Brian Lewis/The Gazette Running back T.J. Radzilowski, like Seneca Valley against Northwest, vaulted past defender T.J. Lefeged Friday. The Screaming Eagles reclaimed the King's Trophy with a riveting 36-35 win at Northwest. Both teams are now 8-1.

And Friday night at Northwest (8-1 overall, 4-1 in the county's 3A Division), the Seneca Valley senior did some slingin' of his own, leading the Screaming Eagles to a wild, rootin'-tootin', 36-35 victory in front of 7,000 fans, and bringing back the King's Trophy (annually given to the winner of this game) to Seneca Valley for the first time in three years.

Newberry completed 12 of 19 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown (no interceptions), guiding an ideally diverse offensive attack, which also rushed for 224 yards on 39 carries, paced by senior Quintin Cosby's 130 yards on 22 carries, and did not commit a turnover.

"Our line and receivers played great," Newberry said. "It wasn't all me. Q [Cosby], our running back, made play after play. But it really came down to our line playing so well."

Newberry (6-foot-3, 198 pounds) transferred to Seneca (8-1, 6-0 in 3A Division) just before the start of the school year. He actually had to sit out the first game of the season while Montgomery County Public Schools officials made sure his transfer was legitimate. And while he has been solid all season (74 of 119 for 1,014 yards), there have been very few big plays in the passing game for the Eagles this season. That changed Friday, as Newberry pried open the Jaguars' secondary for six passes of greater than 15 yards, including a 40-yard strike to senior J.J. Veith midway through the fourth quarter, setting up what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown -- a 4-yard run by Cosby, plus the extra point by Veith (the actual winning point of the contest), giving the Eagles a 36-29 lead with 5:12 to play.

"Heck, he was third string at Urbana, nobody gave him a second thought up there or thought he could do anything," Seneca head coach Fred Kim said. "But he obviously proved to everyone he can play, and play with anybody. He's as good as anyone out there."

The first half between the great rivals showed signs of what was to come, but nobody could have predicted how sublime the second half would be.

Whitaker, who was at the peak of his powers (20 of 39 passing for 393 yards and 4 TDs and 65 yards rushing and another score), got the scoring started with a 69-yard bomb to senior Alphonzo Griffin (4 catches, 135 yards, 2 TDs). Whitaker ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with 5:12 to play in the first quarter.

Newberry fired a retaliatory salvo in the opening minutes of the second period with a 24-yard strike to senior Jeff Koger (4 catches, 68 yards). Cosby's two-point conversion run was good, tying the score at 8-8, a line that remained until the 7:46 mark of the third quarter.

From that point on, after two-and-a half-quarters of struggling for points, the teams couldn't stop scoring and couldn't stop making big plays. First, Cosby returned a punt 80 yards to the Northwest 2-yard line, setting up a touchdown (a 2-yard run by junior T.J. Radzilowski). But Northwest came right back with a 59-yard run by senior Salim Koroma, who two plays later caught an 18-yard scoring pass from Whitaker to tie the score at 15-15 with 6:57 to play in the third.

Seneca found the end zone again in 30 seconds when back-up running back Shawn Perry, a sophomore, came in while Cosby had a leg cramp worked on, and dashed 57 yards for a touchdown on his first touch of the night. An interception by Radzilowski and a big pass from Newberry to Radzilowski set up another Seneca score -- a 1-yard Newberry plunge, giving the Eagles a seemingly secure 29-15 lead with 1:47 left in the third period.

But Whitaker (one of the top college quarterback recruits on the East Coast) seemed to relish the deficit, freeing him up to unleash passes on almost every down. He threw 21 passes in the fourth quarter. With 10:16 to play he hit senior back Tony Nelson for a 39-yard scoring pass. Less than two minutes later, he found Griffin with another bomb (this one from 50 yards out) to tie the score at 29-29 with 8:45 left.

But Newberry led the drive that gave Seneca back the lead, 36-29, before Whitaker took off on a wonderful 58-yard scramble for a touchdown that pulled Northwest within 36-35 with 3:35 remaining.

"He's a special player and a special person," said Northwest head coach Randy Trivers of Whitaker. "We never felt we were out of the game. For that matter, we never felt we wouldn't win the game."

But senior Andrew Thomas' extra-point attempt slid just to the right of the goalpost, keeping the score at 36-35. Thomas has hit on 36 of 47 extra-point attempts for the season.

The Jaguars did get the ball back again, and Whitaker led a 63-yard march to the Eagles' 12 with 44 seconds to play. But four straight fade passes to the right corner fell incomplete, setting off a wild Seneca celebration.

"I'm exhilarated. I don't even know how to explain it," said Seneca senior lineman Kevin Quigley. "Everybody was doubting us before this game. But we held on. This is what we needed. Now we can head into the playoffs at full throttle. We'll be going in at maximum velocity."

The loss left Northwest deflated, for now.

"At this time of year you want to be playing your best and we clearly aren't," Trivers said. "It's disappointing. Some people say a loss is good, it helps you re-focus. But I can't say that I'm ever happy to lose. But we need to take a negative situation and make it positive."

Notes: Both teams will be in the state's 3A West Region playoffs (four of the region's 11 teams qualify), with Urbana (9-0) and Frederick (8-1), which start Nov. 12. Even though they have identical records and Seneca beat Northwest, Northwest is still ahead of Seneca in the state's playoff-point system. If the playoffs started this week, Urbana would be the top seed, followed by Northwest, Frederick, then Seneca.

A change in that order can only occur if one of the four playoff teams lose this weekend. Of the four, only Urbana has a tough game -- a rivalry war with reigning 3A state champion Linganore (6-3). Frederick plays Thomas Johnson (2-7), Northwest travels to Wheaton (4-5) and Seneca hosts Watkins Mill (1-8). If Urbana loses, Northwest would likely move up to the No. 1 seed, with Urbana and Frederick probably dueling it out for the Nos. 2 and 3 spots.