DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220663

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

W. BRANCH WAS BEATEN, BUT NEVER BROKEN

CHESAPEAKE - There was one minute and 22 seconds left in the game when Lew Johnston removed his headset on the Western Branch sideline, ceasing communication with his coach in the press box.

It was over. Another Kecoughtan running back had just dashed through another huge hole for another first down and Johnston and his Bruins had to face facts.

The best team, the best season, in Western Branch history was done.

Kecoughtan would win the Division 6 region title 14-7 on Friday night and move onto the Group AAA state semifinals. Western Branch would lose for the first time in 12 games and go home.

As always in losses that mean so much, the Bruins will lament their squandered chances, their self-defeating miscues. The rash of penalties, for instance, that marred their last two possessions of the first half.

``Y'all gotta wake up and pay attention,'' Johnston screamed out at his offensive unit near the half's end, waving them to the sideline during a Kecoughtan time out. ``You guys clueless out there?''

That's heat of the moment stuff, but it wasn't mental mistakes or lack of passion that beat the Bruins. Both teams competed their brains out. Western Branch, in fact, got the better of the night's hitting, judging from the number of Kecoughtan players who hobbled off the field at various times.

The Warriors, however, won it where most games are decided, in the mud and the blood of the offensive and defensive lines.

The former allowed Kecoughtan's swift and shifty quarterback Jovonn Quillen and backs Chuck Forte and Carlton Morant, who answer to the same description, to eat up ground and control the ball.

The latter kept a lid on the Bruins' dangerous wing-T attack for all but a couple of plays. Western Branch's second play, for instance. Pinned at his own 5, Keith Burnell burst around left end on a sweep and didn't stop running until he was dragged down from behind at the Kecoughtan 19.

Six plays later, Western Branch had the early lead when the very large Marvin Urquhart bulled in from the 1 on a fourth-down call.

Pinned deep inside their own turf again a few minutes later, the Bruins couldn't catch Kecoughtan in quite as forgiving a mood. After three plays, a 24-yard punt set up the Warriors at the Western Branch 28 and led to the points that made it a 7-7 game at the half.

Forte's 31-yard rumble for a touchdown early in the third quarter will go in the books as the play that made the difference. But to the Bruins, the haunting one came near the end of the third quarter.

They had driven from their own 45, Drew Delk contributing 18 yards on a run and 20 on a great over-the-shoulder catch of a pass from quarterback David Johnson. They were on the Kecoughtan 15. First down. And Johnson fumbled away the snap.

``They're dropping like flies,'' Johnston beseeched his offensive players as he gathered them on the bench. ``You're beating the heck out of them. We've shown them we can move the ball on them. But we've gotta execute.''

Their final chance to move it came with 4:24 left. Frank Lamagna recovered a fumble and the Bruins started from their 36. They got a first down - little knowing that four plays remained in their season.

They almost scored, give them that. From the 48, David Johnson lofted a bomb down the right side toward receiver Emmett Johnson. Given the Bruins' ineffective passing game Friday, there was no reason to expect that cornerback Lloyd Davis would be step-for-step with Johnson.

But he was. Johnson and Lloyd were mirror images as the ball descended, and it was Davis who got his hand up first, batting away a pass that had touchdown and overtime and maybe even state title stamped on it.

Two minutes later, Johnston's headset came off. And Western Branch's best team ever was left to its tears, its rage and its regrets.

And this epitaph.

``There were some great individual players here in the '70s,'' said Johnston, who completed his 13th season at Western Branch. ``But there's never been the quality, the quantity of quality, that we had this year.''

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