This time, the formula of scoring early and a lot overall didn’t work for the Washington-Liberty Generals.
On the night of Sept. 29 on their home field, the Generals (5-1, 1-1) lost for the first time this season, falling to the Herndon Hornets, 38-37, in double overtime in a Liberty District high-school football contest. Washington-Liberty had the chance to win, but failed on a two-point conversion run in the second extra period to end the game.
The Generals led, 24-14, in the fourth period, but Herndon rallied to tie the game at 24 at the end of regulation. Both teams scored touchdowns in each of the two overtimes.
When a penalty gave W-L the ball on the one-yard line for its final conversion attempt, the Generals went for two and the win instead of kicking an extra point to tie. Generals’ runningback Sean Guffey appeared to reach the end zone for the winning two points, but Washington-Liberty head coach Josh Shapiro said the referees ruled he bobbled the ball and did not have possession.
“It’s disappointing to lose that,” Shapiro said. “We were up 10 points in the fourth quarter, then we stopped playing defense and couldn’t stop them. They beat us up.”
Herndon gained 426 total yards, of which 267 were rushing.
The Generals moved the ball throughout the contest. Guffey ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns and caught four passes for 36 yards. Wide receiver Jackson Nowinski had four catches for 99 yards, three of which were touchdown receptions from quarterback Jon Bhojwani. He was 18 of 35 passing for 245 yards and the three TDs.
Also, Jonathan Malatesta had four catches for 53 yards and Michael Barber two for eight.
“We dropped some passes, too, that hurt us, so we left some points out there,” Shapiro said.
Marcelo Carrasquillo booted four extra points and kicked a 26-yard field goal for the Generals.
Washington-Liberty took a 7-0 lead fewer than 2 minutes into the game on a 68-yard pass from Bhojwani to Nowinski and Carrasquillo’s extra point. The Generals led 17-14 at halftime, then had the 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
On defense for W-L, Ben Hughes had two tackles for losses. He was a leading tackler along with Guffey, William Clarke, Zach Meehan, Connor Hurren and Roman Falvo.
A 6-0 start would have been the Generals’ best since the 1956 campaign, when the team finished the regular season 10-0.
