Wilde Lake's four-pronged backfield of Jarrell Epps, Ashton Hayes, Danny March and Vaughn Stamper does in Marriotts Ridge, 45-12, in Howard County League action. "We've got four guys who can carry the ball, and each one is a little bit different," said Wilde Lake coach Doug DuVall (above), whose Wildecats earned  his 285th career winm 45-12, at Marriotts Ridge.

While much has been made of the three-pronged backfield possessed by four-time, defending Howard County champion, River Hill, league rival Wilde Lake demonstrated in Friday's 45-12 rout at Marriotts Ridge that it has quite an offense of its own.

Jarrell Epps (5-foot-7, 160 pounds) rushed for a game-high 141 yards and one touchdown; Vaughn Stamper (5-9, 185) ran for a score from 31-yards, and Ashton Hayes (6-1, 205) sprinted in for second-half scores of 1, and, 14 yards as the Wildecats improved to 3-0 in league play.

In victory, the Wildecats remained on pace to challenge the unbeaten Hawks, who visit Wilde Lake
on Oct. 5.

Also scoring for the Wildecats were Graham Spicer, with a 37-yard field goal and four extra points, and Juma Richards, off of a fourth-quarter, 29-yard interception return for a TD.

Defensively, Wilde Lake's Peter Bulka registered two sacks; Maryland-bound Cody Blue (6-5, 280) had one sack; Danny March had an interception; and Chaz Lee and Mark Arseneualt also played well.

But the keys were what amounts to being the Wildecats' four horsemen -- Epps, Stamper, Hayes and March, at quarterback -- gaining the bulk of the Wildecats' 344 rushing yards gained behind Dave Klotz (6-3, 245), Lucas Place (6-4, 235), Peter Bulka, Ramin Nejaddehghan, Alex Ngo and Myles Jackson.

"We've got four kids who can all carry the ball, but each one is a little bit different," said Wilde Lake coach Doug DuVall, a winner of five state titles who earned career win No. 285 against 69 losses.

"Jarrell's got the great speed where he can break it loose. Ashton's a power kind of runner who also has good speed," DuVall said. "We've got Vaughn, who can explode up through the middle and does a good job blocking. And then we've got Danny, who can take off with it at any time."

"I try every game to outwork my opponents. It's not so much I'm talented or I'm big, I just try to outwork my opponents. Our goal for this team is to just play hard every week. Last year, we finished at 8-2 and we shouldn't have gone 8-2. My prediction is that we'll go 10-0."

Wilde Lake led, 7-0, after Epps' 14-yard run, followed by Graham Spicer's first of four extra point kicks, 3:19 before the second quarter.

But the Mustangs answered quickly, coming within, 7-6, as junior Vince Testerman (6-foot, 215) bowled over from four yards to end a 14-play, 70-yard drive with 8:33 left in the first half.

The Wildecats were up, 10-6, after Spicer's 37-yard field goal, and made it 17-6, after March's
interception set up Vaughn Stamper's 31-yard run.

Then, quarterback Kevin Seker, who threw for 11 TDs and nearly 1,900 yards last season, engineered a heroic, nine-play, 60-yard drive to bring the Mustangs within, 17-12, with 34 seconds left in the first half.

During the drive, which ended with the senior's 5-yard scoring run, Seker was 4-for-6 passing for 41 yards -- all to 6-3, 180-pound junior wide receiver Kyle Williams (eight receptions, 80 yards).

 At one point during the drive, Seker ran 12 yards to gain a first down.

"They had just scored, and we had to come back with a score, because if we didn't, the game was basically over," said Seker, whose Mustangs were 1-9 last year but ended a seven-game losing streak with their season-opening win over Hammond.

"We had them stopped twice in the first half," Seker said. "But that first drive in the second half killed us."
 
Seker referred to the Wildecats' quarter-consuming, 10-play, 70-yard march that ended with Hayes' 1-yard run for a lead of 25-12 with 6:09 left in the period.

Hayes then opened up the fourth quarter with a 14-yard run, after which Richards' interception opened up a lead of 38-12.

"It's not so much I'm talented or I'm big, I just try to outwork my opponents," said Hayes. "Our goal for this team is to just play hard every week. Last year, we finished at 8-2 and we shouldn't have gone 8-2. My prediction is
that we'll go 10-0."

With about five minutes to play, DuVall subbed in a fleet of reserves, one of which, Andrew Hallford, plunged through the middle for a 3-yard touchdown run with 1:40 to play.

"To open the second half, we needed to get a stop, and we couldn't stop them," said Marriotts Ridge coach Ken Hovet, winner of a Class 1A crown at Oakland Mills in 1998.

"Our offense backed itself up, we had too many penalties," Hovet said. "We just made too many mistakes and we ended up wearing down."


Wilde Lake 38, Marriotts Ridge 12

Wilde Lake              7             10             8            20         45

Marriotts Ridge        0             12             0             0          12

W- Epps 14 run (Spicer kick)  7-0
M- Testerman 4 run (pass failed) 7-6
W- Spicer 37 FG  10-6
W- Stamper 31 run (Spicer kick) 17-6
M- Seker 5 run (run failed)  17-12
W- Hayes 1 run (March run)  25-12
W- Hayes 14 run (run failed) 31-12
W- Richards 29 INT return (Spicer kick) 38-12
W- Hallford 3 run (Spicer kick) 45-12