44 replies to this topic

[Tomgruneberg]

Pre season HOCO football rankings 2024

 

These are very premature, but I think it’s time to get the conversation started.  

 

1. Oakland Mills-  Big tackler Kaiden Lee as well as several other all county performers return, and the Scorps ripped off 5 straight wins last year before bowing out to a loaded Oakdale squad.  They will need to figure things out a little earlier this year as they play Resi and Long Reach in weeks 1 and 3, but they open the season at # 1.  
2. Atholton. Coaches I’ve talked to say the Raiders may have the best QB in HOCO.  Week 1 vs the Hawks will tell us a lot about how their season will go.  
3. Reservoir-  The Gators finished 8-3 last year and won their first county ship.  Bringing back the reigning DPOY after a flirtation with St. Frances should help out a little bit.  I’m excited to see the new look/old school wing-T offense.  
4. Howard-D Moore rushed for over a grand last year, and I expect the defense to improve this season as well.  This new athletic director has also spent a lot of time around football excellence.  
5. Glenelg-  Haven’t heard a lot from Burntwoods road this year now that their coach is no longer a teacher at RH, but I expect the Glads to be solid this year.  
6. River Hill-  Hawks are coming off a 5-5 campaign.  A solid of corps of linebackers should pace the Hawks defensively.  Shrek will be tasked with getting the offense in gear.  Questions abound about the OL, but if you’re able to give Contreras a crease, he has some wheels.  We all know the portal giveth and the portal taketh away, so it should be interesting to see if the Hawks come out net positive in this equation.  
7. Wilde Lake-The Lake show had a nice little playoff run before falling to the best Decatur team in school history.  Historically the D has always been a strong point, but last year they had a RB who was fun to watch run over people.  Fortunately for the rest of the county he has graduated.  
8. Long Reach-  The Lightning are always a squad that could jump up quickly into the upper echelons of the county.  I don’t know much about them this year, but they open the season with 4 of the better teams in the county-if they perform well there, watch out.  
9. Mount Hebron- Last years co-county champs team was years in the making.  The loss of OPOY Hallums and his 1423 rushing yards will be tough to replace.   Have we built a program on Route 99?   We shall see.  
10. Guilford Park-  I went to see these guys play a JV game last year.  That team would have won 3-4 varsity games.  It will be interesting to see what Montag and company can do in their first year of varsity competition.  They could possibly start the season 4-0 before tangling with the Gators week 5.  
11. Marriotts Ridge-  The Mustangs finished 4-6 last year.  They will try to build off the bright spot of last year which was knocking off the Howard Lions.  
12. /13 Hammond/Centennial.  November 1 Hammond @ Centennial-somebody’s gotta win! Thank you schedulers for letting this one happen!

[Pedro Cerrano]

Eagles winning it all

[Tomgruneberg]

Week 1     2024

 

 Reservoir @ Oakland Mills.  Tremendous week 1 matchup!  OM has looked fast AF through their 2 scrimmages.  The defending county champ gators brought back the reigning DPOY but have underwhelmed in scrimmages.  I’m sticking with my initial ranking of OM at #1 and picking the scorps to win a close one.  🦂

 

River Hill @ Atholton.   Yum-a delicious game early in the season.  Yes I know I ranked the Raiders higher than RH initially, but I am simply unable to pick against my Hawks in this one.  This Atown QB may be good but he’s never dealt with the types of pressure he will see from the Hawks vaunted 3-5-3.  I was impressed by the (new?) Atholton RB in the Oakdale scrimmage-made lots of defenders miss.  Hawks ground and pound will need to control things, while also utilizing the rejuvenated 3 step pass game.  The hawks were shortchanged of some scrimmage time when the refs decided to walk out after a little shoving match.  RH by one score.  🪶

 

Hammond @ Guilford Park. I’m calling for GP to get their first varsity win here.  Not sure when the Golden Bears last won a game in Howard County…🐆

 

Centennial @ Howard-The Lions numbers are WAY down from where they were a few years ago.  But we still don’t lose to Centennial.  Lions roll big here.  🦁

 

Wilde Lake @ Long Reach.  LR has not impressed in scrimmages, and some coaching changes mean the Lightning may take a few weeks to find their identity.  WL has been consistent over the past few years and their defense will win them a close one here.  🐯

 

Mount Hebron @ Marriotts Ridge.  I’m giving the nod to the defending HOCO champs here, although I don’t know much about either squad.  Hebron in a rout.  🗡️

 

Glenelg @ Severna Park. Fun fact-coach Bell used to be the head coach at Severna Park before heading to Hammond and now Glenelg.  I’m going with the HOCO team here in a close one.  Glenelg has a solid coaching staff with Willy Bell in year 2 and the legendary Butch Schaffer helping out.  On film these teams look fairly even at the skill positions, but Glenelg has the advantage up front.  SP will try to run some RPO looks and it will be up to the Glads D line to harass the QB.  Glenelg by one score.  ⚔️

[Pedro Cerrano]

Eagles 35 Howard 3

[Tomgruneberg]

WEEK 1 POSTMORTEM 

 

Well, both of the co-county champions from 2023 not only lost, but got shut out.  I knew OMwas gonna be tough, but I didn’t see them beating up on Resi that bad.  The gators brought back the DPOY-and the scorps still hung 33 on them.  Speed Kills.  Mount Hebron getting running clocked by the Ridge is unbelievable to me.  I had MR ranked down there with Centennial, Hammond and Guilford Park.  Clearly they get bumped up the next time the rankings come out.  Who will rise to the top this season?  Right now it looks like Atholton and Oakland Mills have the inside track to the County crown.  They play October 10-should be a dandy.  

 

I went 4-3 on the week.  I was wrong on River Hill, Glenelg and Mount Hebron winning.  

 

Atholton looked pretty good in their win over my Hawks.  The (new)RB and (known) QB looked pretty good.  Turnovers killed the Hawks as they seemed to be having a difficult time holding on to the football.  Score would have been closer or even a possible different outcome if they hold onto the ball.  There was a lot of cramping and injuries during the game-hopefully nothing serious.  

 

I have to give it up for Guilford Park.  A school with no seniors gets their first varsity win.  I knew when I watched their JV last year that they had a chance to win some games.  Nice work entire coaching staff and players. 

 

Howard runs all over Centennial as expected.  

 

Wilde Lake pulls out a 4 point victory over the Reach.

 

And finally Glenelg loses a close one to AA county foe Severna Park

[Tomgruneberg]

Week 2 2024

 

Greetings from Howard County, MD.  Not one game this week is a matchup of 1-0 teams.  Every single game has a 0-1 team competing.  Unfortunately I won’t be in attendance at any games because I’m seeing the Boss at Camden Yards.  I went 4-3 last week-hopefully I’m not just dancing in the dark this week.  

 

Marriotts Ridge (1-0) @ Glenelg (0-1) interesting matchup.  MR came out of the gates and blew out Hebron.  Glenelg lost a close one to out of county opponent Severna Park.  I do not yet believe the Mustangs are the real deal.  A convincing win here would say otherwise.  This game is a coin flip and I’m giving it to the boys in red-Glads by a score.  

 

Mount Hebron (0-1) @ Reservoir (0-1) There’s a darkness on the edge of town.  The Marquee matchup of 2023 has lost a little something this year.  All we know is that one defending county champ is going to start this season 0-2.  Who will it be?  Both teams looked bad and were shut out last week.  I give Resi a slight edge here,  but I really don’t have a good reason why.  Gators by 3.

 

Oakland Mills (1-0) @ Hammond (0-1) -We have seen that Isaac Ramsey is “born to run”.  OM rolls big here-will they get 50?  Does OM have the DPOY for 2024?  Every shutout goes a long way to making that case.  

 

Howard (1-0) @ River Hill (0-1) Interesting-Howard got the Centennial bye last week, while the Hawks lost a turnover fest to Atholton.  Howard’s RB Darius Moore is faster than Tyreek driving to a Dolphins game.  Hawks will need to take better care of the ball if they want to compete.  Howard by a score.

 

Atholton (1-0) @ Long Reach (0-1). Atholton QB and RB looked pretty good last week, while LR fell in the Lake.  Atholton has a “hungry heart” and continues to build toward that big week 6 matchup with the scorpions .  Atholton moves to 2-0, Raiders by 2 scores.

 

Wilde Lake (1-0) @ Centennial (0-1). Centennial is looking for a “reason to believe” but they won’t get it this week.  WildEcats by 3 scores.  

 

Patterson (0-1) @ Guilford Park (1-0).  GP is brimming with confidence after their first varsity football win in school history.  I think the momentum continues in their favor and they take a “wrecking ball” to Baltimore City’s Patterson by 1 score. 

[Pedro Cerrano]

Centennial wins 48-5

[Tomgruneberg]

Week 2 postmortem

 

7-0 on the week!  Call me NostraThomas!

 

Glenelg (1-1) shows that we should not have gotten too excited about MR’s big week 1 victory over Hebron.  They shut out the Mustangs (1-1) 10-0

 

Last years co-county champion Vikings (0-2) drop their second straight to Reservoir (1-1) 49-27.  In a game that featured very little defense, the Gators avoid starting the season 0-2.

 

Howard (2-0) pulls away late to drop the Hawks to 0-2. Game was 14-7 at half before the Lions turned it on. Moore goes for around 140 on the ground with another 40 receiving.  

 

Atholton (2-0) takes the Lightning (0-2) behind the woodshed 27-0.  Big plays pace the Raiders with 3 TDs over 50 yards.  

 

Coach H and Coach R are currently under a CPS investigation after abusing Centennial (0-2) 70-0.  Seventy!  Do you know how hard it is to put 70 up?  The clock runs at 35 leaving verylittle time to score.  Wilde Lake moves to 2-0 on the season.  

 

Guilford Park continues to impress as they move to 2-0 with a nice win over Baltimore City’s Patterson 20-14.  

 

Oakland Mills (2-0) takes care of business as expected, dropping Hammond (0-2) 42-6.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Eagles actually won

[Tomgruneberg]

WEEK 3 Howard County Football

 

Middletown (DE) (2-1) @ Atholton (2-0).  This is probably the most interesting game this week and I may check out a half before heading elsewhere.  Atholton is playing a fairly strong out of state opponent here.  Middletown has 2 wins,  beating Red Bank Catholic and Odessa while losing to Sussex central.  I’m gonna go with the HOCO team in this one.  There is a good bit of talent on that Raiders squad.  Enough to beat this DE team.  Don’t let me down A town.  Raiders by a score.  

 

Mt. Hebron (0-2) @ Howard (2-0). It could be a long day for the Vikings as former MTH coach Hannon has a stud RB.  He made RH look silly on a few plays last week.  Hebron hasn’t stopped anybody yet, giving up 91 (!) points in 2 games, and they are struggling to get out of the basement this year.  Lions by 2 scores.  

 

Long Reach (0-2) @ Oakland Mills (2-0)-The Scorpion train continues to roll.  This week the Lightning get a taste.  OM by 2 scores.  

 

Reservoir (1-1) @ River Hill (0-2). Hawks plan on taking a page from OM to try and shut down the Reservoir offense.  Hawks O returns major pieces.  RH by 1 score.  

 

Marriotts Ridge (1-1) @ Wilde Lake (2-0).  Wilde lake tuned up centennial last week 70-0.  The Ridge will give them more than the eagles, but not enough to win.  WildEcats by 2 scores.  

 

Glenelg (1-1) @ Hammond (0-2)-An easy one here-Coach Bell faces another school he coached at, but this time the outcome will be different.  Glads by 3 scores

 

Centennial (0-2)@ Guilford Park (2-0).  The schedule gods have been very nice to the Panthers. Their first 3 opponents had a combined TWO wins in 2023 (Ham/Cen=winless, Patterson 2 wins).  But all they can do is play who is in front of them.  Hopefully Centennial puts up more of a fight than they did vs. WL.  It still won’t be enough-GP by 2 scores.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Centennial in a laugher obviously

[Tomgruneberg]

Week 3 postmortem 

 

Well, I went 5-2 on the week which puts me at 16-5 overall on the year.  Marriotts Ridge upset the Lake which I did not see happening.  Also the cavaliers of Middletown DE dismantled one of our better HOCO teams (Atholton) 34-3.

 

Let’s start with a nice win from my hawks over those pesky gators.  Turnovers had been hurting River Hill (1-2) but they flipped the script this week with a +4 turnover ratio.  Gators were driving at the end of regulation, but the Hawks D held on to secure the victory.  Resi drops to 1-2.  

 

I watched the first half of the Middletown (DE) win over Atholton (2-1).  MTown ran back the opening kickoff and it never got better for the Raiders.  Speed was the name of this game as the Cavaliers made Atholton look slow.  Atown could not get anything going offensively and were held to just a field goal on the game.  

 

Upset alert as Marriotts Ridge (2-1) downs Wilde Lake (2-1) 7-3 in what must have been a defensive slug fest.  MR definitely moved themselves up in my rankings with a surprising victory here.  

 

Hammond (0-3) gave Glenelg (2-1) maybe a little bit more than they bargained for.  Glads we’re only up 15-12 at halftime!  

 

Oakland Mills (3-0) continues to thrash all comers.  This week they dismantle Long Reach (0-3) 45-0.  The scorps have outscored their first 3 opponents 120-6.  This sets up an epic out of county game with Urbana of Frederick county next week.  OM is certainly the flag bearer for HOCO this season and if they could knock off the UHS Hawks it would be a huge victory.  

 

Guilford park moves to 3-0 with another victory , this time over Centennial(0-3).  The schedule takes a turn for GP as they face MR, Resi and Wilde Lake in the next 3 weeks.  Much credit to them if they can beat any of those 3 teams.  

 

Mount Hebron (0-3) must have put up a fight this week, only losing to Howard (3-0) by a touchdown.  

 

 Power Rankings (week 3)

1. Oakland Mills (3-0)
2. Howard (3-0)
3. Atholton (2-1)
4. Glenelg (2-1)
5. Marriotts Ridge (2-1)
6. Wilde Lake (2-1)
7. River Hill (1-2)
8. Guilford Park (3-0)
9. Reservoir (1-2)
10. Mount Hebron (0-3)
11. Long Reach (0-3)
12. Hammond (0-3)
13. Centennial (0-3)

[Tomgruneberg]

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. 

[Pedro Cerrano]

Centennial is where the sharp money lies

[Tomgruneberg]

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. 

[Pedro Cerrano]

Centennial protesting

[Tomgruneberg]

Week 5 Howard County Football

 

Atholton (3-1) @ Centennial (0-4)

 

Let me just say a few words about this situation.  For those that don’t know, Centennial announced on Monday that they would be forfeiting this game.  For “safety reasons” blah blah blah.  Reality is-Centennial took one look at Atholton’s gigantic OL and said “Nah we good”.  It is unbelievable to me that we would allow a team to pick and choose who they are going to play in the league.  One immediate impact is Atholton gets 2 weeks to prepare for potentially the biggest game of the regular season vs OM!  Meanwhile the CEN coaches are getting paid the same as every other coach in HOCO to NOT COACH.  I counted 19 players dressed at the end of the varsity game vs. RH last week.  Now, unless the rules of football have changed since I retired, there are 11 players on the field.  Not to mention Centennial played a JV game Monday with 20 players dressed. That’s 39 bodies available to play a game Friday night.  If anything-you end the JV program and play out the varsity schedule.  But no, we let Centennial do what they want.  

 

Does Centennial not have a weight room?  Is there no place they can train and get better in the off season?  Is there no 7 V 7 opportunities?  Can the coaches go to clinics and learn things? Oh wait-ALL of these things are available to them just like every other school in the county.  Hell I used to run the hills there while my daughter was practicing at the SAC fields-they’re brutal.  When will Centennial ever get better?  

 

How can it be that EVERY other sport at CEN is competitive to good?  They have a basketball STATE CHAMPIONSHIP within the last 10 years.  The answer is the football program at CEN has been told by athletic administrators that they can’t compete FOR YEARS.  Anyone who has been around HOCO football knows that the county schedule has been held hostage by CEN for a long time.  “Oh we can’t open with Atholton-we would get crushed and end our hopes for a good season”.  And so the entire rest of the league gets shuffled around to accommodate the eagles.  How do you think Coach Montag feels over at GP playing a Varsity schedule with NO SENIORS.  They are missing 1/4 of the school!  Do you think they are telling the kids “we can’t compete”.  NO-they are channeling their inner Coach Billick “When you go in the lion's den, you don't tippy toe in — you carry a spear, you go in screaming like a banshee, you kick whatever doors in, and say, 'Where's the SOB?' If you go in any other way you're gonna lose.'"   CEN football program has been told they can’t compete for so long THEY BELIEVE IT.  The CODDLING is unbelievable.  In 2018 they tried to worm out of our homecoming game at RH.  They would only agree to play if we did RUNNING CLOCK the entire game!  How does that make the players feel-telling them they are that inferior to another school before the game even starts?

 

“But CEN demographics aren’t conducive to football success”.  HORSE MANURE-Marriotts Ridge and River Hills ethnicity demographics are IDENTICAL to Centennials.  Yet they still play a full football schedule every year.  Mount Hebron is very similar as well.  I can tell you this with 100% certainty-Van Deusen would cut off his own arm with a rusty butter knife before he would forfeit a football game, but a mere 5.4 miles away we forfeit games whenever we feel like it.  It’s a difference in mentality.  

 

So what do we do now?  We could do what we did with OM female athletics and let them play lower level Baltimore County schools for a few seasons.  Keep them totally off the hoco schedule.  Or how about we make a rule that says if you forfeit a game as a coach you get fired?  I still think the Centennial coaches should be docked 1/10 of their pay for every game they forfeit.  The expectation is you coach 9 regular season games and 1 playoff game.  Every other coach in hoco is putting in that much work minimum.  

 

 

Oakland Mills (4-0) @ Glenelg (3-1). The clear game of the week in the county.  Glenelg sits at 3-1 but has not been overly impressive.  Even though they have won their last 3 straight after an opening week loss to Severna Park, they let Hammond lurk around with them for a half and then only beat lowly reservoir by 2 points.  Hopefully for OM they are done reading about their impressive victory over Urbana and went to work preparing for the Gladiators.  Glenelg would need to play a flawless game to upset these Scorpions,  but I don’t see it happening-Scorpions by 2 scores.  

 

Marriotts Ridge (3-1) @ Hammond (0-4). Hammond has shown that they are not just laying down for these other teams.  They’ve shown fight so far this year and one of these weeks they will break through for a win.  Is it this week?  I don’t think so-Ridge by 2 scores

 

Guilford Park (3-1) @ Reservoir (1-3).  Resi with a good shot to get their second win here, but GP is certainly no pushover.  Gators by one score.  

 

Long Reach (0-4) @ River Hill (2-2). Battle of the schools that opened in 1996. The Reach is really struggling here as I can’t remember the last time they were 0-4.  RH has won their last 2 and is figuring some things out on both sides of the ball.  RH by 2 scores at homecoming .  

 

Howard (4-0) @ Wilde Lake (2-2).  The lake has dropped their last 2, while Howard remains undefeated.  A word of advice to the WL coaches-don’t punt the ball to the best player on the field like LR did.  Kick it out of bounds and make them drive on you!  Howard by 2 scores.  

 

Mount Hebron (1-3) @ Severn Run (0-4). Hebron picked up their first win last week vs. a scrappy Hammond squad.  Can they make it 2 in a row against a brand new Anne Arundel county school?  I believe in the Vikings this week.  Hebron by a score. 

[Pedro Cerrano]

Ban this man

Eagles by 600

[Tomgruneberg]

Week 5 postmortem 

6-1 on the week.  The only game I didn’t call was the Wilde Lake upset of Howard.  29-6 on my picks through 5 weeks.  

 

Oakland Mills (5-0) survives a battle on Burntwoods.  The Gladiators (3-2) gave the Scorps all they wanted, but eventually fell in the late stages of the game.  OM is the last remaining undefeated team in the county.  This sets up a gigantic game next week (Thursday night) at Atholton.  You’re gonna want to get there early-parking is bad at Atholton.  

 

Wilde Lake (3-2) with a huge overtime upset over previously unbeaten Howard (4-1).  Howard was missing their head coach and OPOY candidate D Moore-but we don’t make excuses right?  We play to win and Wilde Lake gets a victory here that probably took a few years off Coach Hendos life.  

 

River Hill (3-2) blanks Long Reach (0-5) to add themselves to the list of teams with winning records.  The hawks continue to figure things out on both sides of the ball,  but have a big one coming up on Thursday night at the Ridge.  Hawks have won 3 straight after dropping their first 2.  

 

Marriotts Ridge moves to 4-1 with a win over Hammond (0-5).  This should be a really good game next week with the Hawks.  

 

Reservoir(2-3) gets their second win of the year-this week over Guilford Park (3-2).  Resi travels to state power Franklin(3-2) (Baltimore county) in an interesting matchup.  I have to give them credit for not taking the easy way out here and scheduling a cupcake.  Franklin has 3 state championships in the last 11 years (‘13, ‘14 and ‘18)

 

Mount Hebron (2-3) picks up their second win of the year vs. new program Severn Run(0-5).  It’s always good to see a HOCO team beat an out of county opponent.  

 

Atholton (4-1) picks up the Forfeit win vs. Centennial (0-5).  *Forrest Gump voice* And that’s all I have to say about that. 

[Tomgruneberg]

Howard County Football Week 6

 

Oakland Mills (5-0) @ Atholton (4-1).  Game of the week and most likely game of the season.  Atholton high will be overflowing for this one.  Both teams come in with high powered offense and stingy defenses.  OM has been perfect in the season while Atholton suffered an embarrassing loss to Delaware power Middletown.  I feel like OM is on a mission this year, and despite Atholton having an extra week to prepare for some strange reason, I like the Scorps here.  Atholton has demonstrated they struggle to deal with team speed which OM has in abundance, OM by one score.  

 

Glenelg (3-2) @ Howard (4-1). Another great game here in week 6.  The 2 oldest schools in the county compete for the ridiculous “ELGARD” trophy.  Both teams lost last week and will be hungry for a win.  The lions get their head coach and best player back.  Howard will also be celebrating the 50th anniversary of their one and only state championship from 1974!  I feel like the Howard O will bring more to the table than the glads can handle.  Howard by a score.  

 

River Hill (3-2) @ Marriotts Ridge (4-1).  Great matchup here as these teams are very even.  RH has been rolling-winning their last 3.  Some position adjustments on the defensive side of the ball have really paid off.  MR has certainly exceeded my expectations for them as they are off to a 4-1 start.  Look for the RH ground and pound to take over this game.  RH by one score.  

 

Wilde Lake (3-2) @ Guilford Park (3-2) Wilde lake is coming off a major upset overtime win vs (then) undefeated Howard.  GP started blazing hot out of the gates this year winning their first 3, but reality has set in as they get to the established programs in HOCO.  The panthers will fight,  but the WildEcats will prevail by 2 scores.  

 

Reservoir (2-3) @ Franklin (3-2).  Franklin has more state championships in the last 11 seasons (3) than the entire Howard County League (0).  I give Resi credit for scheduling a program of this caliber.  This certainly isn’t a dominant Franklin team as their QB has struggled this year.  They have a serious playmaker in #5, but they have problems getting him the ball.  Other than that, the main hall carrier is a sophomore.  They do have a nice looking CB,  but he is not a factor on offense.  Franklin by a score.  

 

Centennial (0-5) @ Mount Hebron (2-3). Centennial had 2 weeks to prepare for this game after declining to play Atholton last week.  Do the Eagles have what it takes to knock off a defending county champion?  NO.  Hebron will roll here to even up their record.  Vikes by 2 scores.  

 

Hammond (0-5) @ Long Reach (0-5).  Well you love to see it, because somebody is getting their first win here in week 6.  I’m really torn here-Hammond has stayed with a few of the better teams in the county-they are not laying down!  They should be super fired up to play a weakened lightning squad.  I’m calling it here -Hammond by a score!