Comebacks, Blowouts and First-Time Glory Highlight Saturday's Maryland State Football Championships

Patuxent stunned Fort Hill with a historic rally, Linganore completed a perfect season in dominant fashion, and Huntingtown finally broke through to capture its first state title in an unforgettable Championship Weekend in Annapolis

Patuxent shocked perennial state champion Fort Hill, with a rally from 21 points down, to win the 2025 MPSSAA 1A state championship, 35-28. / Patuxent Football/Adam Dube

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND - Huntingtown High finally tasted victory while Linganore and Patuxent returned to glory at the Maryland public state football championships Saturday. 

Patuxent won the Class 1A crown with a stunning 35-28 victory over Fort Hill, and Huntingtown grinded out a 24-21 victory over rival Northern-Calvert in the 2A final. Linganore completed a perfect season with a resounding 56-17 decision over Oakdale for the 3A championship. 

Here’s five takeaways from the final day of Championship Weekend for Maryland public school football:

Faithful comeback by Patuxent

Jahiye Dixon’s mindset was simple when the football floated in the air during the second half of Saturday’s Class 1A state championship game.

See ball. Catch ball. Run with ball. Touchdown.

“I saw that ball, and I just thought, ‘Mine,’” said the Patuxent senior defensive linemen who missed an opportunity to score off a turnover during last weekend’s state semifinal win over Wicomico, leading to some teasing from teammates and coaches during the week.

Dixon’s defensive score was part of a jaw dropping reversal of fortunes for the Panthers (10-3 overall), who scored the final 28 points to end Fort Hill’s championship reign. 

“That was absolutely the greatest game I’ve been a part of,” said Patuxent coach Steve Crounse. “The resiliency my kids showed. … This group of teenage boys was fighting for their community, fighting for their school and fighting for each other.”

It started from the final play from scrimmage of the first half when freshman quarterback Brayden Watson threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Coen Boorstein. On the Panthers’ second offensive play of the second half, Watson hit Peyton Johnson for a 79-yard score.

Evan Jones got Patuxent even with a 38-yard breakaway score, capping a two-play series. Two plays from scrimmage later, John Edwards hit Fort Hill quarterback Noah House from the blindside and Dixon snagged the ball and ran 23 yards untouched into the end zone, giving Patuxent its first lead with 1:28 left in the third.

“We always preach championship effort at practice, every day we work,” said Jones, who had 239 total yards and two scores. “We knew we had to play four quarters of hard football and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Panthers became the first Southern Maryland Athletic Conference team to win back-to-back state football titles. The Lusby (Md.) school won the 2A/1A crown last year defeating Paul Laurence Dunbar, which had won the previous three championships.

Patuxent said some of its 2025 preparation was geared towards Fort Hill, winners of nine of previous 11 1A championships. The Sentinels last lost a state postseason decision in 2019. 

Crounse remembered a talk with his team at a camp at Shepherd University in the summer.

“You can hope something’s going to happen or you have faith that it’s going to happen,” said Crounse. “Well, we were hoping in the first half and turned into faith when it was 28-21...we started making more plays and turned hope into faith. All the way back in July and it came to fruition the first weekend of December.”

Fort Hill stumbles on doorstep of history

Leading 28-7 late in the second quarter, Fort Hill was on track to secure its place in Maryland public state football history. 

About 90 minutes later, the Sentinels were comprehending a shocking conclusion to its season. Fort Hill was looking to become the first team to win five consecutive Maryland state football titles. 

“We just weren’t as effective coming out after about midway through the third quarter,” said Fort Hill coach Zach Alkire. “We weren’t able to run the football, we were able to get stops. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

The Sentinels’ smash-mouth running attack worked with senior Braden Younger, who rushed for 119 yards in about 2-1/2 quarters. He left the game during the first series of the second half with a left knee injury and watched the rest of the game from a trainer’s table on Fort Hill’s sidelines.

The Sentinels (9-4) had the ball for more than nine minutes in the third quarter. It was outscored 21-0 in the frame, and had four total fumbles (lost two).

Fort Hill said it will use Saturday’s disappointment to regroup in 2026.

“I think it just gives us motivation to work harder,” said junior running back/defensive back Carson Bender. “I’ll come back next year with all the guys we got returning and win what we lost this year.”

Title void ends for Linganore

There were two words on Bradly Matthews’ eye black: No mercy. After several years of heartbreak, Matthews and his Linganore teammates finally left Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium late Saturday evening as champions.

“Couldn't go out any better way than that, with my brothers," Matthews said in the post-game press conference. "Just a great way to end it."

Linganore’s Bradly Matthews holds up the Maryland Class 3A state championship trophy Saturday evening. The senior running back finished with 161 yards rushing and three touchdowns as the Lancers completed a perfect 14-0 campaign with a 56-17 decision over Oakdale at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. / Derek Toney

Matthews, a Georgetown University recruit, capped his brilliant varsity career with 161 yards rushing and three touchdowns (80 career touchdowns). Junior quarterback David Doy went 16-for-21 for 266 yards and five touchdowns and Drew Rupp intercepted two passes.

The Lancers, ranked No. 6 in this week’s High School on SI Maryland Top 25, scored the final 42 points on Frederick County rival and 18th-ranked Oakdale (10-3), inducing a running clock in the biggest state final blowout since the state finals moved from Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium to the state capital in 2017. 

In the first title game played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in 2017, Linganore won the 3A crown over Milford Mill Academy, rallying from a 21-point deficit. The Lancers’ fortunes flipped with five title game losses, including a 35-7 loss to Arundel a year ago in the 3A final.

The past failures became a distant memory Saturday as longtime coach Rick Conner did a celebratory push up after putting on a championship t-shirt.

Linganore outscored its 2025 opponents, 578-137, in its first perfect season since winning the 2009 3A state crown.

"This was a really fun group to coach because they typically had good practices," said Conner. "We never had a bad practice. We had a practice that wasn't so good. But the great teams that we've had, the 2003 and 2009 teams, these guys, they had a good practice every day, and a better practice every day of the week."

Third time’s charm for Huntingtown

After consecutive title-game losses and graduation of 20 seniors off last year’s roster, the so-called championship window appeared closed for Huntingtown. The Hurricanes finally broke through Saturday behind a fourth quarter uprising.

Josh Walter’s 82-yard touchdown run and two defensive stands equaled history for Huntingtown (11-2), which won its first state championship. The Hurricanes lost in the 2024 and 2023 final to Stephen Decatur.

“It was kind of a surreal moment,” Huntingtown senior wide receiver/defensive back Brody Whittington said. “I still have to let this soak in, but I’m happy and grateful that we could go out on top.”

Twice up two scores Saturday against a Northern-Calvert team it routed during the regular season, Huntingtown trailed 21-17 in the fourth. After the Hurricanes turned away Northern-Calvert on a drive that reached their 10-yard line, Walter broke through an opening and out-raced two Northern defenders to the end zone.

"I have to admit, I wasn't sure I was going to make it,” said Walter, who finished with 84 yards on three carries. “I thought I might go down inside the five-yard-line." 

The Hurricanes stopped Northern’s Dylan Allafi on 4th down at their 25 with 33 seconds remaining to clinch their long-awaited championship. Huntingtown failed in four (2024, 2023, 2012 and 2009) previous attempts. 

“We owed this to the previous years…we’ve been so close and we just needed to finish it,” said senior running back/defensive back Gabriel Copeland.”

“It’s a very young team with some great senior leaders,” said Hurricanes coach Paul Friel. “We had to replace a lot of people from last year, but from the summer they showed they wanted to be here again and they worked and did it. It wasn’t our prettiest performance, but they found a way like they’ve had all year.”

SMAC flexes again

The Southern Maryland Athletic Conference was front and center on the final weekend of the Maryland high school football season. Four teams played for titles with Huntingtown and Patuxent claiming big prizes.

Patuxent became the first SMAC team to win titles in back-to-back seasons. Henry E. Lackey (2A/1A) and Northern-Calvert reached Championship Weekend as the No. 8 seed following regional play.

Lackey knocked off SMAC rival Calvert, who was the No. 1 overall in 2A/1A in region play. North Point, which won last year’s Class 4A/3A state champ, reached the 4A/3A state quarterfinals despite having forfeit seven regular season victories for playing with an ineligible player.

The SMAC, arguably the “SEC of Maryland high school football,” has won seven state titles since the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association moved from four to six football classifications in 2021. 

Northern-Calvert first-year coach Tom Abel, who guided Team Maryland to a huge win over Pennsylvania in the Big 33 Classic in May, said there’s tremendous synergy from  players, coaches and the community.

“People don’t realize there’s so much talent down here. We beat up on each other all season and then we come out here and dominate,” said Abel, a Huntingtown graduate who previously coached at Dundalk in Baltimore County. 

“It’s not what it’s become, it’s what it has been,” said Huntingtown two-way linemen Jahiye Dixon. “We’re just on the big stage now.”