Dunbar passes toughest — and final — test
Poets repeat as 2A/1A champ by defeating Patuxent, 22-13
Outscoring its opponents by an average margin of 41 points this season, the No. 3 Dunbar football team hasn’t had to rely much on its defense in close games.
That changed in Saturday’s Class 2A/1A state championship game against formidable Patuxent. And it was senior lineman Anthony Campbell who made the biggest play.
Campbell intercepted Patuxent quarterback Evan Blouir’s pass and rumbled 87 yards for a score with 3 minutes, 11 seconds left, securing a 22-13 win at soggy Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis that helped Dunbar complete a perfect 13-0 season and defend last year’s title.
This is the first time in program history that the 12-time champion Poets have posted back-to-back perfect seasons.
With the Panthers (11-3) facing a secondand-5 at the Dunbar 21-yard line, Campbell jumped in front of the intended receiver and took off. It was the third of four interceptions for the Poets, who shut out Patuxent for the final three quarters.
“That feels good, man, feel great to help my team pull out a win and be successful,” Campbell said. “I’m just proud of my teammates, proud of my guys. We came out here, did our thing and won our second state championship in a row.”
The Poets rolled to the title game, outscoring three playoff opponents by a whopping 158-7 margin. When adversity came — they trailed 13-0 in the first quarter Saturday — they proved up to the task. Senior quarterback Devin Roche, last year’s All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year, had no doubt.
“Throughout the season it was all about finishing what we started,” he said. “Going back to an [earlier] question, what kept us in the game and kept us from not breaking? It was all the hard work that we put in that nobody else saw. And knowing nobody else is working as hard as you, that’s what keeps you going.”
The first half started gloomy for the Poets but ended on a stunningly high note as they took a 14-13 lead into the break.
On the third play of Patuxent’s opening possession less than two minutes into the game, Blouir gave the Panthers the lead with a 44-yard touchdown run.
After Patuxent made it 13-0 with 3:05 left in the first quarter on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Blouir to Evan Jones, Dunbar turned the tide with one big play.
With the Poets facing second-and-15 at their own 14, Roche connected with Tony Hart III on a 52-yard bomb that put the ball on the Patuxent 34 with 7:25 left in the half. Five plays later Hart made it 13-6 when he took an inside handoff and scored from 7 yards.
Patuxent seemed certain to take the lead into halftime when it had the Poets pinned at their own 17 with 21 seconds left and no timeouts. But two personal fouls against the Panthers helped the Poets get to the Patuxent 38 with eight seconds left, and Roche connected with Antonio Lyde in the end zone as time expired.
Lyde ran in the ensuing two-point conversion to send the fired-up Poets into the locker room with a 14-13 advantage.
In the second half the Dunbar defense limited Patuxent to three first downs and ended four series with interceptions by Shantron Monroe, Hart, Campbell and Tristen Kenan. Hart caught three passes for 72 yards, Lyde had three catches for 55 yards and a score and Roche had 159 total yards and a passing touchdown.
With the win, Dunbar 15-year coach Lawrence Smith, now 169-24 overall, becomes the third MPSSAA coach with eight state titles. His 49 playoff wins are the most by any coach.
“Our offense sputtered a little today and we got scored on quickly, but the defense came to play after that,” he said. “We shut it down.
“For the longest time we were up by just one point, so it was amazing the way the defense settled in and did what they had to do to keep us ahead until we could find a way to find another touchdown to seal this great game.”
Milford Mill beats Kent Island for Class 2A crown
One year later, as doggedly planned, Milford Mill found itself back at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, confident and determined to leave with a different outcome.
For the No. 4 Millers, who fell flat in last year’s title game, there was no doubt they would bring home the Class 2A state championship. Behind a dominant second-half performance on both sides of the ball, Milford Mill pulled away from Kent Island, 25-16, on Friday night to claim its second state title and first since 1987.
Going back to the first day of practice in August, the Millers put an “unfinished business” tag on a season that ended in perfection
at 14-0 — one-upping the 1987 team that went 13-0.
Trailing 10-7 at the half, the Millers opened with a 12-play, 63-yard scoring drive to take the lead for good. Interceptions from Darrell Jackson and Coby Jones, who returned his 20 yards for the Millers’ final score, highlighted the team’s finest and most instrumental half of football.
“I just know it’s been 35 years, since 1987 when I was a player and we went 13-0, and it was damn hard going 14-0 as a coach,” Milford Mill coach Reggie White said. “[We’ve] been here twice before in [2017 and 2021] and we came up short, and this just feels so much better.
“It just warms my heart to be here. These guys, I’ve been telling them this is forever.”
In last year’s title game, a 29-14 setback against Douglass-PG, the Millers had three first-half turnovers and didn’t score until the fourth quarter.
On Friday the Millers started better with defensive stops on the Buccaneers’ first two possessions, the second one followed by a seven-play, 45-yard scoring drive capped by an 8-yard touchdown run from senior running back Sean Williams Jr. for a 7-0 lead with 4:42 left in the first quarter.
But the Millers had two costly fumbles and six penalties that plagued the remainder of the first half, enabling Kent Island to take a 10-7 halftime advantage.
With the Millers primed to add to their lead facing second-and-5 at the Buccaneers’ 20-yard line, junior quarterback Deshawn Purdie rolled out and fumbled the ball for the game’s first turnover. The Buccaneers, held without a yard of offense in the first quarter, went on to march 54 yards on 12 plays to set up a 34-yard field goal by Max Barba to cut the lead to 7-3.
On the Millers’ next possession Williams fumbled on the first play and Kent Island took the lead on the next one, as quarterback Tommy McAndrews found Kasey Heath on a screen pass for a 34-yard touchdown down the right sideline to make it 10-7 with 4:39 left in the half.
White told his group that while the deficit was just three points, they needed to play cleaner football in the final half of the season. The Millers responded.
“We knew in the first half that it was just our mistakes that were messing us up,” said Williams, who finished with 131 yards on 24 carries. “It wasn’t them beating us; it was ourselves. So we came in talking about stopping making mistakes and we pushed through.”
Out of the break the Millers marched 63 yards in the season’s defining drive to reclaim the lead. David Diggs had a 30-yard catch, then, on fourth-and-9 at the Kent Island 19, Purdie scrambled 9 yards. Three plays later he plunged in from 1 yard for a score.
Purdie, who along with Williams transferred from Mount Saint Joseph, connected with Josh Pearson on a 23-yard touchdown pass to push the lead to 19-10 midway through the fourth quarter before Coby Jones’ interception made it 25-10.
“I transferred here to win a state championship and we did that,” said Purdie, who completed 13 of 20 passes for 138 yards. “I had a fumble in the first half and that was all on me and I had to overcome that because we wanted this championship.
“It doesn’t feel real right now. I’m just happy to be sending the seniors off with a hell of a game and a hell of a win.”
After a season-opening loss, Kent Island (12-2) rattled off 12 straight wins to reach its first state title game behind senior running back Kasey Heath, who ran for 2,592 yards and scored his 40th touchdown of the season Friday.
The Buccaneers tried to rally, getting a late touchdown when Tucker Claxton caught an 8-yard pass from McAndrews with 1:35 to play, but it was too little, too late. McAndrews completed 17 of 33 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns.
“We never quit once the entire time,” Kent Island coach Bryon Sofinowski said. “They got incredible heart, and they showed that the entire season and tonight.”
Arundel falls to North Point in Class 4A/3A state final
When Arundel walked out for the second half of the Class 4A/3A state championship game down 17, the grand Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium field, North Point and all its fans — even its own fans — it all slipped away.
Quarterback Andre Dotson, who was not truly a quarterback but agreed to be one for the sake of his teammates, wasn’t there. He was back in practice Tuesday, laughing with his friends as they tried to beat each other for his passes, still another game of football before them. He was back in his backyard, he said, tossing the ball around.
“Just trying to have fun,” Dotson said. That joy blinked in the briefest flash for Arundel, which scored two touchdowns early in the third quarter but no more, ultimately bowing to North Point 31-14. It had been the Wildcats’ first trip to the championship stage since 2007 and, other than the defeat, was everything for which they’d hoped.
The Wildcats had nationally-ranked St. Frances Academy agree to face them; that’s how good they were. They’d beaten every single Anne Arundel County team they came across.
That’s what senior receiver Chris Downs and his crew will remember.
“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” he said. “When I’m 40, whether I’m behind a desk or on a yacht, I’ll remember this state championship and the guys next to me.
“Because I’ll never be as close to anybody as I was with this.”
It’s that kind of thing coach Jack Walsh impressed into his players, who’d been blindsided by a quick North Point lead. The bigger picture mattered more, especially when the final horn blared.
“So many teams would trade places with you,” Walsh told them. “Even at the end, when we’re shaking hands and we got tears in our eyes, there’s still 200 high schools in the state of Maryland that would trade for this feeling. And I just wanted the kids to enjoy the moment for what it is.
“The prize was this game.”
The odds were stacked against Arundel (10-3) since the state quarterfinal, when it lost starting quarterback Gavin Kamachi and his nearly 2,000 passing yards.
The Wildcats chose to try and overcome them, and on Friday that meant having Dotson, a receiver who’d never been on the other end of the pass until a few weeks ago, try his hand. He went 7-for-18 for 126 yards after Arundel had only tried five passes last week.
It was the defense that ensured Arundel’s success against Dundalk last week in the semifinals. The Wildcats corralled the Owls offense, giving Arundel time to work out a path to scoring in a 6-0 win.
North Point did not allow Arundel that patience.
North Point (11-3) likewise lost its starting quarterback Miles Goffe previously, but it did not seem to bother the Eagles. Junior Kaleb Hart whistled a 42-yard touchdown pass to senior Xavier Herbert on his very first snap. A Collin Farmer interception gave North Point the ball back at the Wildcats 30.
Arundel’s defense hadn’t locked down offenses all year long by sheer happenstance, and it showcased how brutal it could be when Brandon Matthews and Cam Neiswender made plays bring down Hart and force a 34-yard Peter Beil field goal. Tyrone Hudson later scored from 4 yards out.
Arundel had not yet heard the first-quarter buzzer and already found itself looking up from a 17-0 hole.
“I think our defense is one of the best in the state,” Arundel’s DeJuan Bowdry said, “but anyone can have an off night. We had to perform and we didn’t.”