The defending Liberty District champion Langley Saxons continued their winning ways with a dominating 35-13 road victory over the Oakton Cougars in the season opener for both high-school football squads on Aug. 25.
The loss was Oakton’s eighth in a row over two seasons, which began with a 21-14 setback to Langley in game three last fall.
This season, Langley gained 465 total yards in the win, including 345 on the ground, and amassed 18 first downs. The rushing yardage was highlighted by a 92-yard touchdown run by Robert Roncskevitz (168 yards on the ground) late in the second quarter when Oakton called multiple timeouts hoping for a final possession before the half.
Langley’s other touchdowns were scored by Jackson Popovich (83) yards on TD runs for 25 and six yards, Vincent Shen on a 63-yard pass from Michael Iakovlev and Blake Thompson’s six-yard pass from Cole Samburg. Mateo Arboleda kicked three extra points and Iakovlev ran for a two-point conversion.
Langley led 28-7 at halftime, after trailing 7-0.
Samburg had 83 yards rushing for Langley and completed 7 of 11 passes for 57 yards. Iakovlev had the one completion and Cannon Clarke had nine yards rushing.
Clarke had three catches for 34 yards for Langley and Blake Thompson had two for 12. Roncskevitz and Chris Bergloff had a catch each.
Langley head coach Dave Murray said a couple of penalties nullified two other Saxons’ touchdowns.
On defense for Langley, Diamani Moore, Chandler Bowles and Gannon Pascual had interceptions and Max Kelly recovered a fumble.
Oakton gained 311 total yards and had four turnovers. Samar Kaul passed for 265 yards with Noah Toole and John Mead catching multiple passes.
Oakton did not provide any other statistics to the GazetteLeader, as the head coach did not respond to messages asking for those details.