When River Hill coach Brian Van Deusen says he's going to have his players work on tackling, he means it.

A week after a workmanlike win over Howard in which the Hawks gave up touchdown runs of 32 and 54 yards, River Hill shut down Glenelg Friday night, 35-0, in a defensive tour de force.

"Defensively, we put a lot of pressure on the QB. The thing we’re really pleased with is shutting down the run. We gave up two big runs last week, and to come out and take away the run after the first quarter -- they got out of it and went shotgun -- it was good to see," Van Deusen said.

Glenelg came out fired up in front of a standing-room-only home crowd for a game that matched two undefeated teams.

River Hill's opening drive ended after four plays when the Gladiators' Scott Dziwulski recovered a fumble on Glenelg's 36-yard line.

"They did a sweep to the outside ... and I saw the ball on the ground and I just fell on it," Dziwulski said.

The Gladiators moved the ball to River Hill's side of the field before stalling just inside the 50 and punting.

River Hill's next drive also ended with a punt, but then Glenelg made the first costly mistake of the game.

On fourth-and-two from his own 48, Glenelg quarterback Gage Trawick fired a pass intended for Colin Osborne. But John McMichael stepped in front and made a leaping, fingertip catch to give River Hill the ball in Gladiator territory.

"We went over that play in film a lot. They were going for it on fourth down, I knew they had to pass. I was just sitting on that route like Coach taught me," McMichael said.

Five plays later, quarterback Harry McLaughlin scored his first of two touchdowns on a one-yard plunge.

Glenelg (5-1) went into halftime down, 14-0, but the gap widened in the second half as River Hill (6-0) scored once in the third quarter and twice in the fourth.

"They just ran it right through the middle play after play, kept getting positive yardage, and we couldn’t stop them," Dziwulski said. "They just started to pull away from us, and we started to lose it."

The River Hill defensive line was also overpowering, as Nick Bonhag and Thomas Erdman continually crashed through to pressure or sack the quarterback or meet the ball carrier as soon as he touched the ball.

"We were just focusing on not giving up the big play, getting some pressure on that quarterback. We knew our D-line was going to step up big like they did in the second half," McMichael said.

River Hill 35, Glenelg 0

River Hill (6-0)  7  7  7  14 - 35
Glenelg (5-1)    0  0  0   0  -  0

First quarter
RH: McLaughlin 1 run (Shahegh kick), 1:49.

Second quarter
RH: McLaughlin 1 run (Shahegh kick), 1:37.

Third quarter
RH: Kluge 5 run (Shahegh kick), 3:24.

Fourth quarter
RH: Johnson 4 run (Shahegh kick), 9:59.
RH: Bonhag 10 run (Shahegh kick), 7:13.







Around the league

Howard 42, Marriotts Ridge 0

The Lions (3-3) scored 22 points in the second quarter in a rout of Marriotts Ridge (0-6).

Marriotts Ridge 0   0  0 0 - 0
Howard              6  22 7 7 - 42

First quarter
Ho: Bonavitacola 6 run (kick failed)

Second quarter
Ho: Porter 4 run (Bonavitacola run)
Ho: Ford 59 run (Floyd kick)
Ho: Porter 6 run (Floyd kick)

Third quarter
Ho: Dacus 10 run (Floyd kick)

Fourth quarter
Ho: Floyd 8 run (Floyd run)

Long Reach 35, Reservoir 14

The Lightning (5-1) allowed only one first down in the first half while taking a 21-0 lead at Reservoir (1-5).

Long Reach  7  14  7  7 - 35
Reservoir      0   0   0 14 - 14

First quarter
LR: Reed 9 run (Dayhoff kick), 5:25.

Second quarter
LR: Sarpong 55 run (Dayhoff kick), 2:09.
LR: Artist 9 pass from Modeste (Dayhoff kick), :14.

Third quarter
LR: Preston 2 run (Dayhoff kick), :34.

Fourth quarter
Re: #6 10 pass from #1 (#2 kick), 8:19.
LR: Preston 9 run (Dayhoff kick), 2:53.
Re: #28 1 run (#2 kick), 2:07.

Atholton 20, Hammond 12

Hammond (2-4) took yet another top team to the brink, but the Raiders (6-0) held on for the win.

Freshman Dionte Jones and senior quarterback Anton Haynes scored for the Bears. The Raiders scored on a Kalvin Seamonson run, a pass from Seamonson to Adam D'Amico, and an Andrew King kick return.

---

user comments (0)