running into nutrition problems. We just didn’t have enough bodies. . . .

“It had nothing at all to do with the score.”

Said Dunbar Coach Jerron Joe, “I was sorta kinda surprised simply because they actually did a good job.

“We were only up, 14-0, at the half. They were doing a real good job, and then for whatever reason they decided to call it quits.”

Options is a public charter school that targets students with special needs, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral issues.

West Potomac 27, No. 13 Centreville 20

Demornay Pierson-El scored on a 78-yard screen pass late in the third quarter as the Wolverines overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to stun the Wildcats in a Virginia AAA nondistrict game in Alexandria.

West Potomac (2-0) stopped Centreville (1-1) on a crucial fourth-down play with approximately eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, then killed more than seven minutes of clock before a 22-yard field goal by Chris Blewitt gave them a seven-point lead in the final minute.

“This win means the world,” West Potomac first-year Coach Jeremiah Davis said. “We sent a message to the region, the state and our school that we’re a force to be reckoned with.”