Unbeaten North Point, St. Charles face off tonight
Battle of 6-0 gridiron teams pits Petre against former assistant Orndoff
Less than a week before their teams were about to square off in a battle of unbeaten squads competing in the Potomac Division of the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference, North Point High School head football coach and St. Charles High School football coach Patrick Orndoff spent Saturday afternoon and evening at the wedding of a common friend.
Orndoff had been the offensive coordinator for Petre over the previous four seasons, including last fall when the Eagles captured their first Class 4A East Region title with a victory at Broadneck before falling to Quince Orchard in the state semifinals.
Last Saturday, the two coaches not only rode to the wedding in St. Mary’s County together, they also sat next to one another at the reception.
Of course, tonight when North Point (6-0 overall, 3-0 SMAC
Potomac) heads to St. Charles (6-0, 2-0) for the most anticipated game on the schedule, Petre and Orndoff will be on opposite sidelines for the first time. Once the game gets under way at 7 p.m., their friendship will get a twohour or so break before they get reunited at the end of the contest.
“I’m excited about the game and I know our kids are excited about it and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Orndoff said on Tuesday after his team’s practice. “A lot of people in the building are talking about the game. We have people here who started out at North Point, like our athletic director, Jen Smith, and my assistant coaches, Ken Lane and Ryan Gick. For us, this really is like the start of the playoffs.”
While St. Charles has yet to appear in the postseason, having gone 0-10 in its inaugural year before three consecutive 5-5 seasons under previous head coach Avery Williams, North Point is certainly no stranger to the playoffs.
Last year, the Eagles were one game shy of reaching the 4A state finals at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and this year their 6-0 start, despite graduating 32 seniors from the 2018 squad, is hardly new to the program.
“Even before the season began when we looked at the schedule and saw that we were going to be playing over there in week seven, we both joked about both of us going into that game 6-0,” Petre said. “But, honestly, I don’t think either one of us really expected we would both be 6-0 right now. Coach ‘O’ has done a great job over there and I know he’s going to have his guys ready.”
North Point and St. Charles have hardly trav- eled similar paths to their current 6-0 marks. Both own victories over Westlake, Patuxent and North- ern, with the Spartans beating the Wolverines on the last play of the game on a Hail Mary pass from quarterback Kameron Blount to wide receiver Konner Blount-Foster.
In their brief history of meetings, each of which has been won by North Point thus far, the Spar- tans have never hosted the game. St. Charles was technically the home team two years ago when they met, but the game was belatedly moved to North Point due to field conditions at St. Charles. So Friday’s game, weather permitting, will mark the Eagles’ first foray to the Spartans.
“We’re really expecting a big turnout,” Orndoff said. “This is what Friday Night Lights is supposed to be, two unbeaten teams from the same county playing against each other. Our coaches know them and their coaches know us, so it’s going to be interesting and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Both teams have similar quarterbacks with Asa Williams calling the signals for the Eagles, while Blount takes the snaps for the Spartans. Both teams also have intangible, three-way impact players with the Eagles bringing senior Malik Lawrence, while the Spartans have Jevon Hamilton and Blount-Foster and both coaches have immense respect for the opposing players.
“Patrick has a lot of talented kids over there and I think we’ve always known the talent was there,” Petre said. “Their quarterback can make plays and they have a lot of versatile players who can do a lot of different things. They’re sound on offense, defense and special teams. It will be fun to finally play a game over there and knowing coach ‘O’ is on the other sideline will make it that much more interesting.”
“Malik was always one of those kids who really had a great understanding of our offense when I was over there,” Orndoff said. “He really is like a coach on the field. He can change the game by doing so many different things. When you watch film of an opposing team you usually call out the players number, but we know those kids so all during film it was Malik and Asa and Corey [Johnson].”
Plenty of season left win or lose
St. Charles arrives riding a nine-game win streak dating back to last season when the Spartans won their final three contests under Williams, and Orndoff’s squad can virtually seal a playoff spot with a win on Friday night. After Friday’s game, St. Charles has three remaining games with teams in their 3A South Region: Great Mills, Chopticon and Huntingtown.
“These last four games are like the start of the playoffs for us,” Orndoff said. “No matter what happens Friday, win or lose, we have to get in that mindset. The last three teams we face are all 3A teams and they’re all very good teams. If we want to be a serious playoff team, we have to be ready to face those types of teams and it all starts for us this Friday.”
Regardless of the outcome on Friday, North Point and St. Charles will travel different paths to their respective state title games at Navy. Both coaches agreed that their respective long term goals will remain the same regardless of the final on Friday night.
“If one of us finishes the season at 14-0 and the other is 13-1, then we’ll both be happy,” Petre said. “That means we both achieved our ultimate goal of a state title.”
“Honestly, I would like to see them win the rest of their games after Friday night,” Orndoff said. “Tom’s a great football coach. He always has his guys ready for every game and every situation. I would love to be playing at Navy in the [3A] state championship game on Thursday night then go up and watch North Point in the 4A state championship on Friday night and then go back Saturday and watch Westlake [2A] and Lackey [1A] play for state titles.”