Mtn. Ridge's Will Patterson wins Co-Offensive Player of the Year
Mar. 28—FROSTBURG — Will Patterson made it three Mountain Ridge quarterbacks in as many years to win area awards, sharing Offensive Player of the Year honors with Fort Hill back Jabril Daniels.
Playing behind an undersized line, Patterson had a season for the ages, accounting for nearly 3,000 yards of offense and more than 40 touchdowns to guide the Miners to a third consecutive trip to the Class 1A state championship game.
Patterson will receive the award at the 75th Dick Sterne Memorial Dapper Dan Sports Banquet on Sunday, April 28, at 4 p.m. in the Ali Ghan Shrine Club Ballroom.
"Will had to sit patiently behind two great quarterbacks (Bryce Snyder and Leuma Pua'auli), and it showed his character and leadership," Mountain Ridge head coach Ryan Patterson said.
"At many schools he would've started as a sophomore and a junior, but we had to find different ways to get him on the field. He never complained, he just wanted to help us win football games.
"His athleticism jumps out at you. Everything he does he earned it. ... Just a dream kid to coach."
Will Patterson nabbed five votes for Offensive Player of the Year from the area's head coaches, the same number as Daniels.
The senior set the area ablaze early with his legs, scoring six touchdowns on the ground in a 43-12 rout of Catoctin, but he developed as a passer as the season wore on.
In the Miners' final regular-season game, Patterson threw a school record seven touchdown passes in a 56-21 romp of Keyser — an impressive feat given the recent pedigree of signal callers to come through Frostburg.
"There were a couple of mechanical things for him that he continued to have to work on," Ryan Patterson said. "He's kind of a side-arm slinger, which works on the run but harder in the pocket. He continued to work on it.
"As for his athleticism, in some games early on, teams didn't really seem prepared for just how fast he was, particularly Catoctin. His ability to read defenses in the run-pass option was always really strong, but he improved that too."
The quarterback completed 146 of 226 passes for 1,739 yards, 21 touchdowns and five interceptions. On the ground, Patterson had 171 rushes for 1,166 yards (6.8 average) and scored 20 more times.
If there was an award for the area's most valuable player, then it would be hard to argue against Patterson.
Mountain Ridge lost all five of its linemen from 2022's state runner-up team and had multiple players weighing under 200 pounds in the trenches — notably its starting left tackle, Lineman of the Year Will Bannon, who weighed just 159 pounds.
Trying to balance winning with the health of Patterson — who was often running for his life against bigger lines like Fort Hill — was a dance the Miners did all year to perfection.
"He was the one guy that certainly couldn't get hurt," Ryan Patterson said. "It was a touchy situation all year. ... In previous years, if Bryce got hurt, we had Uma. If Uma got hurt, we had Will. We were really young behind Will.
"We coached to try and make sure he didn't get hurt. It was a challenge to keep him healthy, but it speaks to his competitiveness. He wanted to finish every play."
On defense, Will Patterson was the Miners' starting safety, finishing with 79 tackles (55 solos), two interceptions, three pass breakups, one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles.
Patterson will step into a new position at Shepherd next fall, as the Division II program recruited him for receiver.
No matter what path is necessary, Ryan Patterson is confident he'll work his way into the line-up one way or another.
It's that fire that allowed him to blossom into an Offensive Player of the Year recipient.
"I don't know if he walks in and starts day one, but I know he's going to do whatever it takes to get on the field and help that program," Patterson said. "He'll find his way on the field, no doubt in my mind."
Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.
