Football: Eleanor Roosevelt 30, C.H. Flowers 6

By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County Content Manager

There are not many options once an offensive team starts a play in football. Either you run, or you pass, seems simple enough. However, in Monday's battle of undefeated teams - a game originally scheduled for Saturday, but postponed to Monday due to rain - the Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders and quarterback Michael Thomas gave itself plenty of options with each play. Whether it was a run, a fake run then pass, or a fake run then quarterback run, Thomas led the Roosevelt option offense to a 30-6 victory over visiting C.H. Flowers. The win not only kept Roosevelt undefeated, but gave it home-field advantage throughout the upcoming 4A South playoffs.

"This was huge for our team," Roosevelt head coach Tom Green said. "All the other wins would not have mattered as much because this was for home field throughout the playoffs. If [Flowers] would have won this game they would have had home field. ... So, it was definitely a big win."

On its second possession, Thomas led Roosevelt down the field and capped off a 10-play drive with a touchdown run from four yards out to give the Raiders the lead 6-0, it was his sixth consecutive run. The Raiders further opened the lead as running back Tristan Youngblood pushed his way across the goal line from eight-yards out, and after a successful 2-point conversion, the Raiders were leading 14-0 going into the half. Youngblood led all rushers with a game-high 84 yards on the day, including a 55-yard scamper to set up his 8-yard score. Thomas finished with 57 rushing yards on the day.

As the game progressed with on-again and off-again rain, the Roosevelt defense seemingly got stronger and stronger and pitched a shutout up until the very last second of the game. The biggest play from the defense came on a 36-yard fumble return for touchdown from cornerback Antoine Johnson that gave the Raiders a 30-0 lead in the late stages of the fourth quarter.

"I had a 36-yard fumble return," Johnson said, "but it was a team effort because I didn't strip the ball, I picked it up. People blocked for me - we're a team, we're unselfish, and that is how we have to play to win states."

Another key component of the Roosevelt defense that helped hold a Flowers offense averaging 34 points a game to only six points in the contest was defensive end Olu Ayanbiola who often found himself in the backfield during Flowers' offensive possessions.

"They had us hyped since the first day of practice on Monday," Ayanbiola said of the defensive mindset." ... A shutout. That is all we think about, that's all we want every week, a shutout, a shutout, a shutout."

Flowers (7-1) was able to score its lone touchdown on the day as the fourth quarter clock expired when quarterback Dwayne Powell connected with Michael Stennett on a 33-yard strike. Powell led all passers on the day with 78 yards on 4 of 7 passing and one touchdown. Reginald Woods led the Jaguars in rushing with 36 yards on seven attempts.

With the win, Roosevelt improves to 8-0 and confidence is high throughout the program, and coach Green looks for his Raiders to remain humble with two regular-season games remaining on its schedule.

"We don't want to get too over confident," Green said, "and the one good thing is that we will stay humble."