At least the River Hill football team is already spared from any potentially ridiculous questions such as, "How long can you go without being scored upon?"

Of course, such questions aren't that ridiculous for the Hawks, which played through the first 4 1/2 games last season without allowing a point and finished the season as state champions having allowed only three touchdowns.

"It would have been nice to keep that shutout, but we've got to give guys reps (playing time). We've got to plan for the future," said River Hill coach Brian Van Deusen, who rested his starters for much of the second half of a Sept. 5 game against Atholton after securing a running clock. The Hawks won, 42-7.

Van Deusen could afford to rest his starters, because in the brief time they were on the field, they proved that they were up to the task of defending a state title.

Malek Redd took the opening kickoff all the way for an apparent touchdown, although it was called back for holding. Four minutes later, reigning Player of the Year Michael Campanaro scored his first touchdown of the season on a sweep from 13 yards out. Campanaro would score again on runs of 1 and 18 yards before Patrick McCleaf picked off a Jon Gardenhour pass from his inside linebacker position and ran it back 40 yards to really break things open.

Redd scored the final touchdown of the first half on a 3-yard run to give the Hawks a 35-0 lead, ensuring a running clock to start the second half.

Quarterback Luke Hostetler, who threw three passes in the game and connected on two of them, said that his tandem of all-star rushers has improved since last season.

"The (Atholton) defense definitely prepared for this game," he said. "They knew where the ball was going most of the time, but even if they make contact with Mike (Campanaro) at the line, Mike still ends up bouncing it out, gaining that extra five yards for a first down. It's fun to watch (all of the running backs)."

Campanaro rushed for 115 yards, Leron Eaddy (who mostly lined up as a receiver last season) had 63, Redd had 59 and Ryan Griffin, who scored River Hill's lone score in the second half, had 40.

"We want that balance of mixing it up, mixing it between the ... running backs," Van Deusen said.

Hawks kicker Scott Trench was 6-for-6 on extra points and also booted three kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks.

"He's a big weapon for us. Anytime you force a high school team to start on the 20 you're in a good situation," Van Deusen said.

One bright spot for the Raiders was junior quarterback Kalvin Seamonson, who took over the offense in the second half and proved effective when running the ball on a rain-slickened field. After an Atholton fumble recover with just over five minutes left in the game, Seamonson scrambled for 34 yards on third and 10 from the 39-yard line, setting up a 5-yard TD run by Eddie Robinson to spoil the shutout.

"We know we just played one of the best teams in the state, so we have nine games left. We can still go 9-1. We know they're the best team in the county," Seamonson said. "They don't look like they've dropped off too much."

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