Week 4 Howard County Football

Oakland Mills (3-0) @ Urbana (2-1).  (Friday night) I have a lot of respect for Frederick County Football.  In my opinion, it’s the Big 10 of Maryland.  They play physical football with plenty of good athletes and quality coaches. They have more competitive programs than most counties in MD.  Plus there’s a lot of corn out there.  In my time at River Hill we went 2-1 vs. Fredco-all high level games.  We beat TJ for the state title in ‘11, beat Urbana in a state semi in ‘12 and then lost to Linganore in a state semi in ‘13.  As a program Urbana has won 5 state titles including 4 straight from ‘98 to ‘01.  OM won a championship in ‘98, with current HC Tom Brown as a wiry WR.  (Resi OC TJ Welsh was the QB of that squad). This win for OM could be huge if they can pull it off.  Kudos to them for scheduling these type of opponents.  Scorpions by a score.  

Wilde Lake (2-1) @ Atholton (2-1). (Friday night) Coin toss game here.  I’ve seen Atholton twice, but I don’t know much about the Lake other than their SOS is suspect.  The lake scraped past a bad LR team by 4, abused Centennial 70-0 then loses to MR.  If the lake show wins this one they rocket up in the rankings,  but I don’t see it.  Atholton got embarrassed by that Delaware team and they should be pissed off this week.  Raiders by one score.  

Reservoir (1-2) @ Glenelg (2-1).  (Friday night)Reservoir has struggled a bit this year, their second under new leadership.  The only gators win has come against 0-3 Mount Hebron.  Talent level is high, but something is missing in Fulton.  Glenelg has looked solid while amassing 2 wins.  Glads by 2 scores.  

Guilford Park (3-0) @ Marriotts Ridge (2-1).  (Friday night) Welcome to bigger boy football GP.  MR started the season low in my preseason rankings, but a big win over MtH and an upset of WL have raised my opinion of them.  GP will hold their own here,  but I don’t expect a 4th straight victory.  MR by a score.  

Hammond (0-3) @ Mount Hebron (0-3). (Saturday 1:00) I don’t know-Hammond hung around with Glenelg a little bit last week.  Could this be the week they get a victory?  Perfect opportunity with Hebron absolutely reeling right now, although they were within 7 of undefeated Howard.  I’m giving the Vikings the benefit of the doubt as defending HOCO champs-Hebron by a score.  

River Hill (1-2) @ Centennial (0-3). (Saturday noon)The hawks have a great opportunity to get to .500 here.  Centennial does some things offensively that are…questionable.  However, there are a few athletes there and a little more beef up front than I’ve seen on previous Eagle squads.  RH by 2 scores.  

Howard (3-0) @ Long Reach (0-3). (Saturday 1:00)  I remember a player who started at LR, transferred to Howard for a season, then went BACK to LR.  These 2 schools are very closely intertwined, what with so many players coming from Elkridge , but they have gone their separate ways in 2024.  Howard is undefeated while LR is struggling.  Howard by 2 scores. 

Week 4 Postmortem 

Fan Duel Tommy does it again!  7-0 on the week for the second time on the season.  Overall record of 23-5.  

Let’s start with the big one -Oakland Mills (4-0) got in the big cheese, headed 50 miles west and smacked 5 time state champion Urbana (2-2) 36-21.  Urbana coach Dean Swink was quite complimentary of the Scorpions-“They're going against an athlete who's extremely athletic, and when they hit a seam, they're gone."  "They do a great job over there of presenting difficult schemes. They put your guys in a bind”.  The Scorps racked up 424 yards of total offense -410 on the ground!  OM clearly retains their number 1 ranking and remains the flag bearer of Howard County in 2024.

In a battle of 2-1 teams Atholton (3-1)rebounds from the smack down given to them by the Delaware squad.  I thought WL (2-2) would give a little more fight here, but they lose by 3 scores.  Raiders QB Bell and RB Mungo both had over 120 yards on the ground.  Bell also threw for 90+ yards.  The Atholton Oakland Mills game on October 10 will be quite the spectacle.  Howard also remains on the schedule for the Raiders.  

Glenelg (3-1) drowns the Gators (1-3) 15-13.  I’m assuming extra points were the difference here.  The defending county co champions (Resi/MtH)have a combined 2 wins on the season.  

Guilford Park (3-1) takes their first varsity loss in program history at the hands of Marriotts Ridge (3-1).  

Mount Hebron (1-3) scrapes their way to their first victory of the year over Hammond (0-4). Hammond shows some fight for the second week in a row in a 1 point loss.  I would like to see them get a win here before the Centennial game in week 9.

River Hill (2-2) evens out their record by beating Centennial (0-4) as expected.  Multiple players find the end zone for the Hawks.  

Howard (4-0) stays unbeaten in a game that was more competitive than I would have thought.  HCPSS should be embarrassed by the scoreboard at Long Reach (0-4) It has to be nearly 30 years old (most likely installed in 1995-school opened in 1996) and is obsolete and unreadable.  I had to ask the Howard players what the score was when I walked in because I couldn’t read the scoreboard.  The game had some fireworks including a well known coach, who I’m not going to name publicly, catching an ejection over a terrible penalty call.