Going Right Down to the Wire

South County's Latest Comeback Is Nothing Out of the Ordinary

When South County senior lineman Chris Kichinko got to the locker room Friday night after his team's home game against Lee, his dad called to offer words of encouragement about a game the Stallions trailed by 10 points in the final minutes and presumably lost.

"Dad," Kichinko said. "We won."

Lesson learned. Never leave a South County game too early, even if there are only two minutes left, the weather is lousy and the outcome seems determined.

Thirteen of the Stallions' past 32 games have been decided by a touchdown or less. Against Lee, South County scored two touchdowns during a span of 19 seconds in the final minute to squeeze out a 27-23 victory.

This was after last week's 32-27 victory over Lake Braddock. On both occasions, South County fans stormed the home field to celebrate.

In each of the past two seasons, South County has played four such games in a row in the middle of the season. The Stallions are halfway there on another harrowing ride. Eleven of those 13 tight games have been against Virginia AAA Patriot District mates.

South County drove 77 yards, the last 26 on a run by senior Eric Dorsey, to make it 23-20 against Lee. Senior Wesley Brown recovered an onside kick, but during that play, Stallions junior linebacker Charles Meyers suffered a neck injury. As a precaution, he was loaded onto a gurney and taken to the hospital. (He was fine, and was released later that night.)

When play resumed after a 20-minute delay, South County senior Kevin Taylor-Sakyi caught a 37-yard pass from junior Aaron Andrews for the winning score.

"We basically got our butt kicked for about 47 minutes and made three big plays," South County Coach Pete Bendorf said.

Maybe, but the Stallions work diligently on such late-game situations during practice, when the first-team offense will go against the first-team defense, with the winning unit getting to eat first at the Thursday team meal.

Or Bendorf will yell out, "Field goal!" and give his kicking unit 13 seconds to sprint onto the field, line up and get an attempt off.

"We say it all the time -- 'You play to the last whistle,' " said Bendorf, whose team is 8-5 in the games decided by a touchdown or less. "You just never know. Friday's the best example I can give them. It doesn't work every time."

Here are a few other of the Stallions' close calls:

Oct. 29, 2005: South County trailed Hayfield by seven with 1 minute 37 seconds left, scored on a 75-yard pass, had an extra point blocked that would have tied the game, recovered an onside kick, scored another touchdown and stopped the Hawks at the 5-yard line as time expired for a 33-28 win, the first victory in school history, and against the school from which South County drew many of its students.

Oct. 7, 2006: Lake Braddock scored on fourth down with about 20 seconds left for a 21-17 win that spoiled the Stallions' homecoming.

Oct. 13, 2006: South County scored the first 20 points but had to thwart a late two-point conversion attempt to secure a 23-21 win over No. 10 Edison.

Sept. 28, 2007: In a tie game with Lee, the Stallions took possession with 1:32 left and drove 65 yards for the decisive score in a 33-26 triumph.

Oct. 12, 2007: The Stallions trailed by three late but scored on an 80-yard run with about 2:30 left and intercepted the ball to sew up a 35-31 win over No. 17 West Springfield.