Week 9 football: Saint James, South, Boonsboro and Clear Spring are winners
Week 9 of the Washington County football season is in the books. Here’s what happened:
Saturday's game
Saint James 37, Potomac 28
Sophomore quarterback Jayden Yates ran for a career-high four touchdowns as the Saints (5-3) topped the visiting Panthers (1-7) to clinch their fourth straight winning season.
“It’s significant for the kids and for the program,” Saint James coach John Root said. “We tell them, ‘It’s next man up.’ We lost a lot of kids from last year, but we’ve got good kids here. We’re a young team, and that’s exciting.
“I’m excited the way our kids took charge today. Our offensive and defensive lines controlled things. We let some things slip and let them back in the game, but as soon as our kids bore down, they took control of the game again. I’m proud of the way they played.”
The Saints built a 16-0 halftime lead. Kevin Brown kicked a 42-yard field goal as time expired in the first quarter, and Sammy Stonebraker had a 3-yard touchdown run and Yates scored on a 1-yard run in the second quarter.
Potomac answered in the third quarter. On the first play of the second half, Camren Boykin passed to Akim Iscandari for a 75-yard touchdown and then to Grant Joe for the two-point conversion, cutting the deficit to 16-8.
With 4:44 left in the period, Boykin connected with Jack Judd for a 47-yard TD, Joe caught a conversion pass from Jake Campbell, and the game was tied, 16-16.
Yates answered less than two minutes later with a 56-yard TD run, putting the Saints back in front, 23-16.
With 14 seconds left in the third quarter, Yates scored on a 27-yard run, immediately following a 50-yard run by Stonebraker, to extend Saint James’ lead to 30-16.
After the Panthers cut it to 30-22 on a 3-yard TD run by Gus Tierney with 10:15 remaining in the game, Yates scored on a 19-yard run for his fourth TD, upping the Saints’ lead to 37-22.
“It’s all about team, and Jayden is a big part of that team,” Root said. “With the team goes Jayden, and with Jayden goes the team. He makes everybody better, he’s a leader and just the character that the kid possesses that people don’t see. They see hit athleticism, but his leadership is just off the charts.
“He’s a playmaker. We put the ball in his hands, and at any moment, something good can happen. If you don’t account for him, he’s going to hurt you. He did that today to Potomac. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
With 45 seconds left on the clock, the Panthers cut it to 37-28 on a 10-yard TD pass from Boykin to Judd. But the two-point conversion failed, leaving it a two-score game, and the Saints recovered the onside kick to end it.
Saint James will wrap up its season Nov. 4 at Flint Hill.
Friday's games
South Hagerstown 28, North Hagerstown 6
Rebels senior quarterback Lance Ford rushed for 117 yards and a career-high three touchdowns and passed for 151 yards and another score, leading South (5-4) over host North (3-6) in the annual Hub City Gridiron Classic.
Ford also set the school record for single-season passing yards (1,576) while extending his own school mark for single-season TD passes to 17 and matching the school record for career TD passes at 33.
“Lance is our heartbeat,” South coach Juwuane Sandridge said. “We’ve been going as he goes for four years. He’s a four-year starter for us. I’m just happy that he ended this Gridiron Classic with a win. That’s a memory he can always have, and not just him, all of our seniors.”
South’s third straight win over the Hubs capped a regular season that was anything but regular. The Rebels had to forfeit their season-opening win over Century due to an ineligible player and, after their second game, Sandridge took over as interim head coach to replace Dave Lawrence, who resigned.
“A ton of emotions right now,” said Sandridge as his players celebrated with the Gridiron Classic trophy. “I’m just happy for these guys, proud of these guys. No matter what was being said about them, no matter what was being done to them, they stayed focused and kept fighting to the end.
“This was a monumental win, but I’m more excited and proud of the persistence that they’ve shown in the last nine weeks. And that’s why I’m truly blessed to have this opportunity to be their head coach. It’s a little bit bigger than football.”
South went up 7-0 with 9:12 left in the first half on a 5-yard touchdown run by Ford, followed by Nathan Myers’ first of four extra-point kicks. Ford scored on another 5-yard run to give the Rebels a 14-0 halftime lead.
Luke Bragunier, who led North with 168 yards rushing on 33 carries, ran for a 7-yard TD with 6:02 remaining in the third quarter to cut the score to 14-6.
South answered a little over two minutes later on a 2-yard TD run by Ford to up the lead to 21-6. With 7:43 left in the game, Ford connected with Rayden Lansdowne for a 14-yard score to make it 28-6.
Brayden Sisk led the Rebels' defense with 14 tackles and an interception.
“We’re lights-out when it comes to defense,” Sandridge said. “They keep us in a lot of games, and they win us a lot of games. It’s almost that bend-but-not-break mentality, and then it’s our job to put up some points.”
Aiden Clark had 15 tackles and a fumble recovery for North.
Boonsboro 35, Smithsburg 0
The Warriors (7-2) will head into the playoffs on a five-game winning streak and with Washington County's best record.
Colin Telemeco opened the scoring with a long touchdown run and added a short shovel-pass score as Boonsboro, playing at home, shut out the Leopards (3-6) in the annual battle of Md. 66.
The Warriors have outscored their opponents 197-34 over the last five weeks.
"We started 2-0, lost two in a row and I brought the captains in and said, 'Hey, we're at a tipping point right now. We're going to go as you guys go,'" said Warriors coach Mark Wadel. "And they've done a really nice job pulling us together and playing well."
Telemeco faked a handoff and went up the middle 48 yards for a score that gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead six minutes into the game.
Chad Wyand's 24-yard TD run made it 14-0 midway through the second quarter. Zachary Fazenbaker blocked a Smithsburg punt, scooped up the ball and ran to the end zone for a score that made it 21-0 4:45 before halftime.
Logan Frantz took Telemeco's shovel pass up the gut for a 3-yard score with 8:35 left in the third quarter. Parker DeBaugh capped the scoring with a 32-yard TD run around left end with 10:32 left in the game.
Smithsburg had several defensive highlights in the loss. Joseph Ryan picked off a pass early in the first quarter. The Leopards forced a turnover with a strip of a Boonsboro runner inside Smithsburg's 5-yard line in the second quarter, and made a goal-line stand at the end of the first half. They also blocked a punt in the second half.
Clear Spring 44, Hancock 27
Will Bennett rushed for two touchdowns and caught a TD pass from Alex Matthews as the Blazers improved to 4-5 with a road win over the Panthers (1-7).
Blake Kramer-Horton, Javin Grimes and Matthews each ran for a touchdown in the victory, while Malachi Pereshuk scored a pair of two-point conversions and Jonathan Cunningham and Jacob Bryan each added a two-point conversion for Clear Spring.
Manchester Valley 16, Williamsport 14
Corry Nelson had a touchdown run, scored on a pass from Nolan Raley and added a two-point conversion for the Wildcats (2-7) in their road loss to the Mavericks (5-4).
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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County football scores Week 9
