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With its 38-0 defeat of Baltimore City’s Dunbar High School on Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium, the Douglass football team won its first state championship in school history.
The win was a microcosm of the entire 2014 season for Douglass, as it forced a running clock — up by 35 points or more — for the 13th time in 14 games. The Eagles defense allowed an average of just 3.9 points per game this fall while offense averaged 43.6 points.
That kind of dominance gave Douglass coach J.C. Pinkney, he said, the confidence that the title game wouldn’t be any different.
“I was totally confident that we were going to win today,” Pinkney said. “Because these guys, they showed up every week. ... I just felt good about our team.”
The Eagles have been a Class-2A power for years — reaching the title game on three prior occasions, including 2011 and 2012, but until Saturday’s win, a state football title was missing from the Upper Marlboro school’s trophy case. That won’t be the case anymore.
From the first two series of the game, Douglass established its dominance on both sides of the ball. The Eagles’ defense forced a Dunbar three-and-out and punt, and two plays after the offense got the ball, running back Akiva Wedge broke off a 43-yard touchdown run.
“I just sprinted,” said Wedge, who finished the game with 159 yards and two touchdowns. “I ran like it was the last day on earth.”
Pinkney said the offensive line had been going to Baltimore every Sunday to work out with trainer Rob Slade. Each trip, the unit would get a glimpse of M&T Bank Stadium — a place they envisioned playing at since the offseason, defensive tackle Amir Fenwick said.
“You say what you mean and you mean what you say,” Fenwick said about accomplishing the task. “It took a lot to get to this point, and we knew that we had to work in order to get here.”
While Fenwick and the Douglass defense put together its eighth shutout of the season, the offensive line paved the way for 410 rushing yards Saturday.
“It starts with the bigs,” Pinkney said. “When you can find some teenagers that are willing to wake up bright and early in the morning, and meet up at Douglass and ride all the way out to Baltimore to have some man yell at them — that’s the type of kids I have.”
Following a defensive stand by the Eagles inside of their own 5, the offense took over possession from the 2 and proceeded to drive 98 yards in four plays to score on a 6-yard run by quarterback Devin Butler. On the drive, Wedge broke a 32-yard run and Mikale Makle broke a 55-yard run.
In the second quarter, Butler scored again on a 10-yard run to give the Eagles an 18-0 lead at halftime.
“I’ve been dreaming to win a state championship,” said Butler, who rushed for 95 yards. “It feels really good to have a taste of what a championship feels like, to be No. 1, to have a family around you. ... When we all play together, it just feels really good to know that everybody’s having fun while we’re doing it.”
Dunbar quarterback Zionnez Spencer accounted for 129 of 152 yards for the Poets, but his effort wasn’t enough to score on the stingy Eagles. And once Spencer exited the game in the third quarter with a gruesome leg injury, the Poets last hope for a comeback was over.
Wedge added his second touchdown, a 9-yard run in the third quarter. In the fourth, Makle, who rushed for 110 yards, scored on a 12-yard run, and Thomas Myers broke off a 21-yard touchdown to initiate the running clock.
“I told my coaches it didn’t matter what [Dunbar was] doing,” Pinkney said. “I was focused about what we were doing, and our kids showed up to play every week. And that’s all we could ask. And I knew if they were Douglass, we were going to win.”
