St. Mark's (Wilmington, Del.) completed its perfect season with a thrilling 37-25 come-from-behind win over Middletown in the Delaware Division I Football Tournament championship.
Trailing by as many as 16 points, the Spartans scored 25 unanswered points in the second half to come away with the school's fourth state title and first since 1978.
Trailing 25-24 midway through the fourth quarter, St. Mark's forced Middletown to punt and senior
Ryan Taylor fielded the punt and sprinted down the right sideline 70 yards for what would prove to be the winning score.
Junior quarterback
Jeff Ziemba completed nine of 22 passes for 174 yards and two second-half touchdowns, a 29-yard toss to Taylor and a 75-yard pass to junior
Jabre Lolley.
Despite the loss the future is bright for Middletown (9-3), as the Cavs were led by freshman quarterback Darius Wade, who completed 10 of 27 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns, including two to freshman wide receiver Chris Godwin (51 and 14 yards).
MaxPreps' Delaware football playoff brackets* In the Division II title game,
St. Elizabeth (Wilmington, Del.) helped head coach Joe Hemphill celebrate the end of his 39th season with an easy 35-0 win over Archmere.
The second-seeded Vikings scored 28 unanswered points in the third quarter to capture the school's third state championship and first since 1996. It was the widest margin of victory in a Division II title game.
Senior running back
Craig Napier rushed for 131 yards on 18 carries and scored on a 34-yard run to open the second half.
"This is wonderful," he told The News Journal. "Our seniors waited four years to win it and we finally came out here and got it. We played hard and deserve it."
PHOEBUS RALLIES TO REACH VIRGINIA TITLE GAMEPhoebus (Hampton, Va.), ranked No. 12 in the Xcellent 25 High School Football Rankings presented by the Army National Guard, finds itself in familiar territory, reaching the state finals with a 21-13 come-from-behind win over Dinwiddie in the Group AAA Division 5 semifinals.
MaxPreps' Virginia football playoff bracketsThe Phantoms have claimed five state titles in the past eight years but needed to come back from a 13-0 deficit late in the game in order to keep their 44-game winning streak alive.
Phoebus running back
Tyree Lee (162 yards on 30 carries) scored on a 2-yard run late in the fourth quarter to give the Phantoms their first lead of the game and then returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown to seal the win and a berth in the title game.
The Phantoms (14-0) will take on Stone Bridge in the championship game Saturday at noon at the University of Virginia.
* Other Virginia high school football championship games on Saturday:
Division 1:
Riverheads (Staunton, Va.)-
Eastern Montgomery (Elliston, Va.), noon at Salem City Stadium
Division 2:
Gretna (Va.)-
Gate City (Va.), 4:30 p.m. at Salem City Stadium
Division 3:
Poquoson (Va.)-
Richlands (Va.), noon at Liberty University
Division 4:
Briar Woods (Ashburn, Va.)-
Harrisonburg (Va.), 4:30 p.m. at Liberty University
Division 6:
Hermitage (Richmond, Va.)-
Battlefield (Haymarket, Va.), 4 p.m. at University of Virginia
MARYLAND CROWNS STATE CHAMPS
Class 1A: Dunbar (Baltimore) spotted Havre de Grace a 12-point lead, but then sparked by a trick play late in the third quarter, managed to rally and come away with a 22-12 win.
Dunbar running back Terrence Williams took a handoff from DeonTay McManus and flipped the ball toward the left sideline to running back Epe Henriques. Henriques then threw an 81-yard touchdown pass to Andre Davis to spark the Poets to their 11th straight win and the title.
MaxPreps' Maryland football playoff bracketsClass 2A: Senior
Devante Gray caught three touchdown passes (43, 25 and 15 yards) to lead
McDonough (Pomfret, Md.) to its first state championship with a 21-14 win over Middletown.
Class 3A: Wilde Lake's (Columbia, Md.) fourth straight playoff upset proved to be its biggest as the Wildecats used two interceptions and held Franklin to 92 rushing yards to come away with a 21-14 victory to capture the school's sixth state title and first since 1997.
Class 4A: Urbana's (Ijamsville, Md.) defense recorded its ninth shutout of the season to bring home the school's fourth state title with a 6-0 win over Wise. Michael Spahr threw a 17-yard touchdown to Jude Merkel on the opening drive of the second half to put the game's only points on the scoreboard.
TOP PERFORMERS
* Delaware: Ryan Kilpatrick became the fifth Salesianum senior to be named Gatorade Delaware Football Player of the Year. The 6-foot, 205-pound running back, who has signed a letter of intent to play lacrosse at the University of North Carolina, rushed for 1,663 yards and 21 touchdowns on 219 carries to lead Sallies (9-3) to the Division I semifinals.
* Maryland: Darius Jennings, Gilman's do-it-all senior quarterback, won the Maryland award after rushing for 1,592 yards on 165 carries. He also completed 29 of 50 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns and returned five kickoffs for 220 yards and two touchdowns. Jennings is undecided on college, but has narrowed his choices to Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
* Virginia: Bayside senior wide receiver
Demetrious Nicholson, a wide receiver and defensive back, was named the Gatorade Virginia Football Player of the Year. At the time of the award Nicholson had 32 receptions for 474 yards and six touchdowns. At defensive back, he had 19 pass breakups and two interceptions. In the classroom, Nicholson sports a 3.5 grade point average. His college plans are undecided.
THE BUZZ
Middletown football coach Mark DelPercio might have done the best coaching job of his career this season in leading the Cavs to the state finals. Middletown, which started a freshman at quarterback and wide receiver, reached the Delaware championship game. In addition, Appoquinimink High, whose seniors started their careers in the Middletown program before the new school opened in the fall of 2008, put together an impressive 9-2 record of its own. That would have been some team had the district remained with just one high school. In fact, it was some team anyway.
Jon Buzby is the sports columnist for the Newark Post, a freelance writer, and a color analyst for the 1290AM The Ticket High School Football and Basketball Games of the Week. You can reach him at jonbuzby@hotmail.com.
