Maryland Public High Schools State Football Championships – 3A and 4A Finals
The fall preps sport season has come to a final end with state champions being crowned in all four divisions of the MPSSAA. All games were played at the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium.
Here are the results of the 3A and 4A games that were played on Thursday and Friday evenings.
In the 3A State Championship Game on Thursday evening, Franklin High School (Reisterstown) prevailed over Linganore (Frederick) 20-6. Though the Lancers controlled the 1st quarter and notched the first score in the 2nd quarter, the Indians scored touchdowns in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters.
Franklin demonstrated a balanced offensive attack by logging 222 yards on the ground and 117 through the air for a total of 339. Linganore posted 200 rushing with 37 passing for 237 in total.
Philip Butler gained 110 yards for the Lancers, including a 16-yard run for the opening touchdown of the contest early in the 2nd quarter.
But the Indians answered quickly, covering 64 yards on five plays in 1:43. The first 40 of those yards were gained by Darius Hinton on four consecutive carries. Hinton tallied 111 yards on the evening to account for half of the Indians’ ground game. The final play of the drive was a score-equalizing 24-yard pass from Jacquez Adams to Steven Smothers.
The halftime score was 7-7.
Adams and Smothers would connect again late in the 3rd quarter on a 27-yard touchdown pass to gain the lead 14-7. Adams would pass for 117 yards in the game, with 54 of them going to Smothers on three catches.
The game was secured by Franklin High School with 6:03 remaining in the 4th quarter on a six-yard run by Kiandre Burrell at the end of a 98-yard, 11-play drive.
The state championship is the first ever for Franklin. Linganore has won four times in its strong football history.
In the 4A State Championship Game the Northwest High School Jaguars of Germantown defeated the Suitland Rams of Forestville by a score of 33-16. Played in the rain on Friday evening, the game was much closer than the score would indicate.
With 4:39 remaining the 4th quarter, the score was 20-16 and the Jags had the ball 1st-and-10 on their own 23 yard line after stopping Suitland on fourth down. But 12 seconds later on a 77-yard pass play from Mark Pierce to Matt Wastson, the game was largely iced for Northwest. They would add a final score on a 10-yard run by E.J. Lee with 1:25 remaining.
Northwest sophomore quarterback Mark Pierce would accumulate 261 yards and two TDs passing on a 12-22 effort. His Suitland counterpart Wesley Nolfolk would compete 18 of 42 for 218 yards and two TDs while also running for an additional 49.
Suitland actually had a time of possession advantage of 28:16 to 19:44, but they also were penalized 19 times for a total of 150 yards.
The state title was the first for Northwest as a 4A program, having won the 3A championship in 2004.
2A and 1A – Saturday’s finals between Fort Hill / Douglass of Baltimore, and Middletown / Patuxent will be covered in a subsequent post.
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