By Andy States
Content Manager, SMAC
The mood was somber and heads slumped a bit on the North Point sideline. Its game against the visiting Lackey Chargers was barely five minutes old, but already the mighty Chargers had punched the ball into the end zone to deflate the Eagles' spirits.
Arlando Scott made sure that sentiment was short-lived.
Following Lackey's touchdown on its first possession, Scott scored on an 85-yard touchdown run. Later in the opening quarter, the Eagles' junior added a 77-yard jaunt to pay dirt. Scott went on to rush for 322 yards and three touchdowns and North Point clearly established itself as the top team in SMAC with a 32-14 win over Lackey on Friday night.
"This was a real big win for North Point in history," said Scott. "Lackey's a good team, a real good team. They were predicted to win SMAC this year."
North Point (6-1, 6-0) entered the season a question mark of sorts. Coming off a 3-7 campaign in just their first varsity season, the Eagles unquestionably had the talent to be amongst the best teams in the conference. But this was just the second varsity season, and the first in which the school had a senior class. And it wasn't easy at the start, as the Eagles had to open against the defending conference-champion Patuxent Panthers, a game the Eagles lost 18-13.
But that was just the start. In the six weeks since, North Point has not dropped a game and has grown stronger every week. Among the last four victims are Huntingtown, Westlake and Lackey -- all playoff teams a year ago. The margin of victory in those marquee matchups has grown each week, as well. The Eagles beat Huntingtown by six, Westlake by 11 and on Friday, knocked off Lackey, a 3A state semifinalist a year ago, by 18 in what was by and large a dominant performance.
"I thought we could be good, didn't know if we would be good," North Point coach Ken Lane said. "I thought we had the ingredients to be good, but I think every year you hope to get the right chemistry and get a couple bounces to go your way early.
"I think the kids had a tough Week 1 loss against a good football team. The kids came back and have never given up."
Lackey (4-3, 3-2) opened offensively with a five-play, 60-yard drive that culminated with Malcolm Willis crossing the goal line on a nine-yard run. Never again was it so easy. The Chargers struggled to cross midfield through the rest of the first half, and turned the ball over twice, including once on their own nine-yard line.
The Chargers opened the second half with another 60-yard scoring drive, this time concluded with Chris Frazier's seven-yard touchdown reception from Amir Smith. Gary Fortune's two-point conversion run cut the deficit to 18-14 with 8 minutes 18 seconds left in the third, but that was to be as close as Lackey would come.
Scott scored his third touchdown of the night on a five-yard run with 3:57 remaining in the quarter and, after its defense forced a quick Lackey three-and-out, North Point scored again. This time on a 26-yard pass from Ja'Ron Neal to Taylor Griffin that increased the Eagles' lead to 32-14 with just 39 seconds left on the third-quarter clock. Lackey was able to mount one significant drive in the fourth, driving down to the North Point 4. But on fourth-and-goal, the Eagles' Connor Crowell sacked Willis to end the threat, and with it, any comeback aspirations the Chargers may have still harbored.
"It's disappointing for us, but it's high school football. Anything can happen for us next week," Lackey coach Doug Lamb said. "Hopefully we can come out a little bit better, but it's nothing that we didn't prepare for. [North Point is] a good football team. We knew we had to play flawless against them and they kicked our tails."
The loss was a second in a row for Lackey, which came into the season as a conference favorite with a roster laden with star power after the run to the 3A semifinals a year ago. With three weeks remaining in the season, the Chargers are out of the SMAC race for all intents and purposes, and will need to win out to have any chance at making the 3A South playoff field.
"We'll find out," Lamb said regarding how his team will bounce back. "We have a lot of veteran guys. We'll see who's going to take control of their team. We told the kids this is their season. It's up to them how they want to finish.
"We can't think playoffs right now. We got too much going on right now. We need to become better football players and play better football."
After starting this year's season with a loss, North Point has improved each week. But the maturation process started midway through last season as the Eagles struggled through their first varsity season, according to Lane. But never have the Eagles been more impressive than Friday night, when they controlled the line of scrimmage and forced three turnovers against a top-notch opponent.
"I think that's something you shoot for every year, to start out in a certain place and continue to grow and get better," Lane said. "I think we're doing that.
"It's been kind of a process from midway through last year to this year. We've played pretty good defense most of the year. Offensively, we've made a lot of changes this year and I think we're just getting better and better all the time."
With three weeks remaining in the regular season, and what would look to be the most arduous stretch of schedule behind them, the Eagles hold their fate in their own hands. North Point is the lone remaining unbeaten team in SMAC play and have only Thomas Stone and McDonough -- both with sub-.500 records, left on the SMAC slate. Additionally, if it is able to hold serve over the final three weeks, North Point could potentially earn a berth in the 2A South playoffs as either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, which translates into a home playoff game. Regardless, it's a far cry from where the Eagles sat after seven weeks a year ago -- 1-6.
"It means all the practice has paid off," Scott said. "Last year, we were getting killed last year. We worked hard during the summer. We came out and executed and beat major teams."
North Point 32, Lackey 14L 6 0 8 0
N 12 6 14 0
First quarter
L - Willis 9 run (kick failed), 6:54
N - Scott 85 run (kick blocked), 6:26
N - Scott 77 run (run failed), 0:00
Second quarter
N - FG Griffin 22, 8:37
N - FG Griffin 27, :22
Third quarter
L - Frazier 7 pass from Smith (Fortune run), 8:18
N - Scott 5 run (Griffin kick), 3:57
N - Griffin 26 pass from Neal (Griffin kick), :39
Top individual performers
Rushing
Lackey: Willis 18-68, Osuchukwu 6-18, Fortune 2-13
North Point: Scott 29-322
Passing
Lackey: Smith 6-18-2 73, Willis 1-3-0 41
North Point: Neal 4-8-1 57
Receiving Lackey: Fortune 3-64, Waugh 2-22, Cooper 1-21, Frazier 1-7
North Point: Griffin 1-26
