LINGANORE- Staving off slight tears of wonderment that were trickling down his face, Seneca Valley head coach Fred Kim took a moment to gaze off into the Friday night cool sky. Just moments removed from the wildest series of events in the recent years of Maryland’s high school football playoffs, Kim was flashing back to the rugged and misfortune filled path that has guided him to present time.
Along the way, there were stumbles and there were falls. It took him three years to get back to November postseason form, but all the painful memories faded rather quickly on Friday night as Seneca Valley fended off a hard-charging Linganore, 30-27, to advance to next week’s 3A West regional final against Damascus.
“Bend don’t break, always a philosophy we teach at Seneca,” said an emotional Kim, winning his first playoff game since 2012.
A large part of that “bend don’t break” philosophy is the 5-foot-6 violent roadrunner of Adrian Feliz-Platt who led an urgent Seneca Valley offensive attack out of the gates, finding the end zone three times in the game’s first eight minutes on runs of 11, 30 and four yards. Two of Platt’s three early scores came off of Linganore turnovers deep into their own territory.
“Linganore certainly helped us,” Kim said. “Looking back earlier in the game, those two turnovers were big. We had just enough.”
Seneca Valley took a 24-6 lead into the half and appeared the game would balloon out of control until Linganore’s Tyler Fleagle forced a fumble on the Eagles quarterback, Gaskins, that Daniel Ross took 23-yards to the end zone to chip away at the SV lead, 24-14 with 9:49 remaining in the third quarter.
Then a few minutes later and momentum swaying towards the Linganore sideline ever so slightly, Platt received a truck-wide seam up the middle courtesy of his offensive line and ripped off a 75-yard touchdown to energize the Seneca Valley faithful once more. The lead was pushed to 30-14 with 5:16 left in the third.
“My line stepped up huge tonight,” a wide smiled Platt said who finished the game with 224 total yards and four touchdowns on 28 touches. “That Lancer D-line is really good. I’m happy that they stepped up when they needed to step up. The holes were really big.”
In two games against ranked opponents during the regular season (Damascus and Northwest), Seneca Valley has only managed 10 total offensive points. So coming into the game, Kim and his staff knew they needed to put up points offensively and utilize weapons like the versatile Platt. It’s safe to say that game plan was exercised to almost perfection.
“I’ve never coached a kid with such incredible awareness,” Kim said. “You know the old PS3, Madden football, whatever it is where you got awareness? His would be 100, just off the charts and his hit sticks are incredible.”
As each quarter went on and as the clock counted down, the “Seneca Valley way” kept bending and bending.
Linganore pulled to within 10 when Musselman darted a pass to Jack Staub that he took 25 yards to the end zone. And then three plays later, Josh Faulconer scooped up a mishandled Seneca Valley lateral pass and hauled 63 yards down the field for a touchdown.
Just like that, a 24 point lead was a nail-biting three point game with under 11 minutes to go the final quarter.
“We warned our kids about (Linganore),” Kim said. “Their ability to regain momentum just like that. We squeezed our guys very hard in practice for moments like this.”
They bent some more, but seemingly did not break. With 23 seconds left, facing a 3rd-and-1, Seneca Valley needed one more first down to the close out the ball game. That’s when quarterback Petey Gaskins lunged forward and appeared to lose control of the football. Faulconer picked up the loose ball and took off for what seemed to be a walk-off 69 yard touchdown, triggering an electric atmosphere.
After a heavy discussion amongst the officiated crew, Gaskins picked up the necessary two yards needed for the game clinching first down and the play was whistled dead before the ball came loose.
Amid the controversy, Kim thought it was the correct call.
“It was absolutely the correct call,” he said firmly. “The whistle was blown and he had forward progress. It was the correct call.”
Linganore, meanwhile, losses their first home game since Week 9 to Middletown in 2012. The first half offensive hiccups that nearly costed the Lancers numerous of games this season nabbed their heels Friday night as they were down 24-0 with mere minutes left in the second quarter. They outscored Seneca Valley since then, 27-6, but it was not enough to keep the 2015 campaign alive for another week.
“We told our kids to keep playing hard,” Linganore head coach Rick Conner said. “The final play is what it is. All the 26 seniors this year are special. They made my fall.”
Many will be talking about this game for quite some time, speculating on the decision that was made on the last play while others will carry on, saying it’s the correct call.
Seneca Valley will travel to Damascus next week in the 3A West region championship.
“We had to fight through adversity tonight,” Platt said. “We’ll be ready for Damascus next week.”
You can follow me on Twitter @k_fadd and Maryland Sports Access @MDSports Access.
See the individual statistics below for other notable contributors throughout the game.
Box score
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| SV | 21 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| LIN | 0 | 6 | 21 | 0 | 27 |
Scoring summary
| SV | LIN | ||||
| 1st | 10:33 | SV | Adrian Feliz-Platt 5-yard run (Genovez kick) | 7 | 0 |
| 7:51 | SV | Adrian Feliz-Platt 30-yard run (Genovez kick) | 14 | 0 | |
| 3:18 | SV | Adrian Feliz-Platt 4-yard run (Genovez kick) | 21 | 0 | |
| 2nd | 2:18 | SV | Rey Genovez 29-yard field goal | 24 | 0 |
| 0:33 | LIN | Wade Stieren 32-yard pass from Nathaniel Musselman (Kick failed) | 24 | 6 | |
| 3rd | 9:49 | LIN | Daniel Ross 23-yard fumble return (Musselman pass to Ross) | 24 | 14 |
| 5:07 | SV | Adrian Feliz-Platt 75-yard run (Kick failed) | 30 | 14 | |
| 1:14 | LIN | Jack Staub 25-yard pass from Nathaniel Musselman (2-pt conv failed) | 30 | 20 | |
| 4th | 10:42 | LIN | Josh Faulconer 63-yard fumble return (Sparacino kick) | 30 | 27 |
Linganore individual statistics
| Passing | Comp | Att | Yards | Comp % | TD | INT | QBR |
| #7 Nathaniel Musselman | 15 | 28 | 202 | 53.60% | 2 | 0 | 100.6 |
| #3 Wade Stieren | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Rushing | Att | Yards | Avg | TD | Long | Fumbles |
| #7 Nathaniel Musselman | 20 | 97 | 4.9 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| #2 Davon Butler | 6 | 21 | 3.5 | 0 | 12 | 1 |
| Total | 26 | 118 | 4.5 | 0 | 14 | 1 |
| Receiving | Rec | Yards | Avg | TD | Long |
| #5 Jack Staub | 6 | 61 | 10.2 | 1 | 25 |
| #3 Wade Stieren | 5 | 82 | 16.4 | 1 | 32 |
| #2 Davon Butler | 2 | 8 | 4.0 | 0 | 5 |
| #41 Alec Matthews | 1 | 36 | 36.0 | 0 | 36 |
| #18 Michael Rajnik | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 | 4 |
| Total | 15 | 202 | 13.5 | 2 | 36 |
Seneca Valley individual stats
| Passing | Comp | Att | Yards | Comp % | TD | INT | QBR |
| #11 Petey Gaskins | 10 | 13 | 164 | 76.90% | 0 | 0 | 118.3 |
| Rushing | Att | Yards | Avg | TD | Long | Fumbles |
| #7 Adrian Feliz-Platt | 25 | 181 | 7.2 | 4 | 75 | 2 |
| #32 Darius Golston | 14 | 68 | 4.9 | 0 | 22 | 0 |
| #3 Antonio Fox | 1 | 20 | 20.0 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
| #11 Petey Gaskins | 5 | 5 | 1.0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 45 | 274 | 6.1 | 4 | 75 | 3 |
| Receiving | Rec | Yards | Avg | TD | Long |
| #8 Cortez Ervin | 4 | 114 | 28.5 | 0 | 54 |
| #7 Adrian Feliz-Platt | 3 | 43 | 14.3 | 0 | 18 |
| #3 Antonio Fox | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 0 | 5 |
| #32 Darius Golston | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 10 | 164 | 16.4 | 0 | 54 |
