The results over the last few years had not been anywhere close to successful, but when Huntingtown’s Clay Wargo saw North Point on the schedule for a key Week 3 football matchup, he saw no reason to be anything other than optimistic.
“I told my whole team to think positive,” the senior linebacker and running back said. “I wanted everyone as a group to think positive and take it one step at a time. Didn’t want anybody to try to do too much at one time. Just take it one play at a time, but just think of it in the most positive way possible and believe good things were going to come our way.”
Friday night, Huntingtown got its chance with the ball in North Point territory with roughly a minute remaining in a game that was tied at 14. Quarterback Trent Connolly took the snap, slithered through the line, saw open field ahead of him and sprinted 42 yards into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown in the Hurricanes’ 21-14 Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division win over the Eagles.
Over the past three seasons, Huntingtown had never managed more than seven points against North Point, losing by a cumulative score of 85-20.
“We worked all week, all summer for this and it finally paid off,” said Connolly, who rushed for close to 90 yards and also passed for a touchdown. “Our line made beautiful blocks, the running back carried out the fake. All I had to do was bring it in.”
North Point (2-1, 1-0 SMAC Potomac), which finished as the Class 4A state runner-up a season ago, had last lost to a SMAC team on Sept. 16, 2016 in a 28-7 shortcoming at Calvert. And the upset did not appear to be in the cards early on Friday, as on their second possession the Eagles marched down the field on a seven-play, 68-yard drive to take the early 7-0 lead on Corey Johnson’s 1-yard touchdown run just 5 minutes 17 seconds into the game.
But North Point was plagued by penalties in the opening half, close to 100 yards worth over the first two quarters, and were unable to maintain their rhythm throughout.
“We just didn’t play well,” Eagles head coach Tom Petre said. “It’s our job to make sure our guys are prepared to come out and play well and we didn’t do a good enough job preparing this week. We didn’t execute real well. We got behind the chains quite a bit. There were quite a few flags in the game tonight, so it was hard to get any continuity going. We couldn’t get any continuity going on offense and we had a hard time, at times, coming up with a stop on defense when we needed one.”
Late in the first quarter, Huntingtown (3-0, 1-0), itself a 3A state semifinalist a year ago, had a prime opportunity when KyRee Kirkman’s interception set the team up at the North Point 29-yard line. But the Hurricanes ultimately missed a 36-yard field goal attempt to come away with nothing.
Later in the half, the hosts got things rolling on offense, putting together an 87-yard drive that culminated with Connolly’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Dalrymple with 28.3 ticks left in the opening half.
After a scoreless third quarter, Huntingtown against found itself in prime position after stopping a North Point fake punt attempt just short of a first down with just less than eight minutes remaining. On the next play, Wargo burst through the line and scored on a 29-yard run to give the Hurricanes a 14-7 lead with 7:48 remaining following Bryce LaFollette’s extra point.
North Point wasted no time in responding. Set up at the Huntingtown 44 after a long kick return, quarterback Tedros Gleaton guided a quick six-play drive to tie the score. Gleaton completed passes to Canaan Williams and Johnson to consume 24 of the needed yards, while he did the rest with his legs and finished the series with a 7-yard touchdown run. Chris Hernandez’s extra point left the game tied at 14 with 5:32 to play.
Finishing the deal
The Hurricanes’ offense took the field at their own 31 to start the ensuing series and promptly picked up a first down on two rushes by Wargo for 11 yards. But the next three plays netted nine yards, leaving the hosts with a fourth down-and-1 from the North Point 49. Huntingtown then took a shot with its own fake punt and earned the critical first down on a seven-yard carry by Josh Stokes. A play later, Huntingtown was celebrating Connolly’s touchdown run.
North Point muffed the ensuing kickoff and Huntingtown recovered, sealing the outcome. For the Hurricanes, a team that went 2-8 just two seasons ago, the significance of the victory could not be overstated.
“This means so much,” Wargo said. “This is the biggest confidence boost we could have. We knew we had it in us, that was the thing. We just finally went out and did it. ... North Point is a very, very good team. The way they run hurry-up, the way they run everything is incredible, honestly. The fact that we were able to hold them to 14 points and score 21 on them is huge for us.”
“First SMAC game North Point has lost in three years,” added Connolly. “This is a big game for us and it’s setting up a beautiful season. ... We’ve been confident. We’ve been working all summer. Everybody’s trusting in the process. We’re just waiting for it all to pay off in the winter.”
The loss was the first regular season loss for the Eagles since the aforementioned Calvert game just over three years prior. North Point will look to rebound when it hosts Chopticon at 7 p.m. Friday against a Braves team that edged Great Mills 19-14 in Week 3.
“We’ll put it back together,” Petre said. “We have Chopticon next week and we’ll learn from this. It’s only failure if you don’t learn from a loss, and there’s a lot to be learned from this tonight.
“Huntingtown is a great team. If we do our thing right, we’ll see them again later.”
For the Hurricanes — who travel to Calvert for a 7 p.m. Friday against a Cavaliers squad that defeated Westlake 28-21 in Week 3 — the outcome versus North Point was the continuation of years of work to restore the program amongst the top teams in SMAC and beyond. Huntingtown reached the 3A semifinals a year ago and clearly are focused on continuing the climb.
“They worked their butts off,” Huntingtown head coach Paul Friel said of his team. “They’re so unselfish. They do whatever they have to do. We lost our starting safety [Tyler Childress] last week, who rotated at all three backs, knew all the plays and kept those guys fresh. I had two guys doing that tonight who haven’t really gotten many reps. But again, they took care of each other. Against a team like this that’s a little bit of a scary situation, but they handled it. We have several sophomores playing, too, but they’re doing great.
“We were a year later than we should have been, but I had a feeling we were going to be this kind of team, especially at the end of last year when everybody really started buying in.”
Twitter: @cfhphilly
