Alex Rychwalski | Football is back and all is right in the world

Sep. 6—All is right in the world. The sports calendar is stuffed to the brim, football Friday nights have returned and the Baltimore Orioles are on pace for 101 wins.

The first week of high school football in Maryland was all chalk. Fort Hill and Mountain Ridge won handily against their Garrett County adversaries, and Allegany took care of business against a solid Hollidaysburg team.

Our suspicions were confirmed that the Campers are a quality football team, and we'll learn more when they face last season's Class 3A state runner-up Oakdale this week.

Few pundits across the state will give Allegany a chance with Oakdale touting three seniors headed to Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision programs in 6-foot-6, 250-pound defensive end Dominic Nichols (Michigan), electric quarterback Evan Austin (Charlotte) and 6-3 receiver Hunter Thompson (Ohio).

And even fewer will do so after last week, when the Bears, who finished 11-3 last season, downed reigning Class 2A state champion Milford Mill, 22-21, on the road on a two-point conversion in the final two minutes.

Oakdale is darn good, not that area football fans would know from the past two seasons when Fort Hill routed the Frederick County school, with more than 1,400 students, 42-7 and 49-21.

Suffice it to say the Bears — ranked No. 9 in the state media poll and No. 4 among public schools — won't be taking any school from Cumberland lightly.

With all the recruiting stars at skill positions, Oakdale lost three linemen to graduation.

Allegany will look to wear the big uglies down like it did against Hollidaysburg when Brett Patterson, Brody Williams, Jacob Salonish, Dae Dae Smith, Jackson Resh and Isaiah Fields ran the ball 56 times for 345 yards.

What's the easiest way to slow Oakdale's offense down? Keep it off the field.

We learned Friday that Fort Hill is still Fort Hill. The nine-time state champs don't have the track runners it had last year, but last year's team didn't have the added element that a dynamic playmaker brings under center.

Deshaun Brown is the real deal, and fans at Greenway Avenue Stadium on Saturday gleaned a glimpse of his scrambling ability and soft touch through the air.

The Sentinels' commitment to getting the ball in the hands of its big-play threats like Jabril Daniels in open space was also apparent.

Brown hit Daniels on a screen pass out wide, Fort Hill's split ends held their blocks and Daniels sliced through the Northern defense to trot 56 yards into the end zone.

More short and intermediate routes in the passing game will be necessary against teams that will load the box to stop the run. We'll see if Fort Hill is tested enough by Calvin Coolidge to showcase that on Friday.

Something also must be said for the sportsmanship displayed across this area last week.

At the half, Fort Hill led Northern 35-zip, Mountain Ridge led Southern 49-zip and Petersburg led Buffalo 39-zip.

Those were all final scores 24 minutes later, well, not in the case of Buffalo-Petersburg, where the Vikings' Donny Evans and Buffalo's Bob Mullett agreed to play six-minute quarters after halftime.

All three coaches, Zack Alkire of Fort Hill, Ryan Patterson of Mountain Ridge and Evans could've elected to do what we saw in West Virginia last week — run up scores on overmatched opponents.

Huntington pummeled South Charleston 86-0, Hurricane thrashed Capital 93-7, and, in the most egregious example, Nitro passed all over St. Albans 84-6.

Nitro quarterback Josh Moody threw 11 touchdown passes to set a state single-game record. How Nitro head coach Boom McKinney could draw up a pass play with his team leading 77-0 I'll never know.

The coaches and fans will say they weren't running up the score and it was to set a record, but it was the actions of a coach and team that haven't been there before.

Nitro, a once proud program fallen on hard times, had an influx of transfers thanks to a new rule signed into law by the West Virginia legislature that allows players to transfer to a new school without sitting out.

The abundance of riches for a school that hasn't had a winning season since 2007 may have gotten to its head. No coach with championship aspirations would risk injury to its star quarterback with an 11-touchdown lead.

Ironically, Moody edged the previous single-game passing touchdown record set by former Nitro quarterback J.R. House in 1998. House famously transferred between Nitro and a school in Florida between baseball and football seasons to no penalty.

To address the elephant in the room, yes, I am aware of Mountain Ridge's 84-0 rout of Southern two seasons ago, which was an area record for margin of victory.

The key difference is that Southern scored the vast majority of the game's points on itself. Don't believe me?

Mountain Ridge scored three defensive touchdowns, returned a punt to the Rams' three-yard line and had a one-play, 80-yard drive. Southern ran a fake punt inside its own 20-yard line and snapped a ball over its punter's head.

That was all in the first quarter.

There's a vast difference between that game, and Nitro — leading 56-0 at the half — throwing four touchdown passes in the third quarter.

Nitro ran the ball just two times. Moody threw for 621 yards.

Speaking of Mountain Ridge, quarterback Will Patterson had a solid debut completing all five of his passes for 76 yards and TDs and rushing for 48 yards and another score.

He and his Miner teammates will be tested for the first time on the road at Catoctin on Thursday. Catoctin appears to be improved this year, as the Cougars were edge 24-20 by Boonsboro in Week 1.

Frankfort responded well to an early punch dealt by Hampshire. After Landon Eversole completed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jenson Fields, the Trojans trailed just 15-14.

The Falcons outscored Hampshire, 42-7, the rest of the way, rushing for more than 400 yards.

Keyser was the lone local school to stumble, doing so at Hedgesville, 25-7.

The game seemed like a gimme on paper after the Tornado routed Robert C. Byrd, 28-0, in their opener and Hedgesville was destroyed by Wheeling Park, 56-0, in its.

However, Keyser's inexperienced line and the Eagles — another beneficiary of the transfer portal — had too many big plays.

Most teams wouldn't want a Week 3 bye, but Keyser will welcome one to regroup with a pair of winnable games against Berkeley Springs and Hampshire on deck.

Every week we gain a little more knowledge about our local teams, and this week is no different. I'll be in the stands in Thurmont and Ijamsville on successive nights with a clipboard and notebook in hand and a thirst for knowledge.

Football Friday nights have returned and all is right in the world.

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.