Ending ‘fun week’ with a shutout
Spartans take care of Rams, first-year coach Virts
In one of the few contests this fall when the visiting head coach had less time to travel to an opponent than many of the players on the host team, the St. Charles High School football team upended visiting McDonough, 24-0, in a Southern Maryland Athletic Conference crossover clash on Thursday.
McDonough first-year head coach
Brock Virts is the Charles County resource officer stationed at St. Charles and he is accustomed to greeting students as they arrive each morning. Among the students arriving each morning are numerous members of the St. Charles football team, many of whom were quick to remind him of Thursday’s pending clash.
Much of the commentary that transpired between Virts and the St. Charles players and faculty throughout the week was genuinely light-hearted, but once the game got under way the Spartans
were not overly gracious hosts. St. Charles got two touchdowns from quarterback Klayton Batten, including one on defense, to lift the Spartans to the shutout win.
“It was definitely a great week in school,” Virts said. “Some of the kids and teachers decorated my office. It was all in good fun. The first half, we did a lot of good things. We couldn’t finish off drives. Then that one play Klayton made right before halftime was the back breaker.”
Batten had given St. Charles (2-0 overall) an early 6-0 lead when he found the end zone from eight yards out. McDonough nearly reached midfield on its next possession, but after a short
punt the Spartans took over just on the Rams’ side of midfield. On the first play from scrimmage, running back Deandre Jefferson found a huge hole up the middle and raced 46 yards for another Spartans touchdown.
“We have become more of a defensive team than I anticipated,” St. Charles head coach Patrick Orndoff. “Offensively, we haven’t been able to put up the type of points that I would like, but tonight we were able to run the ball effectively. Brock’s a very good football coach. It was a fun week around here.”
McDonough (0-2) countered with its best drive of the game late in the second quarter. The Rams
not only crossed midfield they marched deep into Spartans territory. Quarterback A.J. Holton connected with Mico Dacar for 27 yards to set up a first down and goal at the Spartans’ 10-yard line with just over two minutes left in the first half.
Presented with the chance to trim the deficit in half before the intermission, however, the Rams defense bent under the pressure from the St. Charles defense and on the final of the drive it broke down entirely.
Holton’s fourth and goal pass was well short of the end zone and Batten grabbed the ball, initially raced down the left sideline, cut back toward the center of the field and raced untouched into the
end zone to cap a 90-yard interception return.
“Klayton just goes out there and makes plays,” Orndoff said. “That was a huge play. They had a chance to get back in it right before halftime, but instead Klayton makes a great defensive play then takes it all the way. Initially, I thought he was going to run out of bounds.”
Neither team scored in the third quarter, but St. Charles put the finishing touches on the contest in the fourth. Following a short punt and solid return by Konner Blount-Foster, the Spartans needed only one play to seal the verdict. Blount-Foster took the handoff from Batten and raced off right tackle for a 38-yard touchdown that accounted points.
St. Charles travels to Lackey for a 7 p.m. Friday contest that includes a pair of 2-0 teams. The Chargers defeated Chopticon 34-7 in Week 2.
“They have a lot of great athletes and a lot of great kids,” Virts said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. We’ll go back on Monday and look at the film and see what things we need to work on. The effort has been there. We just have to find a way to finish some of these drives on offense.”
McDonough hosts La Plata at 7 p.m. Friday. The Warriors picked up their first win of the season in Week 2, 22-12 versus Great Mills. for the final