Leesburg, Va. — It took the Stone Bridge High School football team less than one minute to open the scoring in the 14th Annual Battle of the Burn, and the Bulldogs never looked back.
Behind 9 touchdowns and nearly 550 yards of total offense, the Bulldogs forced four Broad Run fumbles and dominated from start to finish to defeat their Ashburn rival, 64-7, on October 2 at Segra Field in Leesburg.
“We thought about it all week,” Stone Bridge senior quarterback Jacob Thomas said. “We made sure our calls were right, because we knew we wouldn’t be able to hear. It was a crazy atmosphere, but we were ready for it.”
[adrotate banner=”46″]Thomas got the scoring started when he hit junior receiver Colton Hinton with a 49-yard touchdown pass just 51 seconds into the game.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Stone Bridge defense forced a fumble as the Bulldogs took over on the Broad Run 28 yard line. Just three plays later, Thomas took to the ground for a 2-yard touchdown run to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 14-0.
On the Spartans’ first offensive possession, the Bulldogs forced another Broad Run fumble, again giving Stone Bridge the ball with a short field.
Facing 4th-and-9 from the Broad Run 25, Thomas hit senior receiver Colin Hart with a 25-yard touchdown connection to put the Bulldogs up 21-0.
“The game moves really slowly for Jacob,” Stone Bridge head coach Mickey Thompson said. “He is a phenomenal athlete and a great quarterback. It was like he was playing Madden. He was the difference maker tonight.”
Broad Run finally got some things going on their second offensive drive as senior quarterback Brett Griffis found senior receiver Arnav Thornhill with a 16-yard touchdown pass to cut the Stone Bridge lead to 21-7. Those were the last 7 points the Bulldogs’ defense would allow.
Before the first quarter ended, Thomas once again scampered into the endzone, and before the first half was over, the Bulldogs defense had forced two more fumbles, stealing the early momentum, and never allowing the Spartans’ offense or defense to fully come together.
“It’s one of those things where we were fortunate enough to get some turnovers early, and when we got rolling, things got out of hand,” Thompson said. “That’s a good football team, but we were clearly the better team, and we proved it tonight.”
Stone Bridge junior receiver Zeke Wimbush took over in the second half, breaking free for 73-yard and 86-yard touchdown receptions to put the game completely out of reach.
“We watched film all week and knew their safeties played down,” Thomas said. “Since we have athletes on the outside, we just designed plays to beat their coverages.”
When all was said and done, Thomas had shown out, completing 10 of his 13 pass attempts for 365 yards and 5 touchdowns while adding 2 more touchdowns on the ground, while the Stone Bridge defense allowed just the one touchdown to claim the 2021 edition of the Battle of the Burn.
The Bulldogs now lead the all-time series with Broad Run, 14-4, however, the rivalry has been much more evenly matched—4-3 Bulldogs—over the last seven matchups. Despite all the excitement surrounding this game, Stone Bridge (6-0) and Broad Run (3-0, 5-1) will both need to refocus in the coming weeks as they hope to make deep playoff runs.
“One of our targets was to build for and to be playing our best for this game,” Thompson said. “Now, we need to refocus, look at what we’re doing well, look at what we need to do better, and restart to see if we can make a run in the playoffs.”
Derrick Jerry captured 250+ photos at the game!
Scoring Plays
| Period | Time | Team | Goal | Score |
| 1Q | 11:09 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas to Colton Hinton 49-yard TD pass (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 7-0 |
| 1Q | 10:13 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas 2-yard TD run (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 14-0 |
| 1Q | 7:32 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas to Colin Hart 25-yard TD pass (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 21-0 |
| 1Q | 5:03 | Broad Run | Brett Griffis to Arnav Thornhill 16-yard TD pass (Garrett Bennion PAT) | 21-7 |
| 1Q | 2:25 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas 2-yard TD run (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 28-7 |
| 2Q | 0:02 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas to Zeke Wimbush 14-yard TD pass (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 35-7 |
| 3Q | 9:59 | Stone Bridge | Eli Mason 48-yard TD run (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 42-7 |
| 3Q | 0:11 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas to Zeke Wimbush 73-yard TD pass (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 49-7 |
| 4Q | 6:54 | Stone Bridge | Jacob Thomas to Zeke Wimbush 86-yard TD pass (Dylan Dastejerdi PAT) | 56-7 |
| 4Q | 2:43 | Stone Bridge | Tyson Miller 7-yard TD run (Brandon Pena 2pt run) | 64-7 |