Special effort sparks Knights

City’s Hamm turns in a memorable show in 129th meeting

City defensive end Malik Hamm has earned a reputation as one of the area’s top defensive weapons by consistently tormenting opposing quarterbacks over the past two seasons.

In Saturday’s 129th meeting with archrival Poly, however, the senior perhaps upped his status to school legend, putting up a monster performance on his team’s largest stage.

After earlier notching one interception, forcing another and recovering a fumble, Hamm turned what looked like a likely defeat into victory by literally snatching the ball away from running back Daryl Brown near midfield and rumbling 48 yards with 2:39 left. When teammate Michael Bond moments later scored on a 1-yard keeper, the Black Knights took the lead for good in a 22-18 win before an announced 6,014 at M&T Bank Stadium.

“Today, he played with all the accolades that everyone has laid on him,” said Michael Hamilton, City’s acting head coach. “He dominated.”

“The running back had it and I just grabbed it out of his hands and started running,” Hamm said. “We just needed a big play there.”

The performance of Hamm and the rest of the City defense negated an otherwise brilliant offensive day by Poly wide receiver Tyrese Chambers, who had 157 receiving yards and a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown — in which he started right, cut left across the field, broke a tackle and again reversed field down the right side. Chambers added touchdown receptions of 52 and 29 yards.

The latter touchdown, in which he outjumped three defenders to haul in Jermaine Harvey’s high-arching pass, put Poly ahead, 18-14, with just 3:13 to play.

“Up 18-14, a little over two minutes left, with the ball — shoot, that game was ours,” Chambers said.

Instead, City (5-4), which is fighting for a playoff spot in Class 3A South, won for the sixth straight time in the series, matching the rivalry’s longest winning streak since the Knights won six in a row from 1964 to 1969. Poly still holds a 62-61-6 all-time lead in the oldest high school football rivalry in Baltimore and what’s believed to be the second-longest continuous public-school rivalry in the country.

City took control of this game early, thanks in large part to the influence of Hamm.

On Poly’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Hamm tipped Harvey’s pass at the line, then snagged the interception at