Frederick football forces five turnovers, beats Walkersville
Sep. 29—WALKERSVILLE — Following Friday night's 35-21 victory over Walkersville, the Frederick High football team didn't scurry off the field as quickly as possible, per the custom of most road teams.
Instead, the Cadets took a moment to enjoy what they had just accomplished, celebrate with their fans and enjoy the postgame fireworks that were intended to commemorate homecoming and a victory for the other team.
"We needed this," Frederick coach Pat Cadden said after his team spent the previous two weeks getting knocked around in losses to unbeaten Oakdale and Mountain Ridge.
The 27-6 loss to Mountain Ridge, the Class 1A runner-up last season, was played in a virtual monsoon last Saturday evening in Frostburg, according to Cadden.
The Cadets' explosive passing game was severely hampered by the conditions, and they had a few touchdowns called back by penalty.
The Walkersville game was just the second through five weeks of the season that Frederick played in a typical time slot, Friday night.
Its game at Westminster was bumped from Friday to Monday because of bad weather. Then, the Cadets had to come back four days later and host Oakdale on a Friday afternoon because the game had to be completed before sundown due to the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
"I wanted a tough schedule," Cadden said. "But, being my first year [as head coach], I didn't realize that it might be good to get a game that everyone feels good coming out of it."
Friday's game against Walkersville was exactly that. Though, it didn't start out that way, as the Lions' Da'Marques Ross returned the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown, marking the second time that Frederick (3-2) has allowed that to happen.
"We'll get it fixed," Cadden said of falling into the immediate holes. "That's a game-changer."
Still, it was the Cadets taking the fight to the Lions (2-3), who were buried under another avalanche of turnovers and mistakes and fell for the third straight week.
"Yeah. That's been the story of the last three weeks or so," Walkersville coach Joe Polce said. "We have to figure out some stuff offensively where we protect the ball a little more. We just can't have the turnovers."
Two weeks earlier, the Lions lost a fumble on their first three possessions of the second half in a 42-12 loss at Linganore.
This time, they turned the ball over five times, which Frederick directly turned into 28 points, and they failed to field a Frederick kickoff, leading to an extra possession for the Cadets.
"That's a turnover," Polce said.
Sophomore safety Karmelo Smallwood was the primary ballhawk for Frederick.
He intercepted a pass, leading to a 3-yard touchdown run for senior running back Tae Anderson, returned a fumble 12 yards for a touchdown and also fell on the kickoff that the Cadets squibbed to Walkersville.
"We played disciplined, read all of our keys and just played football, played Frederick football," Smallwood said.
Special-teams breakdowns by Frederick were the only thing that kept Walkersville in the game.
In addition to the opening kickoff return, the Lions blocked a punt that senior Wyatt Gearhart fell on in the end zone for a touchdown.
Walkersville added a score in the final minute, as backup quarterback Brad Dawson connected on a 22-yard touchdown pass to junior Darius Eubank, who made a nice, contested catch over a defender.
Frederick also scored touchdowns on a 15-yard reverse handoff to Tyrico Morgan Jr. late in the first quarter, and a 26-yard quarterback keeper by Greyson Rollman on fourth-and-5 in the fourth quarter, on which he fooled everyone with a great play-action fake.
"It's huge," Rollman said of the win. "We got to prove people wrong this week. We are going to keep building on this and come out the rest of the season with good outlooks on each game."
Follow Greg Swatek on Twitter: @greg_swatek
