Late field goal lifts DeMatha over Good Counsel

Michael Branthover's 33-yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining lifted DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) to a 31-28 victory over Our Lady of Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) Friday night in a Washington Catholic Conference game between two of the region’s biggest rivals.

An estimated 6,000 fans watched Jacob Siwicki put the Staggs on the scoreboard first with two touchdown runs of 9 and 5 yards early in the second quarter.

It was then the special teams of Good Counsel that came to life when Kendall Fuller returned a kickoff 95 yards for a score and Blake Countess' 55-yard punt return set up Zach Dancel's 27-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs to notch the game at 14.

The teams would exchange touchdowns before DeMatha quarterback Nicolay Uherek tossed his second touchdown pass of the night, hitting Darren Harris (Michigan State) for a 71-yard touchdown to put the Staggs up 28-21 at the end of the third quarter.

Dancel and Diggs (seven catches, 124 yards) would hook up for their third score with six minutes remaining to tie the game, but DeMatha was able to put together one last drive to set up Branthover’s heroic kick.

Siwicki finished with 124 yards on 24 carries.

DeMatha (4-2, 2-1) travels to St. John's (Washington, D.C.) next Friday, while Good Counsel (4-2, 2-1) hosts Paul VI (Fairfax, Va.).

2. St. Mark’s (Del.) rallies to survive scare: St. Mark's (Wilmington, Del.) junior quarterback Jeff Ziemba threw three second-half touchdown passes to lead the second-ranked Spartans to a 37-34 come-from-behind win over No. 3 Dover (Del.) in a nonconference game between Division I powers Friday night in front of a packed house in the First State's capital.

Senior quarterback Kamal Abrams (Connecticut) hooked up with Eric Sumlin to give the Senators a 27-10 lead at the half. But the Spartans, facing a halftime deficit for just the second time all season, came out of the locker room firing.

St. Mark’s scored on its first two possessions in the third quarter, the second coming when junior running back T.J. Yeninas plunged into the end zone on fourth-and-1 to pull the Spartans within three points, 27-24.

"T.J.'s run was the difference," St. Mark's coach John Wilson said. "We could have settled for a field goal to pull within seven, but we felt like settling would have let Dover have a chance to get some momentum back. Instead, Yeninas runs over the defender and plunges into the end zone. That run fired everyone up and gave us new life."

St. Mark's forced Dover to punt on its next possession. Two plays later Ziemba connected with Ryan Taylor for a 38-yard touchdown pass to give the Spartans a 30-27 lead they would never relinquish as the third quarter came to an end.

Ziemba completed 13 of 27 passes for 235 yards, while his counterpart under center, Abrams, completed 11 of 23 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns. Abrams also had three costly interceptions.

St. Mark's (5-0) hosts 0-5 Christiana (Newark, Del.) Saturday afternoon at 1, while Dover (4-1, 1-0) will look to rebound when it hosts Sussex Tech (Georgetown, Del.) (4-1, 3-0) Friday night at 7:30 in a key Henlopen North conference game.

3. Calvert Hall moves to 7-0 with upset win over Gilman: A botched snap run back for a touchdown gave Calvert Hall (Baltimore) a 26-21 upset win over Gilman (Baltimore) Friday night.

Sophomore Delando Johnson recovered a snap that sailed over the head of Gilman's punter and returned it 20 yards for the score with 26 seconds remaining to set off a playoff-like celebration at the end of the first on-campus night game in the history of Calvert Hall.

Gilman quarterback Darius Jennings (28 carries, 200 yards) scored on touchdown runs of 46 and 65 yards on his team’s first two possessions to give the Greyhounds (4-2, 1-1) an early 14-0 lead.

Trailing 21-7 early in the fourth quarter, Calvert Hall junior quarterback Thomas Stuart threw touchdown passes on back-to-back possessions to Joe Carroll (23 yards) and Travor Williams (26) to bring the Cardinals within one, setting up the unlikely finish.

4. Oscar Smith spreads offense around to blank Deep Creek (Va.): Quarterback J.J. Williamson completed 17 passes on 35 attempts for 240 yards and two touchdowns to lead Oscar Smith (Chesapeake, Va.) to a 28-0 win over Deep Creek. Running back Jaston George scored from 2 yards out and Williamson hooked up with Jayquan Darden (19 yards) and Quinta Funderburk (35 yards) for touchdowns to give Smith a 21-0 halftime lead. Williamson completed passes to seven different receivers.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Krista Schirm, senior, William Penn (New Castle, Del.): Recorded eight kills and 20 digs in the Colonials' 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 15-13) win over Newark in a Flight A Conference game.

Matt McNeal, senior fullback, Archmere Academy (Claymont, Del.): Ran for 272 yards and three touchdowns — including the game winner — as Archmere defeated Tatnall 24-17 in overtime.

Marc Meier, senior wide receiver, Great Bridge (Chesapeake, Va.): Caught five passes for 157 yards and four touchdowns to lead Great Bridge to a 64-14 win over Nansemond River.

Kayleigh Hinkle, senior forward, Glenelg (Md.): Had two goals and an assist in her team's 9-0 field hockey win over Wilde Lake.

GAME TO WATCH
* Hampton (Va.) (6-0, 5-0) hosts Bethel (Hampton, Va.) (5-1, 4-1) Friday night at 7.

RECRUITING NEWS
* University of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen arrived by helicopter to watch the DeMatha-Good Counsel game, reportedly with his eye on Counsel junior Stefon Diggs.

* Trey Freeman, a 6-foot-2 point guard at Kellam (Virginia Beach, Va.), made a verbal commitment to Cornell University.

THE BUZZ
Friday night's game between Cardinal O'Hara (Springfield, Pa.) and Red Lion Christian Academy (Bear, Del.) was marred by 29 penalties (10 of which were dead ball fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct), an in-game scuffle, and four player ejections. The teams then met for a prayer after the game. Hopefully they prayed to be better sports next weekend. … The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association announced that Brandywine (Wilmington, Del.) and Christiana (Newark, Del.) will move to the Blue Hen Flight B Conference and Appoquinimink (West Middletown, Del.) to Flight A for the next two seasons due to enrollment changes.

Jon Buzby is the sports columnist for the Newark Post, a freelance writer, and color analyst for the 1290am The Ticket High School Football Game of the Week. You can reach him at jonbuzby@hotmail.com.