October 2008 Archives

SILVER SPRING - - The Blair Blazers overcame their three game losing streak with an easy victory over the Kennedy Cavaliers, winning 27-15.

The Blazers' first score came on a 29-yard screen pass from Victor Wang to Jonathan Haughton on the right side. Haughton caught the pass behind the line of scrimmage, and followed the blockers for an easy score and a 7-0 Blazer lead.

"The line just executed," senior running back Pablo Moreno said. "On all their assignments they were just able to execute, put a helmet on somebody and just clear a path to give the running backs some room to get through."

Star players Dayne Bolt and David Burnett returned from injury for the Blazers and were largely responsible for the Blazer victory. Bolt scored a 9-yard touchdown and a two point conversion to give the Blazers a 15-8 lead, and both of the Blazers' rushing touchdowns as well as Haughton's screen pass were to the side Burnett was blocking on.

"It's a huge momentum booster," Burnett said. "Just because we have a game that's really hard this weekend, we have to prepare a lot for it, so we have a lot of momentum coming into that game. We haven't won a game in three weeks, so this brings a lot of confidence to the team."

Burnett also declared that he was back to full health.

"I tore it up today," he said. "I'm back in full effect, that's what I'm telling everybody. One hundred percent."

Senior running back Keith Ayensu had another big run for the Blazers, a 60-yard touchdown toss that he took down the field with ease.

"I got hurt in practice, so I wasn't sure if I was gonna play," Ayensu said. "The O-linemen blocked in front of me, and I just went with it. We have Damascus in front of us, so we just gotta stay focused and get back to basics."

Fullback Moreno also returned to form, gaining 77 yards on 7 carries.

"This gives us a lot [of momentum]," he said. "This is momentum that we've needed for a long time."

All Blazers are looking towards next week's match-up against perennial powerhouse Damascus, where the Blazers will come in as a severe underdog.

"We just needed this win so we could get a momentum boost going for Damascus next week," Bolt said.

On the defensive side for the Blazers, senior linebacker Andy Holmes had a team-high seven tackles, Haughton had 6 tackles, including three sacks, and Ibrahim Jarr had 5 tackles. Defensive backs Dimitrios Philliou and Chris Grindley each intercepted a pass for the Blazers.

The Blazers passed efficiently as well. Wang completed three of four passes for 52 yards and two touchdowns, the second a seven-yard strike to Andrew Gondor that sealed the deal for the Blazers.

The Blazers play Friday, October 31st, at home against Damascus. The game starts at 6:30 P.M.

SILVER SPRING - On Senior Night, the Lady Blazers' soccer team ran over the visiting Northwood Gladiators, 7-0.

All seniors started the game for the Blazers, but most were taken out with around 20 minutes left in the first half.

"Not all of my seniors are starters, but no matter who we're playing, I always start all the seniors [on senior night]," coach Robert Gibb said. "And then I started them all in the second half. They were bound to be in on the play, it was great."

Fittingly two seniors combined for the Blazers' first goal, scored five minutes into the first half. A beautiful cross from Jeanette Chavez was kicked in by Jenny Williams for an easy score, giving the Blazers a 1-0 lead. With a little over twelve minutes left in the half, senior captain Annie Worden scored on a breakaway from Jamie Kator, and Saleiha Mayer-Marks scored off of a Kator corner kick five minutes later.

"The seniors had six of the seven goals," Gibb said. "Its great. Last year we had six seniors and we played Wheaton and they all scored, but it's not something that we necessarily try to do. I do play them, though."

Although the Blazers scored seven goals, the defense stole the spotlight, holding Northwood without a shot for the entire game. The Gladiators also did not pass midfield for the first fifteen minutes.

"Our game is to control the ball and to control the midfield with passing the ball," Gibb said. "Defensively, on a night with this amount of wind and tricky conditions, we just wanted to get the heck out of there."

Senior goalie Xenia Oroxom played the entire game, earning her eighth win of the season. Oroxom has only allowed four goals this season, and said that the talent of her defense made it a lot easier on her.

"It felt really great to not handle the ball half the time because my defense was there," Oroxom said. "I have a lot of confidence in my defense, it felt really good that they were behind the ball and they were there."

Usually, Oroxom splits time with freshman Lena Meyerson, but played the whole game and got the shutout.

"I think our team this year could take it all the way," Oroxom said. "Because we've done some amazing things and beaten teams we haven't beaten before, like Wooton."

Worden, an All-State honorable mention last year, added another goal later in the game to bring her Blair record career total to 56. Seniors Chavez, Anna Rassman, and Susie Branson scored the other three goals for the Blazers.

"We've got speed in the back," Gibb said. "And especially tonight we just played it out quickly, but really it was just about controlling the field and controlling the ball and dictating the flow of play that really kept the defense from having to do too much."

The Blazers play Churchill in the second round of the playoffs Tuesday, October 28, at Blair. The game starts at 7 PM.

The Blazers easily handled the Kennedy Cavaliers today, 27-15, getting their first win since September 26th. Quarterback Victor Wang threw for two touchdown passes, and Dayne Bolt and Keith Ayensu each had a rushing touchdown. A full article will be posted tomorrow.

The Blair Blazers' girls soccer team handled the Northwood Gladiators with ease tonight, defeating the rival school by a score of 7-0 on Blair's senior night. Seniors scored six of Blair's seven goals, including two by captain Annie Worden, and Northwood did not attempt a single shot the entire night. A full article will be posted in the coming days.

The standings as of today in Montgomery County, 4A East Division (division record in parentheses):

1. Sherwood 7-0 (4-0) - Sherwood had the biggest win of the year for any 4A East team, upsetting The Washington Post's number one ranked team, Quince Orchard. The Warriors bested the Cougars last week 14-6, keeping their undefeated record intact. They are favored heavily in this week's matchup against Richard Montgomery, who is 1-6 this year.

2. Springbrook 5-2 (2-2) - The Blue Devils, whose two losses (Sherwood and Gaithersburg) have come by a combined 10 points, continued to impress with a 38-14 win over Blake. Look for a good matchup this week against 4-3 Northwest, whose victories include Wooton and Gaithersburg.

3. Gaithersburg 4-3 (3-0) - The Trojans lost their third game of the year last week at Northwest, but are still unbeaten in division play. This week they face the Watkins Mill Wolverines, losers of three straight (including perennial bottom-dwellers Kennedy and Einstein), and expect an easy win.

4. Magruder 3-4 (1-2) - The Colonels, whose offense has still yet to break the 20-point mark this year, surprised many with a victory over Churchill last week, whose only previous loss was to Quince Orchard. The Colonels' defense has also allowed 12 points or fewer in every one of their victories. Magruder hopes to continue this success against Wooton and Mike Mooney's high flying passing attack.

5. Blair 3-4 (1-3) - The Blazers, who have scored only a single touchdown in each of their three consecutive losses, hope to turn it around against a very poor Kennedy team this week. The Blazers are helped by the return of star fullback/linebacker Dayne Bolt. This game can help show whether the Blazers' fast start was a fluke or whether they are a truly competitive team.

6. Blake 1-6 (0-4) - The Bengals round out the division with a winless division record thus far after being routed by Gaithersburg and Springbrook in the last two weeks. The Bengals' only victory this season came against hapless Walter Johnson, but they hope to upset 4-3 Paint Branch this week.

ROCKVILLE - Last night's meeting between two 3-3 teams turned out to be a complete mismatch.

The Wootton Patriots stomped over the visiting Blair Blazers, 36-7, to knock the Blazers below the .500 mark for the first time this season. It is the third straight loss for the Blazers and the third game in a row where they have only managed to scrape together 7 points. The Blazers were unable to get anything together offensively without star players Dayne Bolt and David Burnett, who both missed the game due to injury, but the real reason for the outcome was the play of Mike Mooney against the Blazers' secondary.

Mooney, the Patriots' quarterback, set a Maryland state record with 451 passing yards, besting the previous record of 448 held by former Oakland Mills quarterback Justin Sottilaire, set in September of last year. Mooney was outstanding, evading the Blazers' pass rush and using perfect timing to dump off screens underneath, which set up his accurate long passes later .

"I don't know why we weren't able to defend it," Blair quarterback Alex Egber said. "We saw in game film that they used a lot of screens, but that just didn't translate on the field. You know the saying, the run sets up the pass? Well in this case, the screen set up the long pass."

Mooney's first of three passing touchdowns came on a screen play to the right side that Matt Grimm took 52 yards to the end zone. A long pass on Wootton's next drive set up a rushing touchdown for Mooney and a 13-0 Patriots' lead.

"We need to work on our secondary," senior linebacker and captain Andy Holmes said. "The deep pass beat us, the screen beat us, we just need to work on picking up the pass better. [We need to] just go hard every single day, take it serious every single day, just do what we have to do, and then show up on Friday."

Wootton took a 29-0 lead on a Mooney 52-yard pass to the back of then end zone, a 41-yarder to a wide-open Matt Paris in the end zone, and a field goal.

"We just get beat, they just beat the hell out of us," Blair coach Jeffery Seals said. "There's nothing to say, we got beat bad. We stunk on defense, we stunk on offense. We'll come back Monday. This game is over with, you can't bring it back. Just don't think about it, it's over with. You can't bring it back."

Senior running back Jonathan Haughton salvaged a little dignity for the Blazers with a 66-yard dash to the end zone with around three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Haughton broke to the right side, and there was nobody in his way to the end zone.

"All I saw was open field, and I knew I had to put up some points somehow, so I just gave it my all and ran to the touchdown," Haughton said. "I really didn't know [that it was going to be a touchdown] 'til I got to the 20 and I saw nobody around me. It's pretty exciting we scored, but we still lost and we got a lot of things to work on. We need to work on our blocking, our pass protection, everything in general, we got to get this win next week."

Wootton junior Alex Kelly finished off the Blazers with a 24-yard touchdown run.

During the course of the game, star defensive players Charles Camara, Leo Kengni, and Chris Grindley were injured for the Blazers. According to Holmes, Camara, Kengni and Bolt are all expected to play next week against Kennedy, and Burnett is expected to come back in time for Damascus in two weeks. The status of Grindley is unknown.

The Blazers play at Kennedy next Friday, October 24th, at 6:30 P.M.

The Blazers lost to the Wooton Patriots today, 36-7, making their record 3-4 on the season. The Patriots' non-stop aerial attack moved the ball swiftly down the field, and the Blazers were unable to stop quarterback Mike Mooney. Senior running back Jonathan Haughton got the Blazers only score, a 66-yard dash in the fourth quarter. A full article will be posted tomorrow.

Friday night, the Blair Blazers lost to the heavily favored Sherwood Warriors, 35-7. Keith Ayensu scored the Blazers' sole touchdown. I was in Philadelphia at the Dodgers-Phillies game at the time, and I hope to speak to coaches and players in the next coming days, but I can not promise anything in terms of a full article.

Here are the standings for Montgomery County 4A East as they stand today:

1. Sherwood (5-0) - at Blair. Coming off two comeback wins against Northwest and Springbrook, the Warriors are looking for a blow out win like the ones they delivered earlier this year to Magruder, Paint Branch and Blake (a combined score of 133-6 for the three games).
2. Gaithersburg (3-2) - at Blake. The Trojans are coming off two straight losses, including a 35-0 massacre to Quince Orchard, and will be looking for revenge against the lowly Bengals.
3. Blair (3-2) - vs Sherwood. Blair made easy work of Blake and Northwood, but squeaked by Whitman and lost to Gaithersburg and Magruder. Which Blair shows up will determine whether this is a close game or a Sherwood blowout.
4. Springbrook (3-2) - vs Paint Branch. The Blue Devils have been surprising this year, and lost by only one touchdown to heavily favored Sherwood last week.
5. Magruder (2-3) - at Damascus. The Colonels beat Blair 12-7 last week, and are hoping that star running backs Marquis Morgan and Chris Ralli can run around the tough Hornets defense.
6. Blake (1-4) - vs Gaithersburg. Blake is coming off of a 33-14 loss to Churchill, and their only win this year has come against winless Walter Johnson. That game is the only one that they have scored more than 14 points in this season.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend tonight's Blair-Sherwood game, as I have tickets to the Dodgers-Phillies game in Philadelphia tonight. I will be in contact with several players and coaches tomorrow and Sunday to gather how the game went to get the best idea that I can, but I will not be able to be at the game.

ROCKVILLE - - The Blair Blazers lost to Magruder at their homecoming game Friday night 12-7, dropping their record on the season to 3-2. Their only other loss, to Gaithersburg two weeks ago, was also a homecoming game.

Magruder's senior fullback Chris Ralli put the Colonels on top with a one yard run in the first quarter, making the score 6-0. Later in the quarter, the Blazers were able to make an important defensive stop. Quarterback Griffin Eldrige completed a 34-yard pass to Charlie Nardella, bringing the Colonels to Blazers' 11-yard line. On second-and-seven at the eight-yard line, Blazers' defensive tackle Charles Camara took down Magruder running back Marquis Morgan for a four yard loss. On the ensuing play, Andrew Gondor deflected an Eldridge pass into the end zone. The Colonels elected to go for it on fourth-and-eleven, and turned the ball over on downs with an incomplete pass.

Later in the half, a Pablo Moreno forced fumble and a Camara recovery gave the Blazers the ball at the Colonels' 35-yard line. Later in the drive, on fourth-and-one at the Colonels' 24-yard line, senior running back Dayne Bolt swept outside for an eleven-yard gain and an important Blazers first down. Moreno followed up with a 12-yard run of his own, bringing the ball to the one-yard line, where Bolt punched it in to take a 7-6 Blazer lead.

In the second half, the Colonels took back the lead, as Morgan scampered to the right side for a five-yard touchdown. With a little over two minutes left in the game, the Blazers had a fourth-and-two in Colonels' territory. Bolt, who had been taken out of the game due to an ankle sprain earlier, came back in to try and take the lead for the Blazers, but could not get the first down.

"We need to improve on our offensive side of the ball," Bolt said. "Yesterday in practice we didn't do too [well] on offense. We really need to start jelling and score more points on offense, that's where we need the most improvement right now."

Bolt also discussed his injury, which sidelined him for the majority of the second half.

"After I caught the ball, a dude rolled on to my ankle," he said. "I rolled my ankle on the inside, it's just a high ankle sprain right now. Hopefully it'll feel better next week."

Magruder fumbled the snap on the first play after Blair's turnover-on-downs, and Moreno quickly recovered, giving the Blazers a last chance to take the lead with less than two minutes left to play. On the next play, however, Magruder cornerback Kendall Talbert intercepted an Alex Egber pass, ending all hope for the Blazers.

"We just have to want it more, especially on the offensive line," senior captain and linebacker Andy Holmes said. "We have to want it more, we have to push harder than the other guys, hit harder than the other guys and just run harder than the other guys, and that's what it really comes down to."

Next week, the Blazers play undefeated Sherwood, one of the top teams in the county.

"I really don't know what to expect this week," Holmes said. "Sherwood is one of the best teams in the county right now, and I think we have the potential to be one of the best teams in the county, but the last couple of games we haven't really met our potential. It depends on which team comes out against Sherwood."

The Blazers play the Warriors at home Friday, October 10th at 6:30 P.M.

"Next week is going to be a dog fight," Bolt said. "We gotta go out there and put up as much points as we possibly can. We need to give 150% next week, it's gonna be a tough game."

MAGRUDER - - The Blair Blazers lost to the Magruder Colonels today, 12-7. Dayne Bolt scored the Blazers' sole touchdown, and a late interception by the Colonels sealed the game. Numerous Blazers were injured during the course of the game, and I will try to keep you updated on the status of these players as the week goes on.

A full article will be posted tomorrow, Sunday October 5th.

The standings as of today in Montgomery County, 4A East Division:

1. Sherwood (4-0)
2. Gaithersburg (3-1)
2. Springbrook (3-1)
2. Blair (3-1)
5. Magruder (1-3)
5. Blake (1-3)