by Lem Satterfield
and Derek Toney.
At halftime
of Saturday afternoon’s Class 2A state title game against Eastern Tech,
River Hill junior quarterback Luke Hostetler and his Hawks found
themselves in a situation that was all too unfamiliar.
Trailing by seven points, and experiencing their first deficit of the season.
“We
were down at the half, the locker room wasn’t really fired up at all.
Heads down, nobody was talking. We were stunned. We had never been down
before, and we were not looking too good,” said Hostetler, who, as a
high school player, was in danger of suffering his first career loss in
34 games, dating back to consecutive 20-0 seasons as the junior varsity
starter.
“But right before we went back out onto the field, we
all started to get pumped up. Somebody said, ‘we’re not going to lose,
we’re only down by a touchdown,’ and then, everybody started to yell
and scream, and we got on a roll from there.”
At 9:11 of the
third quarter, Hostetler connected on what amount to being a
momentum-changing, play, completing his 14th scoring pass of the year
for 69-yard to Malik Redd to make it 7-7, and, later, watching Redd’s
6-yard scoring run — for his 22nd touchdown of the year — with 3:51
left to play in a come-from-behind, 14-7 victory at M&T Bank
Stadium.
“I dropped back, saw one safety on him, and he kind of
bit a little bit to the other side,” said Hostetler, who is 34-0 as a
high school player after watching consecutive extra point kicks by
Carlos Griffin-Benitez follow each of Redd’s scores.
“Right
before we got up to the line, I told Luke that I was going to be open,
and he kind of gave me a nodd, saying he was going to get me the ball,”
said Redd, who has scored two touchdowns in each of the Hawks’ four
playoff games, including wins over McDonough, Patuxent and Elkton —
all by shutout.
“Once I got the ball in my hands, all that I saw was the endzone,” said Redd. “Nobody was going to catch me after that.”
The
Mavericks had one final opportunity to tie the game as quarterback
Travis Crane, starting at his own 48 with 2:17 to play, took Eastern
Tech deep into the Hawks’ defensive end.
But with two seconds
left, Crane, after a long scramble, only found Derryck Davis, who was
brought down at the River Hill 15-yard line by Alex Turner as
time ran out.
“They shocked us a little bit, even though we knew
they were a physical team,” said junior linebacker Leron Eaddy, who
disrupted a pass inside his own 20-yard line during the Maverick’s
final drive. “They came out and played hard and made us a little
nervous, but the coaches prepared us for the second half, just like
they have all year.”
Senior linebackers Zach Martin, Andrew
Donoghue and Jonathan Hill had, 14, 11 and 10 tackles, respectively,
and senior linebacker Alex Turner had a sack as part of a defense that
has anchored the Hawks (14-0) to a state record-tying 11 shutouts on
the year, and which has not allowed a passing touchdown.
“We made some adjustments. They were hurting us inside, getting some
push on our defensive line. They were moving the ball, so you’ve got to
give them credit. Nobody’s been able to push us around like that,” said
River Hill coach Brian Van Deusen, who is 75-18 in eight seasons. “We
have only given up two touchdowns, and our first-team had only given up
one touchdown all year. So Coach [Todd] Martin was able to take the
inside run away and make them do something different.”
The
Mavericks (13-1), who set a school-record for wins in a season to reach
their first state title game since being Class 3A state runners-up in
1998, were led, defensively, by Bryan Watson (11 tackles), Ryan
Schlothauer (seven tackles, one fumble recovery), Derryck Davis and
quarterback-defensive back Travis Crane.
Together, they limited
Redd, Campanaro (64 yards rushing) and Martin, who have scored 22, 30
and 17 touchdowns this season, to a combined 41 rushing yards in the
first half, and, a season-low 116 for the game.
Early on, however, Crane
ran for an 8-yard touchdown that was followed by Dave Spalt’s extra
point kick to end the Mavericks’ game-opening, 13-play, 87-yard drive,
giving the Mavericks a 7-0 lead at 3:24 of the first quarter.
“I
knew they were a good team coming in, and I thought that if we could
score first, they would crumble. I definitely felt real good going in
after scoring the touchdown,” Crane said of a drive that was keyed by
Thomas Edwards’ 32-yard run on third-and-7 from his own 16.
“But
you have to give a lot of credit to them,” said Crane, who has thrown
13 scoring passes and run for 11. “They definitely came back strong,
stopped us late in the second quarter and came out real strong in the
second half.”
Eastern Tech of Baltimore County entered the game
having out-scored its opponents by a combined, 490-50, with five
shutouts, while River Hill of Howard County entered the game with a
537-14 scoring advantage.
“We just had to keep our cool, which
has been our thing all season. We came out after some second half
adjustments and shut down their first drive of the second half, which
was one of the biggest series’ of the game,” said Martin, who, after
going 13-1 and finishing as Class 3A state runners-up last season, said
“anything less than a victory tonight would have been considered a
failure.”
“We got caught in some small mistakes, two small ones
that hurt us. But you certainly can’t not be proud of these kids,” said
fifth-year coach Marc Mesaros, who is 49-12 in five seasons coaching
the Mavericks, and whose team had out-scored its previous three rivals
by a combined, 123-12, with three shutouts.
Included in the
Mavericks’ run was a 27-0 victory over last year’s Class 2A state
champion, Edmondson, of Baltimore City, and last week’s 35-0 rout of
Clarksburg of Montgomery County, which entered the game at 12-0.
“I’ve
been with these guys a long time, and they put their heart and soul
into everything that they do,” Mesaros said. “If you’re going to go
out, you go out swinging. And I thought that’s what our kids were able
to do. “
With the game tied at 7-7, the Mavericks made two critical stops during a third-quarter goal line stand against the Hawks.
On
third-and-goal at the Mavericks’ 3-yard line early in the fourth
quarter, Crane made a shoestring tackle on Hostetler to drop him for no
gain. On fourth down, Watson batted down Hostetler’s pass attempt at
the line of scrimmage.
But after Spalt, punting from his own
endzone, got off only a 10 yarder, River Hill took over from the
Eastern Tech 19-yard line, setting up Redd’s second touchdown to put
the Hawks ahead for good.
“First half, we weren’t holding our
blocks long enough. We were getting to our blocks, getting to our man
and then they were just sliding off and making the tackles,” said Ryan
Bounds, the lone returning offensive lineman from last year’s squad.
“Going into halftime, I told all of our guys that we had to maintain
our blocks, stay on them and let the ballcarrier get by us. We did that
in the second half, drove the ball a few times, and did what we needed
to do. I’m proud of how they came together.”
Campanaro, Eaddy,
Griffin, Hostetler, Redd, offensive linemen Sean Hull and Patrick
McCleaf as well as placekickers Carlos Griffin-Benitez and Scott Trench
will all return as seniors next season, as will offensive lineman Max
Coale, as a junior.
“In the locker room, it might have been a
different atmosphere than we ever had before, but our coaches basically
told us that it was a gut-check for us, and all of us stepped up,” Hull
said. “But I have to give it up to our captains. They stepped up and
broke it down, what needed to be done. When they did that, we changed.”
Class 2A Final
River Hill 14, Eastern Tech 7
Eastern Tech 7 0 0 0 7
River Hill 0 0 7 7 14
E- Crane 8 run (Spalt kick)
R- Redd 69 pass from Hostetler (Griffin-Benitez kick)
R- Redd 6 run (Griffin-Benitez kick)
Processing your request, Please wait....
