Playoff football: Boonsboro, Williamsport advance to second round
After the first round of the MPSSAA region playoffs, only two Washington County football teams are still standing. Here's what happened:
Friday's games
1A North first round
Boonsboro 20, Joppatowne 12
Chad Wyand had two touchdown runs and Boonsboro’s defense had four takeaways as the No. 3-seeded Warriors (8-2) held off the No. 6 Mariners (2-7) to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the third straight year.
“They’ve got big, strong, fast players; very athletic,” Boonsboro coach Mark Wadel said of Joppatowne. “We knew their record wasn’t reflective of how their team was. We were telling the kids that all week. … Thankfully, we ended up on the right side of the scoreboard.
“Our defense played really, really well. They’ve got some great athletes on that team, and their scheme stuff is really good. Turnovers certainly helped, and our kids are tough. We just kept grinding and kept working.”
The Warriors went up 7-0 with 8:44 left in the first quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Wyand, followed by Carlos Pazos’ extra-point, his first of two successful attempts on the night.
With just over eight minutes left in the second quarter, the Mariners threatened to score. However, on a second-and-goal play at the 1-yard line, the ball was fumbled and Dan Dodson recovered it at the 4 for Boonsboro.
With 32 seconds remaining in the first half, Wyand had a dazzling 4-yard score, first running to the right before taking it all the way back left across the field to give the Warriors a 13-0 lead at the break.
“It was done, so I reversed it and saw some blockers,” Wyand said.
After blocking a 33-yard field goal attempt by Pazos, Joppatowne cut the lead to 13-6 on Isaiah Robinson's 7-yard TD pass to Tyquon Billinger-Bey with 5:20 left in the third quarter.
Boonsboro extended its lead to 20-6 as Parker DeBaugh took a reverse 14 yards to the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The Mariners capped the scoring with 7:57 remaining in the game on a 27-yard TD pass from Robert Martin to Damien Brooks.
“They were playing tough. It was definitely a dogfight,” Wyand said. “I’m just glad we came out with the ‘W’ to extend our season.”
Zach Fazenbaker and DeBaugh each had an interception for Warriors, while Nate Elliott had a fumble recovery.
Boonsboro will host a second-round game at 7 p.m. on Nov. 10 against No. 7-seeded Havre de Grace, which upset No. 2 Brunswick 35-32 on Thursday night.
“I went to Brunswick and watched them,” Wyand said of Havre de Grace. “Their QB (Jaylin Solomon) is pretty good. He’s going to be someone we have to stop. Brunswick is pretty good and Havre de Grace pretty much just ran down the field on them.
“We have to have a good week of practice so we can extend our season even further.”
2A-1A West first round
Williamsport 28, South Carroll 7
Nolan Raley had two touchdown passes and ran for a score as the No. 5-seeded Wildcats (3-7) went on the road and knocked off the No. 4 Cavaliers (3-7).
Ceonta Wilmore had two TD receptions, Corry Nelson had a TD run and Cole Kriner went 4 for 4 on extra-point kicks for Williamsport, which led 14-7 at halftime and 21-7 at the end of third quarter.
The Wildcats will travel to face top-seeded Winters Mill, which had a bye, in the second round.
3A West first round
Oakdale 57, North Hagerstown 12
The host and No. 1-seeded Bears (10-0) scored at will and put away the No. 8 Hubs (3-7) early, building leads of 27-0 after one quarter and 50-6 at halftime.
Oakdale quarterback Evan Austin threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more. His scoring passes went for 14 yards to Shaun Wright, 13 yards to Dom Nichols and 17 yards to Hunter Thompson. His scoring runs covered 3 and 33 yards. Jamie McCathran and Cole Swinimer each ran for a 4-yard score and Riley Harich added a 16-yard TD run for the Bears.
North's points came on Luke Kercheval's 21-yard TD pass to Xavier Colbert early in the second quarter and James Jackson's 63-yard TD run at the end of the third quarter.
Jackson finished with 116 yards rushing on 11 carries, while Luke Bragunier added 60 yards on 15 carries to go over 1,000 yards for the season.
1A West first round
Allegany 50, Smithsburg 14
The host and third-seeded Campers (7-3) led 14-0 after one quarter, 29-8 at halftime and put the sixth-seeded Leopards (3-7) away with three third-quarter touchdowns.
Isaiah Fields ran for TDs of 5 and 65 yards; Brody Williams threw a 29-yard TD pass to Zach Michael and ran for another score; Amanni Blowe returned an interception 27 yards for a score; Jackson Resh ran for a 47-yard TD; and Brett Patterson added a 1-yard score for Allegany.
Smithsburg's points came on a Carter Nesbitt touchdown run in the second quarter and Nesbitt's 92-yard TD pass to Braxton Byrd in the third quarter.
Northern Garrett 49, Clear Spring 0
The host and fourth-seeded Huskies (6-4) shut out the Blazers (4-6).
Luke Ross, Jared Graham and Kyle Broadwater each had a hand in two touchdowns for Northern. Liam Stewart threw a 55-yard TD pass to Ross, who also ran for a 76-yard score. Graham ran for TDs of 60 and 54 yards, and Broadwater had scoring runs of 5 and 24 yards. Landon Yoder added a 17-yard TD run.
Thursday’s game
3A West first round
Sherwood 36, South Hagerstown 7
The matchup between the No. 4-seeded Warriors and the No. 5 Rebels was closer than the final score might indicate.
In fact, the game was tied 0-0 until the last minute of the first half.
“It could have been a completely different ball game,” South coach Juwuane Sandridge said. “The first two series that we had, we were in the red zone and we couldn’t execute. I was hoping that wouldn’t be the theme of the night, but it kind of was. We moved the ball on offense, but we just couldn’t execute and get the ball in the end zone.
“We had a few drops in key situations and missed a couple key blocks on third-and-short and fourth down. But honestly, we gave everything we had. We had a few guys banged up that we didn’t even know if they were going to play today. Everything we had, we left it on the field. It just wasn’t enough tonight.”
Sherwood (7-3) broke the scoreless tie with 43 seconds left in the second quarter, taking a 7-0 lead on a 22-yard touchdown run by Van Mahoney.
The Rebels (5-5) received the second-half kickoff but fumbled the ball away on their first play.
On the next play, Matt Larson passed to Jalen Nix for a 31-yard touchdown and Bryce Johnson ran for the two-point conversion as the Warriors extended their lead to 15-0 with 11:39 left in the third quarter.
“Coming out of the half that way, that was tough,” Sandridge said. “That kind of put us on our heels a little bit. You just keep trying to make these guys believe. We were trying to keep coaching.”
South cut it to 15-7 with 7:10 left in the third quarter on a 6-yard TD run by Andre Cooper.
Sherwood answered less than two minutes later, upping its lead to 22-7 on a 19-yard TD run by Mahoney.
With 5:17 remaining in the game, Mahoney all but sealed it with his third TD of the night, scoring on a 7-yard run to give the Warriors a 29-7 advantage.
Sherwood capped the scoring with 3:31 left as Larson connected with Alex Lacey for a 20-yard TD to make it 36-7.
“That’s a good football team,” Sandridge said of Sherwood. “They’re well-coached and they have some really good athletes. That’s what playoffs are all about. We’re just going to keep building on what we had going this year and hopefully next year we’ll have a little deeper run.”
Follow Herald-Mail Sports on Instagram for the latest in high school sports.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County football: Scores from Week 10 playoffs
