By Ryan Minkrmink@digitalsports.comIn the week leading up to the first Crab Bowl, Quince Orchard’s
Jason Ankrah thought the first annual Maryland football All-Star game, pitting the best of Baltimore with the whiz-kids of Washington, would be fun and games.
Then there was smack talk, and chanting and big hits and late hits. And quickly, Saturday’s game at Towson University turned into something more – a rivalry.
“I was like, ‘Ok, we’re going to go like that?’” Ankrah said.
Washington won the first-ever Crab Bowl, 32-21, Saturday before a crowd of 3,316 to at least settle the score for one year and give the Washingtonians much-desired bragging rights.
And they started enacting them right away.
“We all came together and we defeated Baltimore,” DeMatha lineman
Pete deSouza said. “They weren’t talented like we were as you can see on the scoreboard.”
Good Counsel’s
Caleb Porzel scored three touchdowns and was named the Washington Most Valuable Player. Dunbar’s
Tavon Austin scored two long touchdowns to earn the Baltimore Most Valuable Player honors.
Washington controlled much of the game while Baltimore capitalized on big plays to keep it close.
“It was really intense,” Eleanor Roosevelt lineman
Danzel Manley said. “It heated up. So I definitely think there will be a rivalry.”
Before the game started, Ankrah’s teammate,
Terrence Stephens, stood in the middle of all the Washington players. He said, “We knew they don’t got nothing on us!” Finally, there was a chance to stop the talking.
There is no other Maryland All-Star football game and this is the first to receiver major media coverage. It consisted of 90 players from Washington-area counties Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, St. Mary’s, and Charles Counties and Baltimore counties Anne Arundel, Howard, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Frederick, Washington, Alleghany, Cecil, Harford, Carroll, Garrett and the Eastern Shore.
“Everybody had a lot of passion about this game,” Stephens said. “As you can see, this game clearly proves the guys we have out here are absolutely outstanding. They are some of the fastest, the strongest, some of the toughest guys in America. If somebody tells you different, they’re a fool.”
The Washington All-Stars scored on their first drive, set up by a 19-yard run and 18-yard pass by Patuxent’s
Justin Ford. Porzel finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown run.
Baltimore put together an 11-play drive and got to the Washington three-yard line but came up pointless on a missed field goal. Washington again started moving the ball, but Seneca Valley quarterback
George Lerch was intercepted by Loyola’s
Terence Garvin on the 2-yard line.
It didn’t turn out to be so bad for Washington. On Baltimore’s first play, Ankrah burst through the line to stop Eastern Tech running back
Darian Conners in the end zone for a safety.
“I was excited,” Ankrah said. “I hit the fullback and saw the running back on the ground.”
The Washington All-Stars got a nice return from Lackey’s
Gary Fortune. A pass interference and runs by Westlake’s
Devon Smith and Lerch set Washington up for a nine-yard touchdown run by Porzel to give the Washingtonians a 16-0 lead.
Baltimore finally got a jump on the next kickoff. From the crowd, Dunbar’s Austin heard a fan shout, “take it to the house, Tavon!” He nodded his head. The kick came to him and sure enough, 84 yards later he was in the end zone.
"I saw the wedge and the middle of the field was open," Austin said. "The kicker hit my leg and I almost fell but I wasn't going down."
“When you’ve got players like Tavon Austin who can take it to the house, it’s dangerous,” Quince Orchard’s
Travis Hawkins said. “He kept them in the game with those two big touchdowns.”
Baltimore had troubles getting the offense going for much of the first half, but got on a roll under Milford Mill quarterback
Kevin Fulton. Facing a 2nd-and-17, Fulton hit Arundel’s
Alec Lemon for a 36-yard gain. Then he found Dunbar’s
Sean Farr for 23 yards and ran for 20 more yards on the next play.
Finally, he hit Perry Hall’s
Dave Stinebaugh on a two-yard touchdown pass 35 seconds before halftime to make the score 16-14.
But Baltimore’s momentum was quite short-lived. Westlake’s Smith, who earlier in the week beat Porzel in a fastest-man competition, returned the second half’s opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.
“I just knew we had to come out and score,” said Smith, who will play at Penn State next year. “They kicked the ball to me and it fell out of my hands. I was kind of scared but I saw daylight.”
Set up by a 23-yard reception by Fortune and 26-yard pass and catch from Good Counsel quarterback
Tyler Campbell to DeMatha receiver
Emmanuel McPhearson, Washington scored with 2:24 left in the third quarter. They scored it on a two-yard run by Porzel.
Baltimore once again broke out the bag of tricks with 5:28 remaining in the fourth quarter. Austin pitched the ball to Lemon, who scampered in the backfield for a while before throwing across the field to Austin. Austin weaved and raced 81 yards down the field for a touchdown that cut Washington’s lead to eight points.
Baltimore stuffed Washington on its next drive, but Stephens essentially sealed the game with an interception on Baltimore’s chance to tie the game. Gaitherburg defensive end
Sean Stanley batted the pass into the air and Stephens came under to catch it and return it about 15 yards to the 15.
“I know I owed it to my team to go out there and have a game-changing experience,” Stephens said. “What happened is that I didn’t really run that fast. 300 pounds is an excuse for that. Stuff happens.”
Even with the rivalry, there was plenty of goodwill to go around.
“It’s great to have everybody partake in this,” Stephens said. “And to see the talent out here was amazing.”
“I’d like to take this team and travel around the country and play other All-Star teams,” Washington Coach Dave Mencarini, also of Quince Orchard, said. “I think Chuck Harmon and Sean O’Connor did a great job putting this thing together. … I think people that came today had a lot of fun watching this game.”
