Knights sneak past rival in 129th meeting
the 10, returning it to the 4.
Three plays later, Bond scored on a 1-yard sneak to make it 6-0.
Then, with the Engineers driving on their next possession, the 6-foot-4, 240pound Hamm broke through Poly’s line to pressure Harvey, who threw a hurried sideline pass into the waiting arms of linebacker Jemar Burden. The speedy senior returned the interception 70 yards untouched for the score.
Though the Knights weren’t overly effective on offense in the first half, their defense continued to make big plays, extending the lead to 14-0 with 10:13 left in the half, when after a punt that pinned Poly at its own 2, linebacker Jeremiah Harris sacked Harvey in the end zone for a safety.
Of Poly’s seven first-half possessions, three ended with interceptions, one with a fumble and one with a safety.
The second half, however, was a different story.
On the first offensive play, Harvey found Chambers on a crossing route over the middle, and the receiver outran City’s defense for a 52-yard score.
“We came out flat, and with this game that has a tendency to always happen,” Hamilton said. “Somebody always opens up with a big play. That was their big play. That meant we had to dig down, suck it up and prevail.”
Chambers’ punt return for a touchdown then cut the lead to 14-12 with 6:37 to play, and the Engineers (3-6) immediately got the ball back when linebacker Mervyn Thomas-Crawford stripped the ball from running back Jamaine Jeter and recovered at the Knights’ 41.
Six plays later, after Poly avoided a catastrophic turnover when a fumble recovery by City was ruled out of bounds, Harvey found Chambers down the right sideline, and the senior reached the ball over the goal line to give the Engineers an 18-14 lead.
If that didn’t seal City’s fate, it seemed the ensuing kickoff would, when a low kick bounced off the Knights’ front line of blockers, and senior Lewis Banks recovered, But that just set the stage for Hamm’s heroics.
“Six in a row,” Hamm said. “It was real important for us to keep the streak alive.”
It was just as important for Hamilton, a former assistant who took over less than two weeks ago when head coach Daryl Wade was suspended after being charged in an alleged bribery plot in his job as a supervisor in the Baltimore Department of Transportation.
“I knew I had big shoes to fill … but the one thing we decided was that we weren’t going to make a lot of changes,” Hamilton said. “We made some adjustments offensively, but defensively we knew we were going to play the same game. I just had to maintain my composure and believe that I could continue to move this team along.”
For a man who never expected to be in the position, the end result was a bit overwhelming.
“I can’t describe it,” Hamilton said, holding the large winners’ trophy in his left arm. “This has really been an up-anddown season for us. It’s been a struggle, and I don’t even think I could put it into words. It just means the world to me. But as much as it meant to me, it meant more to those guys. It was really about them.” City Poly 2 0 0 6 C-Bond 1 run (pass failed) C-Burden 70 interception return (pass failed) C-Safety (Harris sacks Harvey in end zone) P-Chambers 52 pass from Harvey (run failed) P-Chambers 74 punt return (run failed) P-Chambers 2 pass from Harvey (run failed) C-Bond 1 run (Jeter run)