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Malek Redd’s two touchdowns lifted River Hill to a 14-7 win in the Maryland 2A state title game.
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - This is how confident several River Hill parents were their boys would win the school’s first state football title: The team arrived at M&T Bank Stadium with baseball caps and T-shirts proclaiming the Hawks champions.
“We put all of it in boxes in the back of the bus heading over to the game and none of the players knew about it,” said Attilio Campanaro, whose two sons, Michael Campanaro and Leron Eaddy are on the team. “If we would have lost, I probably would have burned the boxes. But I just knew we were going to win.”
And that’s just what the Hawks did — coupling two touchdowns by Malek Redd with an outstanding defensive effort to post a 14-7 victory over Eastern Tech to cap a 14-0 season by winning the 2A title in front of a crowd of about 4,500.
Players reveled on the field by throwing their helmets high into the autumn sky and embracing after Redd, who also plays cornerback, safety Ryan Griffin and linebacker Alex Turner combined to stop Eastern Tech’s Derryck Davis on River Hill’s 13-yard line as time expired. River Hill’s undefeated season was the first by a Howard County team since Wilde Lake won the 3A title in 1997.
The team collected its state title and retreated to the locker room, where two large cardboard boxes contained early holiday gifts. The players ditched their shoulder pads and sweat-soaked jerseys for T-shirts and hats as they posed for picture for their parents. Last year, the parents consoled their crying sons after they were overwhelmed by Friendly in the championship game, 37-18.
But 2007 was the year of the Hawk, as 11 years after the Clarksville school opened, River Hill was king of the 2A football hill.
“Since the day we lost to Friendly, all we talked about is winning states, winning states and winning states,” senior linebacker Zach Martin said. “All we’ve been thinking is getting back to M&T Bank Stadium and winning the championship, and we finally did it.”
River Hill wasn’t its dominant self against seventh-ranked Eastern Tech (13-1), which just missed claiming its first state football title after falling short of upsetting the top-ranked Hawks.
“I told our seniors as freshman one weight training session: ‘If you do everything that we ask of you, you are going to be kings of the state,” Eastern Tech coach Marc Mesaros said. “And we almost came in here today and go it done.”
River Hill trailed, 7-0, at halftime — the first time the Hawks have trailed this season — before Redd caught a 69-yard touchdown pass from Luke Hostetler to tie the game early in the third quarter. After the teams exchanged possessions, River Hill took the lead for good when Redd scored on a six-yard run with just over four minutes remaining.
It capped a season in which River Hill outscored the opposition, 551-21, surrendered just three touchdowns — all rushing — and posted a state record-tying 11 shutouts.
“I knew we were going to be good, but I never thought we’d be this good,” Eaddy, a junior linebacker, said. “It’s been just an amazing season.”
Comments from Examiner Readers
3:09 PM MST on Mon., Dec. 10, 2007 re: "Executives lock horns over football game"
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7:51 AM MST on Mon., Dec. 10, 2007
re: "Executives lock horns over football game"
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Examiner Reader said:
Smith and Ulman are both fruitcakes. I would not wipe my feet on either one of them.
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Examiner Reader said:
I can't beleive the Examiner fell for this obvious political stunt to get press on the backs of high school athletes. This isn't the pros and this isn't the super bowl. One of the main reasons student athletes use Steroids is because of the pressure to win at all cost. Having the County Executives bet on the game, is first a demonstration for the kids and second it puts additional pressure on the teams to win, since the county execs control most of the school budget. Now that River Hill has won, I'm sure that Jim Smith will try and turn this into more cheap press. I hope the examiner doesn't fall for it this time. The real stars are the student athletes.
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