Jennifer Muhlenbruck

Senior captains Jake Mangano, Caleb Cleveland, Michael Johnson, and Josiah Bryson walking up to do the coin toss before the game.

Friday, Sept. 20th, Forge football took on Patriot for what was deemed the “Northern Virginia game of the week” by NSMT (Nova Sports Media Team). 

Both teams were undefeated, with Patriot being ranked 20th in the state and Forge at 28th. 

The game started off tense, with Patriot scoring first with eight minutes left in the first quarter.  

Their lead didn’t last long though, as Taysean Jones (’26) scored the first touchdown with two minutes left.

“It was a good play call for fourth down and once I saw the defense that Patriot was in, I knew we were gonna score,” quarterback Brock Brimhall (’26) said. 

With both teams keeping the intensity up, the Eagles forced a punt on the next drive, giving them the ball on their own 19 yard line. 

However, they weren’t able to capitalize on the advantageous field position and had to attempt a 35 yard field goal, which they missed.

Feeding off the momentum of the fourth down stop, the Pioneers hurried down the field and scored once again, making the score 14-7.

The Eagles responded on a long second-quarter drive, resulting in a 4-yard rushing touchdown from Joziah Bryson (’25). 

With three minutes left in the half, the Pioneers scored on a long pass resulting from a broken coverage from Forge’s secondary. The score was now 21-14.

With hopes of tying the game up going into halftime, the offense headed back onto the field.

After a couple of first downs, center Brock Mangano (27) snapped the ball over to Brimhall, killing the Eagles drive.

The Eagles ran the rest of the clock out and had to suffice with a 14-21 deficit.

Getting the ball coming out of halftime, Forge needed a touchdown to even up the score. Sadly, a 3-and-out with a couple of drops and bad runs resulted in another Forge punt.

With the game depending on a defensive stand, the defense came through, forcing a much-needed punt in which the ball was back in the hands of the explosive Forge offense.

A couple plays later, Brimhall launched another pass to Jones, catching it in stride and running 20 more yards for the Eagles touchdown. The score was now 21-21.

With the momentum back on Forge’s side, the Eagle’s thwarted yet another offensive attack. They forced a fumble on the Patriot QB, leading to Jones scooping up the ball and taking it back for another Eagles’ score: 28-21.

Once the ball landed back in the hands of the Forge offense up one score in the fourth quarter, they knew they had to put the game on ice. 

Dropping back on the 22-yard line, Brimhall threw a fade route to freshman Darion Majeed (28), who jumped and made a sensational catch in the endzone to go up by two touchdowns: 35-21.

The Pioneers would attempt a futile comeback, but it was too little too late. They scored one more time, but couldn’t do much else as the Eagles ran the rest of the clock out. 

Brimhall took a knee in the victory formation and the Green Wall stormed the field as the Eagles pulled off the upset and upped their record to 4-0.