FRONT ROYAL – Strasburg scored the game’s final three touchdowns to break open a tight contest to surge past Skyline 41-20 in the season opener for both teams.

The Rams were clinging to a one-point lead (21-20) late in the third quarter before breaking open the game.

Skyline had the momentum after quarterback DayShawn Haley connected with Andre Ford for a 28-yard touchdown pass to cut the Strasburg lead to 21-20, and then the Hawks defense forced a quick three-and-out forcing the Rams to punt.

Skyline junior Zayden Burks then returned the kick 32 yards to set up the Hawks with first down at the Strasburg 35.

But the Rams defense held, holding to Hawks on a fourth-and-six, as Haley’s scramble came up three yards short.

On the very next play the Rams’ Quincy Williams broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and raced 73 yards to put Strasburg up 27-20.

Early in the fourth quarter Williams struck once again.

After a short Skyline punt, Williams took the next handoff and torched the Hawks’ defense with a 66-yard TD run to put the Rams up 34-20.

“The coaches told me that I had to be a leader,” Williams said. “I had to step up. We started off slow, but we picked it up in the fourth quarter.”

Williams tacked on a 5-yard score late in the fourth quarter to put the Hawks away. In all Williams rushed for 223 yards on 12 carries.

“He’s a special player,” Strasburg head football coach Tripp Lamb said of Williams. “I talked to him at halftime and I thought he was holding back a little in the first half, and I told him that he was going to have to lead us out here and be our guy. And he showed up. We’ve got some other guys given the opportunity that could have shined, but it turns out it was his night and he really shined.”

The Hawks and Rams traded turnovers to begin the game with Strasburg coming up with an interception on the Hawks first play.

But Skyline recovered a Ram fumble on the very next snap to take over at the Strasburg 28. Haley connected with Ford for a 28-yard TD pass to put Skyline up 7-0.

Strasburg answered right back as Williams returned the ensuing kick-off 92 yards to tie the game at 7-7.

The Hawks quickly regained the lead on its next possession as Haley found Ford once again for a 16-yard score to give Skyline a 14-7 lead.

In all, Ford scored three touchdown passes and caught five passes for 88 yards.

Strasburg tied the score early in the second quarter as quarterback Brayden Hough scored on a 2-yard keeper.

Later in the half, Strasburg forced a Skyline punt and then put together a seven play, 52-yard drive to take its first lead of the game as Linkyn Bosworth bulled in from the 4-yard line.

Skyline had three touchdowns called back in the game due to penalties – a 60-yard punt return by Burks in the first quarter, a 77-yard run from Burks in the second quarter, and a 32-yard pass to Marques Lockhart-Wright in the fourth quarter.

Skyline was flagged 10 times for 120 yards, 95 coming in the first half.

“It’s definitely been a hurdle for us, the penalties hurt us tonight and both of our scrimmages,” Skyline coach Heath Gilbert said. “They definitely cost us big time, but we gotta give credit to Strasburg too.”

After allowing the Hawks over 200 yards of offense in the first half, the Rams defense came up big in the second half, allowing just 21 yards to the Hawks in the pivotal fourth quarter.

“They have dynamic players all over the field, so it felt really good for us to buckle down there in the second half,” Lamb said. “We started playing our brand of football. We made too many mistakes in the first half and against a good team like that you can’t make mistakes. We’ll have to get better on the edge and in the secondary but our guys buckled down and we’ll get better.”

The Rams also kept Burks in check late in the game. In all, Burks finished with 100 yards on 19 carries, but was held to minus yardage on four carries in the fourth quarter.

“The Burks kids is such a special player – it seemed like every time he touched the ball something good happened for them,” Lamb said. “So we had to make some adjustments, and we just had to play better. I felt like in the first half we were a little lethargic, maybe we just thought we could just show up and win, and that’s not going to happen any week, especially against Skyline because this is always going to be a good game.”

Skyline will have a bye next week and plenty of time to think about its mistakes before taking on Class 3 state runner-up Kettle Run on Sept. 12.

“Definitely turnovers started the whole thing and penalties at the end of the day,” Ford said. “We had so many big plays that unfortunately got called back.”

“We talked to the kids about attacking the process and that’s easy to do when you are 0-0 or when you win your first game,” Gilbert said. “We’re a little bit behind the eight ball here, but this team has the ability to still have a really successful season.”