Leesburg, Va. — Much like in their regular season match up with rival Tuscarora, the Heritage High School football team found themselves in an early hole when they hosted Broad Run High School in a VHSL Region 4C quarterfinal on November 14 in Leesburg. The Spartans scored an early special teams touchdown before the Pride were flagged for a few personal fouls allowing Broad Run to jump out to an early 15-0 lead.
The injury-ridden Pride, however, never backed down, cutting the deficit to 15-13 at the half, before the defense held the Spartans to negative rushing yards in the second half, giving the Heritage offense room to complete the comeback, 26-18.
“We have a lot of guys out with injuries,” Heritage head coach Travis Huff said. “For us to be able to pull that out in a playoff atmosphere was a really good program win.”
Within the first 75 seconds of the game, the Spartans had forced a punt, which senior defensive end Mason Schwenke blocked and recovered in the endzone for a touchdown to go up 6-0. The Pride jumped offsides on the PAT, allowing the Spartans to go for two, which senior running back Caleb Pavlus punched in to take an early 8-0 lead.
On the ensuing Heritage drive, the Pride started to find some rhythm as senior running back Reed Alexander found some holes for a pair of first downs. Heritage eventually made their way down to the Broad Run 13, missing a 30-yard field goal attempt.
Late in the first quarter, the Heritage defense took the field for the first time, forcing a quick fourth down that the Spartans ended up converting on. Later in the drive, the Pride forced another fourth down but were flagged for a late hit, giving Broad Run new life.
With the Spartans in the redzone, the Pride were flagged for two more personal fouls, prolonging the Broad Run drive which eventually ended on a 2-yard touchdown run by Pavlus to increase the Spartan lead to 15-0.
On the ensuing kickoff, a short kick paired with a Broad Run personal foul, set the Pride up in plus territory to start their third drive of the game. Heritage sophomore quarterback Jonathan Heckman threw a quick pass to senior receiver Ryan Louder before Alexander carried the ball four straight times to pick up a pair of first downs.
After a 9-yard run by senior running back Preston Plonski, Alexander took two more carries to punch in a 2-yard touchdown run. The PAT by sophomore kicker Jason Urias cut the deficit to 15-7.
“The message this week was that it was going to be a fight,” Huff said. “We were going to punch them, they were going to punch us, and at some point someone was going to give up. We focused on winning the one-on-one matchup and making the guy across from us quit.”
Heritage caught a break on the following kickoff as the Pride met the return man head on, forcing a fumble, which was recovered by sophomore linebacker Jack Alexander on the Broad Run 40.
On the first play of the drive, the Heritage offensive line opened up a hole as Alexander rumbled for 13 yards. Heckman then connected with senior receiver Pip Groves for 15 yards down to the Broad Run 12. Heckman then used his legs as he scrambled down to the Broad Run 3.
A holding penalty pushed the Pride back to the 13, but Alexander quickly erased the penalty on a 9-yard run back to the 4. Then, on 4th-and-2, Alexander picked up 3 yards and another first down as the clock continued to wind down.
Back-to-back Alexander rushes proved unfruitful as the Pride were forced to use their final timeout of the half.
Out of the timeout, Heckman threw an incomplete pass, stopping the clock with 5 seconds to play in the half. On 4th-and-goal from the 1, Heckman rolled to his right on a designed quarterback keeper, however, Broad Run contained the edge, forcing Heckman to think on his toes, as he flipped a pass to senior receiver Brady Crimmins in the endzone for a touchdown. The Pride’s two-point conversion attempt was no good.
Coming out of the half down 15-13, the Pride kicked off to the Spartans to start the second half. Broad Run chewed up a bunch of clock in a strategic drive that Heritage eventually thwarted, holding the Spartans to a 31-yard field goal off the boot of sophomore kicker Austin White to extend their lead to 18-13.
It took the Pride just four plays to answer as Alexander—who finished the game with 35 carries for 183 yards and a touchdown—picked up 19 and 29 yards, respectively, on back-to-back carries.
“If you look at the last three games against Broad Run, [Alexander]’s rushed for almost 700 yards,” Huff said. “He’s been impressive, but for some reason, he’s been really impressive against Broad Run.”
Heckman then hit Groves for a 13-yard pickup before Plonski found a hole and broke free for a 27-yard touchdown run as the Pride took their first lead of the game 19-18.
“Not having [injured junior running back Luke]Olzewski back there hurts,” Huff said. “But Plonski did a great job tonight creating our dual back threat.”
From there, the Heritage defense took over. On the ensuing Broad Run drive, the Pride forced a three-and-out. Following a Heritage punt, the Spartans once again had trouble moving the football, eventually setting up a 4th-and-long near midfield.
Needing 8 yards to pick up the first down, Broad Run drew up a pass play, but Heritage senior defensive end Eray Uzan dropped the Broad Run quarterback in the backfield for an 11-yard loss, as the Pride took over at the Broad Run 35.
“All week we were focused on the run. We felt like if we could force them to pass, we’d win the game,” Huff said. “We tried to get them to 2nd-and-long to force the issue and our guys did a great job of that.”
Alexander then marched the Pride down to the goal line, where Plonski would finish the job on a 3-yard touchdown run to extend the Heritage lead to 26-18 late in the fourth quarter.
Needing a touchdown to tie, the Spartans went back to the air and found some mild success to move into Pride territory. However, facing 4th-and-7 from the Heritage 45, Broad Run threw a pass over the middle, which Plonski read the entire way for the interception to put the game on ice, 26-18.
With the win, Heritage (3-1, 7-4) earned a return trip to Loudoun County, where they will tango with the No. 1 Captains in a VHSL Region 4C semifinal on November 21 in Leesburg. In their regular season matchup on November 7, the top-seeded Captains dominated their rival Pride, 35-0.
“They kicked our butt last week, so we’re going to use that as motivation and fire,” Huff said. “We’re going to put together the best game plan we can and give the kids as much confidence as we can going into the game.”
Derrick Jerry captured 150+ photos at the game!
Scoring Plays
| Period | Time | Team | Play | Score |
| 1Q | 10:51 | Broad Run | Mason Schwenke blocked punt recovery TD (Caleb Pavlus 2pt run) | 0-8 |
| 2Q | 6:59 | Broad Run | Caleb Pavlus 2-yard TD run (Austin White PAT) | 0-15 |
| 2Q | 3:38 | Heritage | Reed Alexander 2-yard TD run (Jason Urias PAT) | 7-15 |
| 2Q | 0:00 | Heritage | Jonathan Heckman to Brady Crimmins 1-yard TD pass (2pt failed) | 13-15 |
| 3Q | 5:14 | Broad Run | Austin White 31-yard field goal | 13-18 |
| 3Q | 4:11 | Heritage | Preston Plonski 27-yard TD run (2pt failed) | 19-18 |
| 4Q | 5:18 | Heritage | Preston Plonski 2-yard TD run (Jason Urias PAT) | 26-18 |