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

There he stood; third-year Henry Wise head coach DaLawn Parrish, on the field, sun glaring in his face, virtually speechless, and for good reason.

For the head coach of the program that experienced only two wins two seasons ago and five wins last season, Saturday will be a day that will loom large in the minds and thoughts of Parrish and the entire program for a long time to come.

It was indeed on Saturday that the Henry Wise Pumas travelled to C.H. Flowers and defeated the Jaguars 28-0 in the 4A South regional championship game to win the program's first ever regional title.

And as for Parrish, a coach with high intensity on the sidelines during games, and for a coach who is rarely at a loss of words, he did not know exactly what to say after the win, a true sign of the joy he had for his kids and his program.

"It feels good, but credit those kids," Parrish said. "They have played so hard all year long, and I am so happy for them."

There was indeed enough credit to go around after the day was done as the defense held Flowers to 135 total team yards.

The defense, that did not allow an offensive touchdown in the first meeting between the two teams in a Wise 7-6 loss on Sept. 27, pitched another shutout in Saturday's victory.

The defensive unit picked up from where it left off in the last contest as Wise cornerback Jabirl Baldwin picked up a Reginald Woods fumble on Flowers' opening offensive possession and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown to give the Pumas an early 6-0 lead.

"When I picked up the fumble, the only thing going through my mind was touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown," Baldwin said.

The touchdown excited the Pumas' sidelines and provided an additional spark to start the game.

"It was tremendous," Parrish said of the confidence boost the touchdown return provided. "He did that at [Eleanor Roosevelt], but he was run down. He completed it today, so that set the tone. He scooped, we scored, and that was big."

Baldwin would also add an interception late in the game to further seal the victory.

As the defense pitched a shutout, the Wise offense continued to hit home runs. It's biggest home-run hitter, running back Anthony Wright, led the way as he amassed 238 rushing yards and a touchdown on 26 attempts.

Of Wright's six rushes, 10 were of 10 yards or more and, as a team, the Pumas totaled 357 rushing yards, 62 of those yards belonging to sophomore quarterback Deandre Smith.

And although running back Derron Tapp rushed for just 14 of those yards, respectively, he punched in two touchdowns, one in the second quarter from 1-yard out, and his second in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard score taking the lead to 20-0 after a two-point conversion. Wright added his score late in the game with only 52 seconds remaining.

"It goes to our offensive line," Parrish said of the potent rushing attack. "It starts up front. We yelled at them, made some adjustments and they responded. That is what we had to do, grind them down and grind them down."

As Parrish continued to show his loss of words, he took a deep breath, stood still for one last second on the field to soak in the severity of the moment and finally walked towards the buses to further celebrate with his team.

Those buses will take Wise (9-3) to visit the 4A West regional champions Sherwood of Montgomery County in a contest scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.

Flowers finishes the season 10-2 as quarterback Dwayne Powell led the Jaguars offense with 58 rushing yards on five attempts in the loss.

tmccray@digitalsports.com

Wise 28, Flowers 0

Wise    --    6   6   0   16
Flowers --   0   0   0   0

First quarter:
W    --    Baldwin 42 fumble return, 6:13 (kick failed)
Second quarter:
W    --    Tapp 1 run, 1:48 (run failed)
Fourth quarter:
W    --    Tapp 3 run, 4:09 (L. Burrell run)
W    --    Wright 36 run, 11:08 (Darby run)

Top individual performers
Rushing
Wise: Wright 26-238, Smith 5-62, L. Burrell 8-43
Flowers: Powell 5-58, Woods 9-29
Passing
Wise: Smith 3-6-0 46
Flowers: Powell 3-15-1 10
Receiving
Wise: Wright 1-35
Flowers: Labidou 1-5