Coaches and players from the Huntingtown High School football team gather on the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium after capturing the Maryland 2A state championship game with a 24-21 victory over Northern.
Northern High School senior quarterback Blake Pasik gets sent airborne while looking to dive over a Huntingtown defender in the second half of Saturday’s 2A state title game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
The scoreboard overlooking the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis tells the story as the Huntingtown High School football team defeated county and SMAC rival Northern 24-21 to capture the Maryland 2A State Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Huntingtown High School senior Brody Whittington collects a pass from quarterback Blake Marlowe and heads toward daylight in the first half of last Saturday’s 2A state championship game against Northern at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Whittington and the Hurricanes prevailed over the Patriots 24-21 to earn their first state football title.
Northern High School's Jayden Chesley looks to elude Huntingtown defender Brody Whittington in the first half of Saturday's 2A state championship game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Huntingtown prevailed 24-21 in that contest for the Hurricanes first football state title.
Huntingtown High School senior running back Gabriel Copeland looks to escape the grasp of a Northern defender in the first half of Saturday's 2A state championship game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Copeland scored two touchdowns and the Hurricanes emerged with a 24-21 victory over the Patriots.
Coaches and players from the Huntingtown High School football team gather on the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium after capturing the Maryland 2A state championship game with a 24-21 victory over Northern.
Photo courtesy Joe Lawson
Northern High School senior quarterback Blake Pasik gets sent airborne while looking to dive over a Huntingtown defender in the second half of Saturday’s 2A state title game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
Photo courtesy Joe Lawson
The scoreboard overlooking the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis tells the story as the Huntingtown High School football team defeated county and SMAC rival Northern 24-21 to capture the Maryland 2A State Championship on Saturday afternoon.
TED BLACK/Southern Maryland News
Huntingtown High School senior Brody Whittington collects a pass from quarterback Blake Marlowe and heads toward daylight in the first half of last Saturday’s 2A state championship game against Northern at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Whittington and the Hurricanes prevailed over the Patriots 24-21 to earn their first state football title.
Photo courtesy Joe Lawson
Northern High School's Jayden Chesley looks to elude Huntingtown defender Brody Whittington in the first half of Saturday's 2A state championship game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Huntingtown prevailed 24-21 in that contest for the Hurricanes first football state title.
Photo courtesy Joe Lawson
Huntingtown High School senior running back Gabriel Copeland looks to escape the grasp of a Northern defender in the first half of Saturday's 2A state championship game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Copeland scored two touchdowns and the Hurricanes emerged with a 24-21 victory over the Patriots.
On an afternoon in which the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference would eventually depart Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis with a pair of state football titles for a second straight year, the Huntingtown High School squad edged longtime conference and county foe Northern 24-21 to earn its first state title in program history.
In many respects, the intensity surrounding the rivalry among longtime SMAC schools Huntingtown and Northern gets elevated regardless of the sport or circumstance, but Saturday afternoon even that clash ascended to new heights when the two teams met for the 2A state football championship where both squads competed in another epic battle.
“Usually in these big rivalry games the players can get caught up in a lot of the emotions involved,” Huntingtown coach Paul Friel said. “But this week I think the coaches were more guilty of it. We knew they were going to make some adjustments from the previous meeting, so I think us coaches were probably more guilty of getting caught up in the changes.”
Huntingtown (11-2) was making its third consecutive appearance in the 2A state title game, but the two previous contests, both against Stephen Decatur, had not gone favorably for the Hurricanes who fell to the Seahawks in very close contests. Not surprisingly, even though Huntingtown twice owned double-digit leads over Northern on Saturday, the Hurricanes knew that advantage was not safe.
Huntingtown broke the scoreless deadlock midway through the first quarter when senior running back Gabriel Copeland rambled 55 yards for a touchdown that gave the Hurricanes a 7-0 lead. Then early in the second quarter senior kicker Max Hall connected on a 21-yard field goal to give the Hurricanes a 10-0 lead, but the Patriots countered with a 13-play, 70-yard drive that culminated with a one-yard touchdown run from senior Dylan Allafi.
Huntingtown appeared to regain the momentum before the intermission when Copeland added his second rushing touchdown of the contest on a 12-yard run with 2:27 left in the half. Northern responded with another long drive, but it failed to produce any points and the Hurricanes headed into the halftime locker room with a 17-6 lead.
After struggling to generate much offense in the first half, Northern responded by dominating the second half with a brutal ground game of its own. The Patriots promptly opened the third quarter with a 15-play, 64-yard drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown run from Allafi and then Pasik connected with Tony Holson for the two-point conversion.
Bolstered by its offensive resurgence, Northern then forged its first lead of the game courtesy of a defensive play. Cam Williams intercepted a Blake Marlowe pass and returned it 49 yards to the Hurricanes’ four-yard line. Two plays later, Allafi found the end zone for a third time from two yards out and kicker Arthur Strutt added the extra point for a 21-17 Patriots lead with 2:53 remaining in the third quarter.
Northern (9-5) then had the chance to seal the verdict in the fourth quarter. The Patriots marched 57 yards in 13 plays and took nearly eight minutes off the clock before the Patriots turned the ball over on downs in the Hurricanes’ red zone. Having generated little offense since the first half, Huntingtown was 88 yards from the end zone when it assumed possession with just over five minutes to play.
“I know the game didn’t end the way we wanted, but I’m proud of these guys,” said Northern first-year coach Tommy Abel, coincidentally a Huntingtown alum and former Hurricanes’ football player. “We were 3-5 at one point this season. But these guys never stopped believing in themselves or the coaches.”
Throughout the regular season and its playoff run, Huntingtown had used a methodical ground game to devour yards, time of possession and score points. But facing the prospect of being dealt its third straight state final setback, Huntingtown responded in electrifying fashion. On second down, sophomore running back Joshua Walter found a huge hole up the middle, broke through the Northern secondary and raced 82 yards for a touchdown that gave the Hurricanes the lead.
“When I followed that block from Brody [Whittington] and got past their secondary, I started to get a little tired toward the end,” Walter said of his long touchdown run. “I have to admit, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. I thought I might go down inside the five-yard-line.”
