The longest win streak in the East grinds to a halt while a Maryland team extended its run to 30 straight.
A pair of Maryland schools made East Coast headlines last week in connection with lengthy win streaks.
Annapolis (Md.) dealt Delmar (Del.), a 26-6 defeat, ending Delmar's run of 35 straight victories. Delmar entered the 2003 season tied with Paulsboro (N.J.) with an East Coast-best 35 game win streak. Paulsboro starts regular-season play this week.
Annapolis' result was a huge win for new coach Dale Castro, a former collegiate All-American player at the University of Maryland. Castro was named coach at Annapolis in August, just before practice, when former coach Roy Brown and the entire staff resigned over a dispute with the administration.
Castro coached High Point into state promience during the early 1990s, but had been out of coaching for a few years.
Meanwhile, Georgetown Prep (Md.) extended its win streak to 30 with a 14-9 victory over Gilman, last year's No. 1-ranked team in Maryland.
Gilman and Prep were both undefeated last season and a debate raged over which team was better. Unfortunately, the private schools never had a chance to settle the issue on the field, so this year they arranged a meeting to kickoff the season.
Neither team is near last year's standards. Gilman featured Notre Dame recruits Victor Abiamiri and Ambrose Wooden. Prep had the state's all-time leading rusher in Marcus Mason, now at the university of Illinois.
Heading south a bit, Phoebus ripped Norcom, 47-0, to open the season. The result is not surprising, but what is noteworthy is Student Sports National Sophomore of the Year last fall Elan Lewis scored five touchdowns, the last five scores of the game. Seems odd the team's star was still getting carries in that lopsided of an affair.
Fate works in mysterious ways, as evidence by this weeks Urbana vs. Sidwell Friends game. The game was scheduled long ago, but appropriately weeks season-opener was a meeting of teams experiencing a similar pain. The Urbana community lost star player Billy Gaines, who was heading into his sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh, during the summer. Sidwell Friends players, the night before Saturdays contest, attended the funeral of teammate and captain Tyler Rusch, who died in a traffic accident last week. Urbana decided to dedicate every touchdown scored this season to Gaines, and the situation arose often in the Hawks 41-0 victory. However, no score was a big as a 2-yard TD pass from Tyler Newberry to Michael Gaines, Billys younger brother. Scoring that touchdown was the greatest feeling Ive had in a long time, Michael Gaines told The Frederick News-Post. Following each touchdown this year, Urbana players will hand the ball to the official and say, Thats for Billy Gaines.