Poets cruise into final
One last hurdle to go as Dunbar chases 11th state championship
Dunbar quarterback Karon Moore asked his receivers to report to the field at 7 a.m. on Saturday, six hours before the Poets met Cambridge-South Dorchester in the Class 1A state semifinal. Moore wanted to make sure they were all on the same page.
The Poets wanted to make a return trip to the state championship game, and they cleared their final hurdle with ease. Moore threw four touchdown passes and No. 5 Dunbar jumped to a big early lead, rolling to a 45-3 victory over visiting CambridgeSouth Dorchester.
Dunbar (12-1) will meet Catoctin (12-1) in the state championship game Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at 3:30 p.m. The Poets are trying for their 11th state title and second in the past three years. They’ve worked diligently all season, doing things like what Moore and his group did Saturday morning.
Moore didn’t mind the early hour as he and his receivers went through the plan of the attack. That extra work paid off as he threw three touchdown passes in the first half for a 22-3 lead.
“If you want something, you’ve got to go get it,” said Moore, who completed 9 of 11 passes for 145 yards. “We just kept playing hard in practice [all week].”
Everything seemed to click for Dunbar. The offense racked up 365 yards, aided by Moore and leading rusher Jeremiah White (118 yards). Meanwhile, the Poets defense proved too tough for the Vikings and their Wing-T offense.
“We were rocking and rolling,” Dunbar coach Lawrence Smith said. “[The] offense and defense came together. They played
great.”
Cambridge-South Dorchester moved the ball at times. The Vikings finished with 228 yards of total offense, but it was mostly between the 20s.
Dunbar wanted to stop the Vikings from making the big plays that often come from a Wing-T offense. The Poets did that for the most part, and that’s what kept CambridgeSD from staying in the game.
“We just wanted to make them earn their points,” Dunbar running back/linebacker Dion Crews-Harris said. “If anything, we wanted to make them [go] three or four yards a pop. We wanted to make them earn everything.”
The Poets came up with several big plays, which often happened in tough situations. Moore threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Sykes on fourth-and-14 in the first quarter. Crews-Harris ran for the conversion and an 8-0 lead.
Moore struck twice more in the second quarter, first on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Rashard Clayborn and then on a 25-yard scoring pass to Khalil Bailey in the final minute of the first half. Kristian Spriggs ran for the two-point conversion on the latter and made it 22-3 at halftime.
Then, on fourth-and-13 on Dunbar’s first third-quarter drive, Moore found Deairus Carr for a 14-yard touchdown. Spriggs again ran for two and a 30-3 lead. Crews broke free for a 29-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter, and one play later, Davonta Ayers picked off a pass and returned it for a 27-yard touchdown. Baye Diop kicked the extra point, and that completed the scoring.
C 03 00
D 8 14 8 15
D- Sykes 37 pass from Moore (Crews-Harris run) D- Clayborn 13 pass from Moore (run failed) C- Frazier 32 FG
D- Bailey 25 pass from Moore (Spriggs run) D- Carr 14 pass from Moore (Spriggs run) D- Crews-Harris 29 run (Simpson run)
D- Ayers 27 interception return (Diop kick)
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