HAGERSTOWN – Josiah “JoJo” Davis continues to prove he’s a different breed.
There’s something different about South Hagerstown’s pint-sized steamroller of a running back that sets him apart.
““He’s a dog, man,” South Coach Juwuane Sandridge marveled. “There is no other way to say it. I mean that kid, he has so much heart … so much heart at that size. He’s not the biggest, but he is the toughest. It was JoJo doing JoJo things.”
Davis more than earned his pedigree on Friday as he powered to two touchdowns – the second on the first play of overtime – to lift the Rebels to a 14-7 victory over Thomas S. Wootton in the first round of the Maryland Class 4A/3A playoffs at School Stadium.
Davis’ saga deepened on Friday as he overcame a turf toe injury suffered last week in the regular-season finale win over North Hagerstown. It was compounded by a banged-up knee he sustained on Friday that sent him to the sideline with four minutes remaining in the first quarter.
South’s coaches tried to make him sit and stay out of the game, but Davis wasn’t about to play dead.
“That one play, I think my second run play, someone hit me on my knee head on” Davis said. “I couldn’t give up. I didn’t want this to be my last game. I was on the bench, crying a little bit, but I couldn’t let this be my last game.”
“He got hurt early and JoJo never takes a snap off,” Sandridge said. “We knew it was something serious.
“He took one hit during the game and he started feeling it in his knee. So, we were thinking long term. We were thinking of his health and we sat him out. He went in at halftime and did some stretches with the trainer. We couldn’t sit him out after that. He wouldn’t let us. We said, ‘Hey, we have a couple of fresh backs here,’ and he said ‘No.’ This was all him.”
In the second half, Davis showed he was a bulldog. And if that’s the case, teammate Jeremiah Welch was a pitbull with his two key defensive plays that poised the Rebels for the win of their first home playoff game since 2019. South’s reward is a second-round match up at Urbana, the West’s top-seeded team, next week.
The Rebels trailed 7-0 and were largely spinning their wheels for nearly the first 31 ½ minutes of the game.
At that point. Welch charged the line of scrimmage and got a clean, unabated shot on Wootton’s Elijah Cullen, who was scraping along the line of scrimmage on a sweep. Welch’s tackle resonated and knocked the ball free for Isaiah Robinson to recover at the Patriots 25 with 3:42 left in the third quarter.
“I was told by my coaches to hit and drive your feet and that’s what I did,” Welch said. “This could have been my final game as a senior. I had to leave everything out on the field. I’m not holding back.”
Davis returned to South’s backfield after leaving again following the first play of the second half. He ran the ball three straight times, The last one came out of the Rebels’ “Beast” set, which gave Davis took a direct snap with two other backs set at his left to be a convoy for his run.
Davis found the corner and went down the left sideline for 21 yards and the game-tying touchdown at the 2:18 mark.
“I didn’t think he had it. … I didn’t think he had it.” Sandridge said. “But I saw everyone just keep running and I said ‘OK.’”
The Rebels had the only other scoring threat for the rest of regulation, coming on an interception by Julius Rowe, who returned the ball to the Wootton 25, but the Patriots intercepted South’s Lucas Semler to thwart the chance.
South won the coin toss for overtime and elected to start with the ball. In overtime, each team gets ball at the 10 and tried to score in four plays. It teams match scores, the process continues.
Davis took any drama out of the situation immediately and buried Wootton.
On the first snap, he made a power move along the right end of the line and bolted full steam ahead for the 10-yard score. Israel Andino Guardado added the extra point for the 14-7 lead.
“The coach believed in me. He did,” Davis said. “It was great blocking. My team, they’re not big, but they have heart. Everyone has heart on our team. I’m proud of them.”
Wootton tried to answer but, after two short runs, Joshua Reid tried to power in from the 4. Welch answered again, meeting Reid head on at the point of attack and buried him after a one-yard gain.
“I just read my keys, and I saw the hole,” Welch said. “I had to go, fill that hole and make a stop. I don’t think, I just do. It’s instinct at this point. If you think, you’re going too slow, and you are going to miss the play.”
Wootton fired an incomplete pass into the end zone, ending the game.
The Patriots scored early to lead most of the way. Quarterback Kamran Vahedi connected with Kazadi Tshibaka on an 8-yard scoring pass at the 5:44 mark of the first quarter and nursed the lead until Welch provided big-hit fumble.
From there, South showed the resilience it learned in the course of a constantly evolving season.
“I told the guys at the beginning of the year that we wanted to play our best ball in November,” Sandridge said. “We are playing our best ball now.”
