BOONSBORO, Md. – A funny thing happened Thursday when the Boonsboro football team huddled after the game against Brunswick.
What could have been a celebration turned into a board meeting.
The Warriors did all their scoring in the first half in their 35-0 victory over the Railroaders in the Class 1A North region quarterfinals. They even played the entire second half with a running clock because of the five-touchdown lead through the first 24 minutes.
It wasn’t a celebration for what they accomplished. Instead, the Warriors stood staring at each other, dwelling on what they didn’t.
“It’s a great win for us, but we have a heck of a lot more potential than what we showed in this game,” said senior running back Jadon King. “It’s just about going to practice, putting the work, because we have a goal. That’s to play on Dec. 5 (in the state championship game).
“And we need to play to our potential, and as hard as we possibly can, to get that done.”
For now, the No. 2-seeded Warriors advance to the semifinals and will host the winner of No. 6 Western Tech and No. 3 Loch Raven. Next week’s winner advances to the state quarterfinals.
The average fan was probably ecstatic about the 35-point win. But the Warriors (7-3) knew there wasn’t much flawless execution in the process.
“Jadon said it,” Boonsboro coach Mark Wadel said. “We didn’t play up to our potential. Our defensive coaches were not happy with the way they played on defense. I’m not exceptionally happy with the way they played on offense.
“All wins are good wins. Don’t get me wrong.”
There were some glitzy plays to camouflage the Warriors’ quality assessment.
Boonsboro broke a number of big yardage plays to move the ball.
Three of the touchdowns covered at least 25 yards. Five plays covered at least 30 yards, which put the Warriors in favorable positions.
“Plays that we work hard were the plays that were working,” said King, who scored two touchdowns. “It’s more about not what plays we call it, but how we execute them and how hard we push ourselves to win our reps on that play.
“They over-pursued. If you see something, you got go, so that’s fine.”
Boonsboro made a living by moving the ball into areas the Railroaders left.
“The offense is designed to put people in conflict,” Wadel said. “(The Railroaders have) a very good team – a physical defense – they had a lot of success taking away our inside runs. But to have success taking away inside runs, it makes it hard to take away the outside runs. And then when they adjust and take away the outside runs, it opens up some of the pass stuff.”
The Warriors exhibited that success early.
Boonsboro opened its first offensive series pinned at the 5. After quarterback Blake Main was unable to get any yardage on two keeper plays, King ran around left end, breaking a tackle before cutting back for a 69-yard run.
“We didn’t even execute that play right,” Wadel said. “He just he made a great play on that. Made a kid miss and then had a big run down the field.”
That run continued what became a nine-play, 95-yard scoring drive, culminated by Main hitting Landon French with a short pass over the middle. French collided head on with a would-be Brunswick tackler and barreled into the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown.
Zach Robertson-Ryan tacked on the first of his five extra points to give Boonsboro a 7-0 lead with 5:33 remaining in the quarter.
Boonsboro scored later in the quarter, this time on a two-play drive.
The Warriors got the ball at the Brunswick 33 and used two King runs to score. The first went for eight yards. The second came by running around left end – rediscovering the sweet spot he found earlier– and rambling 25 yards for the score and a 14-0 lead at the 1:30 mark.
Despite the erratic execution, Boonsboro collected three more touchdowns in the second quarter.
The first came on Landon Sallerson’s reverse around right end, where he split defenders and ran for a 76-yard TD and a 21-0 lead with 8:46 remaining in the half.
King followed by capping a seven-play, 80-yard drive by running up the middle and bouncing right score from the 9. It was 28-0 Boonsboro at 4:40 before intermission.
The final blow was started by a Luke Matthews interception in the end zone.
That started a three-play, 80-yard drive with Main finding Jayden Paugh on a post pattern for a 35-yard scoring pass at the :50 mark for the 35-point halftime lead. King started the drive by taking an improvised swing pass for a 35-yard gain.
Robertson-Ryan’s final kick set a Boonsboro record for extra points.
The Warriors cleared the bench in the second half as the clock ticked away freely.
The upside of it all is big wins make it easier to swallow any shortcomings. After all, the Warriors still need to prepare for another game.
“We just have to take care of the little things,” Wadel said. “You take care of the small things and big things take care of themselves. So, we just got to get better on our part to continue to move forward.”
