Harper Leads Edison to Upset Win Over Oakton

What Edison senior running back Angus Harper could not do on the ground last night he figured he might have to do through the air.

After being stopped for losses or no gain on eight of his 13 rushing attempts, he took a short pass 54 yards down the left sideline with about three and a half minutes left to lift his Eagles, who had trailed the entire game, to an 18-14 nondistrict upset at No. 17 Oakton on Friday night.

The Edison secondary, which allowed a long touchdown pass at the end of the first half that enabled the Cougars to take a 14-3 lead, more than redeemed itself by picking off the last three pass attempts by Oakton junior quarterback Jimmy Boone.

Senior Jerrell Haywood came up with the first of those three interceptions, and he returned it 29 yards for a touchdown, giving his team a palpable spark. That, and senior quarterback Levi Barber's two-point conversion run, pulled the Eagles to 14-11.

On their next series, Barber and Harper hooked up for the short pass-long run to give the five-time defending Virginia AAA Northern Region Division 5 champions a victory over the defending Division 6 region champs.

Seniors Marvin Willis and Chris Washington provided the clinching interceptions in the final minutes of a game played in intermittent rain and with no operating scoreboard.

"We had scored on a field goal and a defensive play, so we knew somebody had to break on offense," Harper said. "If somebody had to step up today, it was going to be me."

Harper, who entered the game with almost 500 yards rushing, mustered only 18 yards on the ground, and the shifty Barber managed only 16 yards on 10 carries, in part because of sack yardage that dragged down his total.

"We didn't think we'd be able to run a whole lot against them," Edison Coach Vaughn Lewis said. "We thought we could get wide on them, but they started moving people out to take the wide stuff away. But then that opened up the pass a little bit, and we could get [Harper] in space."

Even though the Edison offense did not make a serious push until the latter half of the fourth period, the defense allowed Oakton (3-2) just one first down in the second half after giving up 10 in the first.

Lewis is generally a pretty easygoing guy, but even he had sharp criticism for the Eagles (4-1) at halftime, and his players responded.

"Coach Lewis usually doesn't get mad, but when he gets mad, it fires the team up," Harper said. "Because every other coach always gets mad, but when he got mad, it showed us that it was time to play."

"That's very much out of character," Lewis said. "But most of the time, our kids don't play lethargic like they did that first series."

That first series was almost the entire first quarter. Oakton drove 80 yards on 15 plays on its opening possession, weathering three penalties -- four, counting off-setting infractions -- to take a 7-0 lead. On the drive, the Cougars featured five ball carriers, and Boone connected with four receivers.

"I thought our defense would be pretty good this week, and they went right down the field, and we didn't slow them down," Lewis said.

Edison 18, No. 18 Oakton 14 Early Exit: Oakton senior all-region defensive back Andrew Leonard left the game, under his own power, with a concussion in the second quarter. He did not return. Get Back Here: Edison had a 46-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Levi Barber to senior Chris Washington negated by a penalty in the first quarter. The teams combined for more than 20 infractions.