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By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager

It didn't take long for the Patuxent coaching staff to realize what they had in Justin Ford.

In his first varsity game in the Panthers' opener against Lackey in Ford's sophomore season, Ford caught a touchdown pass and played a key role in Patuxent hanging right with the perennial conference power.

"From that point on we knew he was going to be an impact kid for us," Patuxent coach Steve Crounse said.

Ford's impact on the program helped to produce a 28-6 mark over the past three seasons, a pair of SMAC championships and two 2A South playoff appearances. This past season Ford wrapped his Patuxent career by leading the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference with 798 receiving yards, scored a total of 13 touchdowns and, at times early in an injury-plagued season for Patuxent, put the Panthers on his back to help the team to a second consecutive SMAC championship.

Ford, along with teammate Eric Famer, recently signed to continue his football career for Shepherd University.

"I think it's a great fit," Crounse said. "There's other kids from the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference there who have had good success."

After opening his varsity career with a big game against Lackey, Ford provided the bookend for that in the first round of the 2A South playoffs at Douglass. The then-sophomore caught the game-winning touchdown pass to cap a 99-yard drive in the fourth quarter of Patuxent's 19-14 win. That was a watershed moment for the program, which followed with two SMAC-championship seasons.

"I remember every moment," said Ford, who also was a vital piece of the Panthers' defensive backfield and in the return game. "Every time we played on the field was a good memory. We were 8-2, 10-0, then 8-2 again. That's a hell of a record for three years."

Shepherd, a Division II school familiar with SMAC players through the years, is coming off of a 5-5 season in which all five losses came by 10 points or less. Ford, who ran a 4.34 40-yard dash in his visit to the school, hopes to be able to earn some playing time right out of the gate.

At Patuxent, that was never a problem.

"He's played a significant role for three years," Crounse said.

Never more so than at the beginning of this past football season when the depleted Panthers traveled to North Point. Despite missing starting quarterback Marcus Bullock, tailback Ra'Joun Nelson and Farmer, Ford helped to bring the Panthers back from a 13-0 deficit to defeat North Point, one of the teams the Panthers eventually shared the SMAC title with.

Ford returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown near the end of the first half, and then caught a pair of touchdown passes in the second half to lift Patuxent to the 18-13 win.

"He really had to step up against this year because most of our playmakers were injured," Crounse said. "The North Point game alone -- he put the team on his back and made big plays and got us out of a game we probably had no business winning with all the things we went through.

"He always put the program before himself. That's something big for me, as I remember him."

Ford and Farmer will leave a big hole in Patuxent's offense, which has been one of the most prolific and balanced in SMAC in recent years.

"[Ford] and Eric were able to stretch the field as well as anyone in the league for the last three years," Crounse said. "They may not have been the 100-meter champions in track and field, but on the football field they were as fast as anybody."