Finishing kick for Arundel
Wildcats rally from 20-point deficit to defeat Meade
Arundel didn’t mind its seemingly dire situation early in Friday night’s final football game of the spring. It was down 20-0 after just one quarter.
It was fine, the Wildcats figured. Meade could have the first quarter. They’d take the other three.
Arundel rallied furiously and claimed the lead by halftime, and it would never relinquish the advantage as it ended the shortened season with a 30-20 win over its longtime rival.
Wildcats senior Jaire Le’Mon had 30 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown in his final high school appearance, but he never felt as if he had to put the team on his back to win.
“I trust my guys with all my heart,” he said. “I always trust we’ll be able to bring it in and do our best.”
Meade’s roster was heavily depleted by a lack of returnees and by injury. Ricardo Coleman and Jonathan Womble — two of just a handful of players with varsity experience — were lost early in the four-week season. It had to “make linebackers,” coach Mike Francis said, filling in the gaps with junior varsity players.
But the first 12 minutes still belonged to the Mustangs.
Quarterback Calvin House (4-for-12, 81 yards, TD) was the architect; his 48-yard bomb to Joshua Cooper ranked highest among the three touchdowns Meade earned in the first quarter to build its 20-point lead. Sophomore running back Darrell Walter ran in the other two scores.
But as the temperature dropped, Meade went cold.
Le’Mon led the way, first scoring on a 4-yard run to cap a drive during which he had 23 total yards.
“Our passing game has struggled all year — it’s no secret,” Arundel coach Jack Walsh said. “[Le’Mon], his ball security has been [good] all season [and he’ll] get the tough yards.”
With that, he put Meade on notice.
Arundel quarterback Cameron Leight (8-for-20, 95 yards, 2 TDs) shot nothing but blanks in the first quarter, but that soon changed. He completed a couple passes before a fourth-down toss left his hands at the 27-yard line and whistled toward wide receiver Karris Scott.
Scott’s grab nearly got intercepted, but when the ball bounced off a Meade defender’s fingertips, Scott caught it for the second Arundel touchdown to cut the deficit to 20-14.
“We come out flat often, put
ourselves behind.,” Walsh said. “That’s been a characteristic of ours, unfortunately.
“I don’t think we made too many adjustments; I think we settled down and started playing football the way it’s supposed to be played. Fatigue [for Meade] set in a little and that played to our advantage.”
All of Meade’s attempted responses ended without much ado, but none of them went as poorly as its second-to-last possession of the half.
House’s first pass attempt was fumbled and fell into Arundel hands. Leight and the Wildcats converted that unexpected chance into a touchdown, a 4-yard toss into the hands of Yousif Yagoub.
With a good kick, the tides changed. Arundel held a 21-20 lead, and for good measure it capped off the half with a sack.
Francis knows this brief season would be the right experience his mostly first-year varsity players who needed to grow. But Friday night, they didn’t have it yet.
“We made too many mistakes. We had a couple penalties,” Francis said. “Just too many mistakes.”
Leight understood the concept of when something isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. He opened up the second half with another 27-yard passing touchdown to Anthony D’Urso, extending the Wildcats lead to 27-20.
When Meade drummed up potential, it let it wither away. The closest the Mustangs got was just outside the red zone, and that was the good part. Arundel’s defense created two more turnovers in the fourth quarter alone.
“They settled down and started playing their style of football,” said Walsh of his defense. “Don’t try to do too much, do your job. … It just kind of happened.”
To make matters worse for the Mustangs, the visitors lost their signal-caller when House briefly left the game to an injury midway through the fourth. Without him, yet another Meade drive fizzled out.
And Arundel wasn’t done. Though the Meade defense kept the Wildcats from reaching the end zone again, the 22-yard field goal attempt by Noah Bell whistled between the uprights and gave Arundel a double-digit advantage, 30-20.
Arundel loses to graduation seniors who barely had the chance to put their Wildcats uniforms on before they had to turn them in again. After the game, hugs were shared and tears were shed on both sidelines.
Le’Mon, one of those seniors, won’t feel the regret of missing more games. These are good memories.
“I’ll always remember this for the rest of my life,” he said. “Wish we had more games, but [we] had to make the best of what we could.”