Friday night, when the game kicked off, was supposed to mark an almost unprecedented meeting between The Washington Post’s top-ranked public (Freedom) and private (DeMatha) schools. Instead, almost 20 hours later, it ended in a no-contest.
At the time of cancellation, Freedom led DeMatha 21-14 with 50 seconds left in the first half. The teams, both 2-0 this season, are scheduled to play next year at DeMatha.
“It feels like a missed opportunity,” Freedom Coach Darryl Overton said.
“Both of us wanted to play,” DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. “It’s really tough for the kids.”
The decision — made by training staff, administrators and officials — left many unsatisfied. Certainly, that included the many fans who returned after Friday’s sold-out affair; scholars of The Post’s local rankings, who have clamored for evidence in the ongoing debate about a public school’s belonging alongside the private school powers; the Eagles, who finally got to play the role of underdog with a largely noncompetitive schedule otherwise; and the Stags, who had circled this as a signature matchup.
“We knew going into it that we could [compete with DeMatha], even if everybody else might not have [thought so],” Overton said.
Anticipation had mounted since the game was announced this summer. More than two decades had passed since McGregor last found a Northern Virginia public school willing to compete with his Washington Catholic Athletic Conference powerhouse.
In the 1990s, his program had gone 9-3 against public schools, but the Stags hadn’t found another willing challenger until the Eagles — a program that shattered Virginia’s scoring record last fall — lunged at an opportunity to play spoiler against the area’s top-ranked program.
“These games are always the best atmospheres, and it was electric on Friday night,” McGregor said. “It’s sometimes hard to get a public school to play. We’d love to play a [C.H.] Flowers or a Wise. It’s good for the kids, good for the community.”
On Friday, Freedom’s speed and DeMatha’s size seemed to even out. The Stags’ first two scores came via blocked punts, while the Eagles’ offense capitalized on a long kickoff return and a 50-yard run by junior Jeffrey Overton, each of which set up a quick touchdown to cut DeMatha’s lead to 14-13 before the postponement midway through the second quarter.
Logistics made a restart tricky. Darryl Overton asked for the game to start at 11 a.m. in hopes of avoiding poor weather, but DeMatha, not having reserved buses for Saturday, could not get to Woodbridge until 1 p.m. In Woodbridge, the school had to hire police officers, which they considered particularly important after several fights between students broke out in the parking lot the night before.
Oddities persisted into Saturday. Play, which was supposed to begin at 1 p.m., started 20 minutes late. Under the Saturday afternoon sun, one fan required treatment from trainers because of heat exhaustion.
Two plays after the game’s resumption, Jeffrey Overton scored on a 52-yard run, and a two-point conversion put the Eagles ahead by seven.
“Truthfully, we were worried with all the starting and stopping that we would lose our fire,” Darryl Overton said. “Man, they were riled up. They were relishing the moment.”