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Sideline Report Previewing the Area's Top Games
West Springfield senior quarterback Bryn Renner warms up before a scrimmage with Oakton.
(By Richard A. Lipski -- The Washington Post)
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One of the teams has either won or shared the National District title for the past eight years.
Yorktown (4-1, 2-0) has dropped five of the past six games against Edison (5-0, 2-0), including two last year by a combined 84-18 score. The previous game, too, was a relatively breezy Edison win, 27-7, during the 2006 playoffs.
Yorktown, whose only loss has been to unbeaten West Potomac, has been moving the ball more effectively this season, thanks in great part to versatile senior Kyle Toulouse (more than 500 yards rushing) and senior running back Jared Smith (six touchdowns the past two weeks).
The Patriots use no two-way linemen -- and in fact are two-deep on the defensive line -- a rarity for a program that has used three or four two-way linemen some seasons.
"It's a real luxury for us," said Hanson, in his 24th year. He said that when the Patriots won the Division 5 region title in 1999, they used no two-way linemen. Ditto for the 2003 team that reached the region final.
Edison, a Division 5 region finalist the past four seasons, has won 31 of its past 33 games against National District teams, including 13 straight.
Leading Roll
Madison senior Sasha Vandalov, a fullback at the start of the season, has gone from blocking for others to following blocks. He has rushed for 362 yards and has scored five touchdowns during the team's current three-game winning streak.
"We noticed how hard he was running and moved him back to wingback, where he can get a head of steam up," Warhawks Coach Gordon Leib said. "He's been a surprise. He's one of the hardest runners we've had in a while. He just keeps his feet moving all the time. [He has] that snap to whistle mentality which you talk about all the time but you very rarely see it."
Vandalov is listed at 5 feet 9, 180 pounds and can squat 400 pounds, Leib said.
Junior linebacker Eric Leeson is another player who has come on for the Warhawks (3-2), one of four Liberty District teams without a league loss. He has a team-high 52 tackles in five games.
Madison faces Langley (3-2), W.T. Woodson (4-1) and Stone Bridge (5-0) the next three weeks.
Rally Tie?
Unlike most of his peers, Fairfax Coach Chris Haddock wears a tie on game nights, a custom he picked up from former Chantilly coach Dan Meier when he worked on Meier's staff.
