Inside Maryland High School Football: Weather Woes, Record Debuts and Wild Finishes

Wise and Flowers, the recent Prince George’s County powers, have yet to play, and they both have the weather to blame.

Both programs were scheduled for Friday night contests, with Wise hosting King’s Fork (Va.) and Flowers visiting Eastern (D.C.). The schedule got scrambled once Prince George’s County Public Schools closed schools on Friday due to power outages and storm damage during overnight thunderstorms.

Eastern posted, “We were willing to play [Saturday], whether home or away, and even offered to move the game to Flowers. Unfortunately, a final agreement could not be reached.”

The game will not be rescheduled. Such is the case with the Wise game, as well.

King’s Fork traveled to the D.C. area Thursday and spent the night in preparation for Friday’s game. When the game was canceled, however, King’s Fork was unwilling to spend another night in the hotel to play on Saturday and instead returned home, according to Wise’s coach.

It now appears that Flowers and Wise will have eight-game schedules.

Interestingly, the PG schools were not the only ones to lose out on a game due to weather.

Northampton (Va.) canceled the Friday showdown with Washington due to “forecasted heat,” according to the Washington athletic department. This likely will count as a no-contest in the standings.

Edmonson-Westside’s game with Cardozo (D.C.) was canceled as Cardozo dropped its team this year.

Record-Setting Debut

On the night Walkersville High School celebrated 50 years of football, sophomore quarterback Olock Jordan put his name in the record book.

Making his debut at quarterback, Jordan completed 14 of 16 passes for 270 yards and a school-record five touchdown passes –– all in the first half –– as Walkersville cruised to a 64-8 victory over Liberty.

More than 75 former players and coaches were on hand for the 50th anniversary celebration and witnessed Jordan’s record-setting performance.

Got Your Number

DeMatha rallied from a two-score deficit in the fourth quarter to upend Imhotep Charter (Pa.), 21-20, Saturday in a clash of regional powers. The victory extended the Stags’ school-record winning streak to 23 games and reinforced that DeMatha has been Imhotep's toughest opponent since 2018.

DeMatha’s track record is well known locally, but Imhotep Charter has built an impressive resume of its own. The Philadelphia school launched its football program in 2004, and after Al Crosby took over as coach in 2012, Imhotep quickly emerged as a Pennsylvania powerhouse. The Panthers have reached the state championship game eight times since 2013.

The DeMatha-Imhotep series began in 2018, and Saturday’s game was the fifth meeting between the programs. DeMatha has won four of them. The Panthers are 75-20 since 2018, and no other team has beaten them more often than DeMatha.

Logan Brown was the star of the game for DeMatha. The senior defensive back broke up a pass in the end zone in the final 30 seconds, then picked off a pass on the last play of the game to secure the one-point win. Brown ended with five tackles, two interceptions and two pass breakups.

Last-Minute Drama

Two state-ranked teams won games that were decided on the final play this past weekend.

Good Counsel Holds On: Good Counsel stuffed a quarterback sneak on the final play to preserve a 41-39 victory over New Jersey state power Bergen Catholic. This was the first meeting between the programs, and for Bergen Catholic, it marked only the program’s eighth loss in the past seven seasons. Before the Good Counsel game, Bergen Catholic, according to the Saylor Records, had never lost to a Maryland opponent.

Whitney's Block Wins It: Broadneck defensive end Grayson Whitney got a hand on St. Mary’s last-second, potential game-winning field goal attempt to lift the Bruins to a 29-27 victory in a clash of state-ranked teams. It’s quite the comeback story for Whitney, who missed all of last season recovering from a brain injury after falling off a golf cart, according to Broadneck’s coach.

The drama started when St. Mary’s blocked a Broadneck field goal attempt late in the fourth quarter. St. Mary’s then drove inside the Broadneck 5 before settling for the field goal attempt. Broadneck held leads of 22-6 and 29-13 before St. Mary’s rallied to make it close. While Broadneck won the game, it lost a key player for this week’s contest due to a concussion, the coach said.

Winning Like Clockwork

Fort Hill routed Northern Garrett 48-0 Friday, and there is not much news in that. After all, the Sentinels have won all 16 meetings between the programs. What is newsworthy, however, is that the victory extended Fort Hill’s season-opening win streak to 43 years.

That’s right: Fort Hill has started every season 1-0 since 1984.

The last time the Sentinels lost a season opener was in 1983, when Northwestern-PG handed them a 31-8 defeat. That season proved to be an outlier by Fort Hill standards, as the Sentinels finished 3-7.

Youth Movement

Bullis School is on the fringe of the state's Top 25, and it is getting there with an offense powered entirely by underclassmen. In one of the more bizarre early-season statistics, every offensive yard the Bulldogs have gained through two games – 396 passing and receiving yards and 342 rushing yards – has come from freshmen, sophomores, or juniors. Not a single senior has accounted for a yard.

Clutch Kicker

Field goals — and missed field goals — played a major role in South Carroll’s 17-14 overtime victory over Glenelg. Glenelg had a chance to win in regulation but missed a field goal attempt that would have broken a 14-14 tie. In overtime, Glenelg again came up empty, missing a short field goal attempt.

South Carroll then drove to the 3-yard line, where junior Mike Frey delivered the game-winner.

Frey has a knack for the moment. Last season, as a sophomore, he kicked the field goal that gave South Carroll a stunning 3-0 victory over Randallstown in the opening round of the regional playoffs. Given Glenelg’s recent success and expectations, the victory could prove to be one of the biggest of coach Mike Crumley’s four-year tenure at South Carroll.

A Hundred Years in the Making

St. James School defeated Archbishop Curley 22-14 on Friday, giving second-year head coach Colin Ponder his ninth victory in 11 games.

Ponder’s 9-2 start is the best 11-game start by a head coach in St. James history, and the school has fielded varsity teams every year since 1903. Ponder surpassed the 8-2-1 start by Fred Moore, who started his St. James coaching career in 1926.

Quince Orchard Keeps Pitching Shutouts

Quince Orchard opened the season with a 28-0 victory over Paint Branch, its eighth season-opening shutout in the past nine seasons. The lone exception came in 2024, when the Cougars opened with a 54-7 victory over Stone Bridge (Va.). Also, the opening win for Quince Orchard this past weekend marked the program’s 325th victory against only 108 losses.

Will History Repeat Itself?

Archbishop Spalding’s 21-18 loss to St. John’s (D.C.) marked the first time the Cavaliers have started a season 0-2 since 2010. If history is any indication, Spalding fans may not have much to worry about. After that 0-2 start in 2010, Spalding won nine of its next 10 games en route to capturing the MIAA B Conference championship.

Anne Arundel Flexes Its Muscle

Take away the two Anne Arundel County public school head-to-head matchups, the rest of the county went 9-1. Some of the more intriguing results, beyond Broadneck’s win, were Arundel’s 14-6 victory over River Hill in a clash of longtime powers and Glen Burnie’s 48-22 win over Perry Hall, a 4A-3A state semifinalist last year.

Point-a-Minute? Try 63 in 22

The University of Michigan’s 1902 squad was nicknamed the “Point-a-Minute" team for their high-powered offense. Oakdale certainly bettered that. In a one-sided affair with St. John’s Catholic Prep, Oakdale scored 63 points in the first 22 minutes of the game en route to a 63-8 victory. Oakdale scored touchdowns on all seven of its first-half drives and added a pair of pick-sixes. In all, Oakdale ran 31 offensive plays in the first half, accounting for more than 300 yards.

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