The 2009 Howard County football season is proving to be one that does not submit to tradition.

Atholton defeated Wilde Lake Sept. 26 for only the fourth time in three decades, and Hammond beat Oakland Mills for the program's first win in nearly two years.

Both victors spoiled their opponents' homecoming festivities, which were already dampened by afternoon showers.

"We got that losing off our shoulders ... it feels good," said Hammond junior Matt Stephenson, who intercepted a pass, made two sacks for a loss of 16 yards and blocked an extra point in his team's 28-19 win.

Hammond had lost 15 games in a row coming into the game and was 3-30 since the start of the 2006 season.

"I'm just glad for the kids, they're the ones that have been waiting a long time," first-year coach Dan Makosy said. "They deserve this, they worked really hard this summer and they deserve to have a win."

The Golden Bears led, 20-13, at halftime after touchdown runs of 1 and 12 yards by freshman tailback Dionte Jones, and a 1-yard run by senior quarterback Anton Haynes. Jones was the game's leading rusher, with 180 yards on 34 attempts.

The Scorpions scored in the first half on a 61-yard pass from Jarod Montoya to Terrence Drew and a 10-yard run by Derrick Frazier.

In the third quarter, Haynes scored his second touchdown of the game and Jones added the two-point conversion.

Oakland Mills scored with nine minutes left in the game on a 3-yard run by junior Trayvonn Lee to make the score 28-19, but Stephenson blocked the extra point to keep the two-score cushion.

Most of the Oakland Mills offense came through the air as junior Jarod Montoya completed 13 passes for 267 yards. Fellow junior Terrence Drew caught two of the passes for big completions of 61 and 68 yards and Neko Rynn-Mason, the Scorpions' quarterback last year, caught six passes for 100 yards out of the slot.

Junior linebacker Joey Yarn made two tackles for loss and recovered a fumble.

At Wilde Lake, Atholton went into the fourth quarter trailing, 24-22, but took the lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Kalvin Seamonson to Andrew King, and extended it with a 39-yard fumble return by Matt Robinson with just over a minute remaining. Each team turned the ball over four times.

"It was a big turnover battle ... and we were able to capitalize more," said Robinson, who also caught eight passes for 170 yards and a touchdown.

Seamonson kept the Wilde Lake defense from keying on Robinson by completing passes to Adam D'Amico (three catches for 60 yards and a touchdown), Curtis Pumphrey (three for 29 yards) and Ryan Raines (two for 12 yards). Seamonson threw for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns and ran one in.

"People are always doubling me. (Kalvin's) been able to move the ball around. We have a lot of great athletes," Robinson said.

Atholton will now focus on remaining undefeated until it plays the county's other two undefeated teams, River Hill and Glenelg, in the last two weeks of the season.

"Now that we got Wilde Lake out of the way, we feel like we can stay undefeated ... but we don't want to fall asleep or anything," Robinson said.

"We're getting there, but we've got a lot to improve on. We haven't played our best yet," Atholton coach Kyle Schmitt said.

Wilde Lake's Khalil Vierra ran for 187 yards and junior A.J. Harris added 75 in the loss. Quarterback Joe Kelly scored twice on short runs and Antoine Barnes scored on a 45-yard interception return to give his team the halftime lead, but Wilde Lake was 0-for-5 on extra point attempts.

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