Altered States, No. 6
February 27, 2009
So another basketball playoff season has now started, and if last night is any indication this one could be fun.
I was at Northern, where the Patriots knocked off Largo. Our Prince George’s Content Manager James McCray III was at Westlake where the Wolverines fell just short of the Wolverines of Potomac. So now we get to see the Patriots at No. 1 seed Friendly and Potomac at No. 2 seed Lackey on Monday. And rest assured, these aren’t the usual first-round type of games for the 3A South’s top seeds.
Had the opportunity to go up to the Prince George’s County championship games on Wednesday with McCray, and something again struck me. The gap that used to be a canyon separating SMAC from the P.G. County in basketball circles isn’t nearly as wide as it used to be. When I look at the 3A South bracket this year, I see six or seven teams that could realistically win it depending on how the cards fall. That wasn’t the case in the recent past.
And thinking of that, I think the 4A East and 2A South are going to be pretty competitive on the boys side, too.
On other fronts, there’s been and will be a bunch of college signings this week and next. Among them, Patuxent receivers Justin Ford and Eric Farmer are headed to Shepherd and Kyle Catterton earned the proud distinction of becoming the first North Point football player to sign. Catterton will be playing for Viriginia State.
And thinking of football, I just can’t believe that Brian Dawkins might be going to Denver …
La Plata High School | Archive | February, 2009
Altered States No. 6
Posted on 28 February 2009 by .
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Wrestling: 4A/3A South tournament
Posted on 28 February 2009 by .
By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager
The questions have been there at the start of every season. Just who is going to replace the graduated starters on La Plata’s wrestling team?
On Saturday at Eleanor Roosevelt in the 4A/3A South tournament, this year’s group definitively answered that question again. Five Warriors earned individual championships — including four first-time regional champs — placed in 12 of 14 weight classes and rolled to a sixth consecutive 4A/3A South tournament title.
The Warriors, on the strength of championships courtesy of Mike Garrow (119 pounds), Johnny Thomas (125), Nick Romero (135), Nick Houser (160) and Alex Ingagliato (215), accumulated 218.5 points to more than double-up runner-up Huntingtown. Oxon Hill came in third, Leonardtown fourth and Chopticon fifth.
“It was special,” La Plata coach Todd Sharp said. “Beginning of the year we talked about the dark horses nobody knew about. Sure enough here’s Nick Houser winning a regional title. Mitchell Keith took third, Joey Higgs — there’s three guys nobody knew much about.”
Garrow earned the first title of the night for the Warriors with a 16-1 technical fall over Huntingtown’s Joey Rice at 119. Rice upset Northern’s Quentin Leadbeter — the SMAC champion who brought an unbeaten record to regionals — in the semifinals.
“When [Rice] got that upset on Leadbeter I was pretty shocked,” said Garrow, who lost to Leadbeter by a point in the SMAC final a week earlier. “When I went into the match [against Rice] I basically knew — I’m pretty good on my feet — I knew I could dominate on my feet.”
Garrow’s win triggered the Warriors’ impressive finals run. Thomas came through with a 7-2, triple-overtime win over Roosevelt’s Mark Inda at 125. Romero took a 10-2 decision from Roosevelt’s Donovan Daniel at 135. Houser squeaked out a 7-6 win over Bowie’s KeyShaun Ward at 160, and Ingagliato held off Chopticon’s Brock Morris for a 10-8 win at 215.
“No one expected this team to get this far,” said Houser. “Just to prove them wrong is the best feeling in the world.”
In a repeat of the SMAC finals at 103, Northern’s Eric Stubblefield topped La Plata’s Dylan Dull 7-4. In other rematches from SMAC, Leonardtown’s Brian Samuels again bested Huntingtown’s Markus Jarboe at 130, this time by a 7-4 count.
At 145, Leonardtown’s B.J. Frederick reversed the outcome of his SMAC final with Chopticon’s Vincent Shontere. Shontere defeated Frederick in the SMAC final, but on Saturday Frederick came through with a third-period pin.
Northern’s Jeff Williams, who defeated La Plata’s Brent Mowry on a buzzer-beating takedown for an 8-7 win at SMAC, defeated his La Plata counterpart for the second consecutive week. Williams held off Mowry’s comeback attempt for an 8-6 win.
Chopticon earned a pair of titles, with 140-pound Stephen Cannon taking an 8-2 decision from Oxon Hill’s Andre Wilcox. Later, Alec Pence slipped past C.H. Flowers Zane McBride by a 6-5 score in the 171-pound final.
Laurel’s Toby Onyekweili defeated Westlake’s Raheem Williams by 14-4 major decision in the final at 112. Westlake earned its lone championship of the night thanks to sophomore Kian Magruder, who entered the tournament with a 10-8 record. Magruder defeated top-seeded Durrell Thomas of Parkdale 14-12 in an overtime semifinal encounter, and then outlasted Leonardtown’s Alan Payne 13-12 in the 189-pound final.
Defending state champion Nigel Cross, of Oxon Hill, ran his season record to 28-0 with another regional championship at heavyweight. Cross pinned all three of his opponents, and finished his tournament work with a third-period pin of Flowers’ Isaiah Shelton.
While Cross is the region’s only defending state champion, individually, La Plata is the defending 4A/3A state tournament champion. And, with 11 wrestlers qualified for next weekend’s state tournament at Cole Field House, the Warriors figure to again be in the mix.
“Hopefully we’ll make a run for it,” Sharp said. “We’ll see what happens, but it’s going to be a total team effort again next week. It’s a three- or four-team race.
“It’s going to be who shows up. It’s going to be a fun tournament, I think. It’s certainly not going to be anybody running away with it. It’s going to take a total team effort. Hopefully we’ll place as many guys as we can and we’ll see what happens.”
Team scores: La Plata 218.5, Huntingtown 101, Oxon Hill 93, Leonardtown 92.5, Chopticon 92, Eleanor Roosevelt 82.5, Westlake 75, Northern 61, C.H. Flowers 56, Bowie 50, Parkdale 48, Great Mills 45, Lackey 28, DuVal 24, Laurel 23, Crossland 17, Bladensburg 12, Friendly 11, High Point 8, Northwestern 4
Championship finals
103 Stubblefield (Nor) 7-4 Dull (LP) (Click HERE for match highlights)
112 Onyekweli (Lau) 14-4 Williams (Wl) (Click HERE for match highlights)
119 Garrow (LP) 16-1 Rice (Hun) (Click HERE for match highlights)
125 Thomas (LP) 7-2 Inda (ER) OT (Click HERE for match highlights)
130 Samuels (Lt) 7-4 Jarboe (Hun) (Click HERE for match highlights)
135 Romero (LP) 10-2 Daniel (ER) (Click HERE for match highlights)
140 Cannon (Ch) 8-2 Wilcox (OH) (Click HERE for match highlights)
145 Frederick (Lt) pinned Shontere (Ch), 5:30 (Click HERE for match highlights)
152 Williams (Nor) 8-6 Mowry (LP) (Click HERE for match highlights)
160 Houser (LP) 7-6 Ward (Bow) (Click HERE for match highlights)
171 Pence (Ch) 6-5 McBride (CHF) (Click HERE for match highlights)
189 Magruder (Wl) 13-12 Payne (Lt) (Click HERE for match highlights)
215 Ingagliato (LP) 10-8 Morris (Ch) (Click HERE for match highlights)
285 Cross (OH) pinned Shelton (CHF), 5:31 (Click HERE for match highlights)
Consolation finals
103 Onyekweli (ER) pinned Truitt (Lt), 2:37
112 Brannon (LP) 2-0 Solomon (OH) OT
119 Leadbeter (Nor) 4-0 Fagbemi (CHF)
125 George (Hun) pinned Messick (Ch), 3:48
130 Jackson (ER) 7-2 Rutledge (Wl)
135 Arias (Bla) 4-2 Bose (Lt)
140 Ursiti (LP) 4-2 Cherry (Bow)
145 Murphy (OH) pinned Higgs (LP), 2:07
152 Rowe (Hun) 3-1 Monda (GM)
160 Butler (HEL) pinned Tshikaya (Pkd), 4:13
171 Lawrence (Wl) 7-5 Bogdan (GM) OT
189 Keith (LP) 4-2 Langley (HEL)
215 Parson (OH) 5-3 Young (Hun)
285 Alexander (Cro) pinned Layeni (Duv), 2:03
astates@digitalsports.com
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Basketball: Playoff results from 2/27
Posted on 27 February 2009 by .
Boys
4A East
Leonardtown 85, Chesapeake 37
3A South
Northern 68, Largo 61
Potomac 82, Westlake 78
La Plata 49, Great Mills 47
2A South
North Point 96, Patuxent 67
Mount Hebron 63, Calvert 41
River Hill 64, McDonough 29
Girls
3A South
Friendly 48, La Plata 38
Huntingtown 52, Lackey 43
E-mail results to astates@digitalsports.com
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Basketball: Playoff Preview
Posted on 26 February 2009 by .
By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager
And so Friday it begins again.
Over the past three years two Southern Maryland Athletic Conference programs have come tantalizingly close to bringing home a state basketball championship — first Lackey’s boys in 2006 and Thomas Stone’s boys squad a year ago. This Friday, the quest begins anew with the year’s state tournament kicking off with first round games. Lackey and Stone would again appear to lead the SMAC contingent on the boys side, while North Point is at the front on the girls side, along with perennial contenders Westlake and Great Mills.
Coming off a SMAC-championship campaign, Lackey’s boys now get back to the business of getting back to the Comcast Center. A year ago a 3A title was within sight for the Chargers, but the team was knocked off in heartbreaking fashion by Largo — which went on to win the state championship with relative ease — in the 3A South final.
But the road will not be easy in a 3A South region that is as strong top to bottom as it has been in recent years. The region’s No. 2-seeded Chargers could receive a stiff test in their first action in the quarterfinals on Monday against the winner of the first-round winner of Potomac-Westlake — Potomac dealt top-seeded Friendly a 79-76 defeat on Feb. 17. And a possible matchup against Chopticon would await in the semifinals — Lackey won the regular-season matchup by just a point, 57-56.
The top seeds do not have an easy path, either. Friendly gets the winner of defending state-champ Largo and Northern in the quarters. Beyond that the winner of Huntingtown and Crossland, which played Friendly to a six-point game in the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 12, would be waiting in the semis.
In the 4A East, defending region champ Stone slipped to the No. 4 seed and resides in the same half of the bracket with the top-seeded Old Mills Patriots. Leonardtown, which upset Stone in the regular season’s final week, drew the No. 9 seed and will open at eighth-seeded Chesapeake. Leonardtown defeated Chesapeake 70-50 last week. Another win would set the Raiders up with a shot at Old Mill next Monday.
North Point, the No. 3 seed in the 2A South, opens with conference-rival and No. 14 seed Patuxent. The Eagles defeated the Panthers twice this season, the first a 100-82 game on Jan. 7, the second an 88-71 affair on Jan. 23. The road to the regional final would be a long one for the winner, as the Fairmont Heights-Douglass winner would await in the quarters, with second-seeded Gwynn Park likely in the way in the semifinal round.
On the girls side, SMAC-champion North Point earned the 2A South’s No. 2 seed. If all held to form the Eagles would play third-seeded Calvert — a SMAC rival that had the Eagles on the ropes twice during the regular season before North Point came back to earn victory. Howard County powers River Hill and Mount Hebron, the respective No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, reside on the other side of the bracket, meaning they could only meet North Point in the regional final.
Perennial SMAC contenders Great Mills and Westlake are together in the bottom half of the 3A South draw with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively. The potential semfinal winner would likely have to travel to face top-seeded Largo, which won 2007 3A title and was this year’s Prince George’s 3A/2A/1A champ, in the region’s final.
Leonardtown’s girls earned the No. 3 seed in the 4A East, and face Thomas Stone, the randomly-drawn sixth seed, in the quarterfinals. The winner would advance to a potential semifinal showdown with second-seeded Old Mill. Top-seeded Arundel, last year’s 4A runner-up and again a state favorite, will likely be waiting in the regional final for whichever team makes it through.
Friday
Boys
4A East
Leonardtown at Chesapeake, 7
3A South
Largo at Northern, 7
La Plata at Great Mills, 7
Potomac at Westlake, 7
2A South
Calvert at Mount Hebron, 6
McDonough at River Hill, 7
Patuxent at North Point, 7
Girls
3A South
Friendly at La Plata, 7
Huntingtown at Lackey, 7
2A South
Douglass at Calvert, 6
Saturday
3A South
Chopticon at Potomac, noon
2A South
Patuxent at Gwynn Park, 2
Central at McDonough, 6
4A boys brackets
3A boys brackets
2A boys brackets
4A girls brackets
3A girls brackets
2A girls brackets
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Basketball: Results from 2/24
Posted on 24 February 2009 by .
Boys
Chopticon 56, Northern 54
North Point 55, McDonough 52
Lackey 82, Great Mills 50
Girls
Great Mills 64, Lackey 41
Chopticon 60, Northern 55
Shellby Matullo scored her season-best 14 points to lead Northern’s effort. Kelly Glennon and Larissa Pitrat each added 12.
E-mail results to astates@digitalsports.com
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Wrestling: SMAC Tournament
Posted on 21 February 2009 by .
La Plata won its seventh straight SMAC tournament championship on Saturday night at Leonardtown High. The Warriors, who put 10 wrestlers in the finals and crowned five conference champions, accumulated 280.5 points to outdistance runner-up Chopticon by close to 100.
Daniel Brannon (112 pounds), John Thomas (125), Nick Romero (135), Chase Ursiti (140) and Alex Ingagliato each claimed individual crowns for the Warriors. La Plata placed in the top six in 13 of 14 weight classes to rebound from last week’s loss in the 4A/3A state dual final. A year ago the Warriors went on a tear after coming up short at the state duals, and won the SMAC, regional and state tournaments the following three weeks.
“They wrestled like that the last two days,” La Plata coach Todd Sharp said. “We had a lot of guys step up. Probably part of it was the motivation from the tough loss we took last week.”
Northern crowned three SMAC champions, all at the expense of La Plata. Eric Stubblefield took care of Dylan Dull by tech fall at 103, while Quentin Leadbeter kept his record spotless with a 3-2 decision over Mike Garrow at 119. And in one of the night’s featured attractions, Jeff Williams scored late to slip past Brent Mowry 8-7 in the 152-pound final.
Leonardtown’s Brian Samuels took a 9-8 decision from Huntingtown’s Markus Jarboe at 130, in one of four finals matches decided by a single point. In another, Chopticon’s Vincent Shontere provided one of the night’s upsets with a 4-3 win over Leonardtown’s B.J. Frederick at 145.
North Point’s Anthony Zoscak earned the first SMAC championship in the Eagles’ short history with a 12-4 win over La Plata Mitchell Keith at 189. Patrick Berry provided a championship for Calvert with an 8-4 win over La Plata’s Nick Houser at 160. Randy Farrell delivered for Patuxent with a 12-4 win over Westlake’s C.J. Lawrence at 171, and Aaron Rodenizer brought one home for Great Mills with a first-period pin — the only pin in the finals — in the heavyweight bout.
The 4A/3A South regionals are set for next Friday and Saturday at Eleanor Roosevelt High, while the 2A/1A South will be contested at Oakland Mills High.
Team scores: La Plata 280.5, Chopticon 187, Huntingtown 169.5, Leonardtown 154.5, North Point 146, Patuxent 118, Calvert 111, Westlake 110, Northern 102.5, Great Mills 98.5, Lackey 46, McDonough 46, Thomas Stone 7
Finals
103 Stubblefield (N) 19-4 Dull (LP)
112 Brannon (LP) 5-3 Barrett (Px)
119 Leadbeter (N) 3-2 Garrow (LP)
125 Thomas (LP) 7-2 George (Ht)
130 Samuels (Lt) 9-8 Jarboe (Ht)
135 Romero (LP) 6-1 Schirf (NP)
140 Ursiti (LP) 4-2 Cannon (Ch)
145 Shontere (Ch) 4-3 Frederick (Lt)
152 Williams (N) 8-7 Mowry (LP)
160 Berry (Ca) 8-4 Houser (LP)
171 Farrell (Px) 12-4 Lawrence (W)
189 Zoscak (NP) 12-4 Keith (LP)
215 Ingagliato (LP) 12-3 Morris (Ch)
285 Rodenizer (GM) pinned Newton (Ch), 1:23
astates@digitalsports.com
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Basketball: Results from 2/20
Posted on 20 February 2009 by .
Boys
Lackey 86, North Point 77 OT
Stone 74, Westlake 50
Huntingtown 54, Calvert 37
Chopticon 71, Great Mills 55
McDonough 56, La Plata 50
Northern 76, Patuxent 64
Thursday
Leonardtown 70, Chesapeake 50
Girls
North Point 52, Lackey 47
Great Mills 56, Chopticon 25
Westlake 57, Stone 26
Calvert 47, Huntingtown 45
McDonough 51, La Plata 31
Northern 37, Patuxent 28
Senior Kelly Glennon scored 12 points to lead the Patriots.
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Hockey: La Plata 3, Northern 2
Posted on 18 February 2009 by .
By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager
In his first season at the helm of the La Plata hockey team, Mark Eagles had to devote some time to teaching the basic rules of the game to some of his players.
On Wednesday night at the Capital Clubhouse in Waldorf, Eagles finished his fourth and final season coaching the team with a 3-2 win over Northern in the Chesapeake Cup — the year-end tournament for Southern Maryland teams. And in stark contrast to that first season, three freshmen playing on a line together led the way in the Cup final.
Dillon Higgins scored the game-winning goal on a deflection late in the third period, and also assisted on La Plata’s other two goals. Dallas Savoy scored La Plata’s first goal in the second period, while Bryce Berryhill scored early in the third.
“Isn’t that something,” Eagles said of the success of the freshmen line. “And I put them together today about halfway through the first period.”
Seeing that Northern’s top defensive pairings were out on the ice against his top line, Eagles looked to put together the hardest remaining skaters from the rest of his roster. The freshmen line provided quick results.
“All of a sudden they score on the first power play I put them out on. So it was sort of set in stone at that point, I’m like, ‘OK, I found my second line.'”
La Plata needed to find its scoring somewhere. Despite the fact that Northern, owners of the Cup the past three seasons, was playing undermanned due to injuries, La Plata struggled to gain control.
James Powers scored 9 minutes 36 seconds into the game off a feed from Wes Caparratto to put the Patriots in front 1-0. Northern succeeded in its goal slowing down the pace of play to some extent, and while La Plata held a decisive shot advantage it was not able to get one past Northern goalie Stephen Horak and into the net.
“We had all kinds of chances in front of the net,” La Plata co-captain Ross Eagles said. “We couldn’t get the puck in the net.”
It was Savoy, on a backhander in front of the net, that finally got La Plata on the board with a power-play goal at the 14:23 mark of the second period. Berryhill put the Warriors in front 2-1 after a scrum in front of the net early in the third. Then, after a laser wrist shot from Caparratto tied the game up, Higgins got the game-winner on a deflected puck with just over three minutes left on the clock.
“Relief more than anything,” Mark Eagles said of his emotions. “We peppered them with shots for two straight periods and I’m thinking, ‘one’s got to go in.’ And what is it? A fluke goal — a deflection.”
“Feeling kind of lucky,” Higgins said of his game-winning marker. “It tipped off the other guy’s stick, but a goal’s a goal.”
Despite the fact that Northern was missing four players from its regular lineup, La Plata’s coach was not about to take them any more lightly.
“They’re a good team,” he said, “and they play really well when they’re in a hole.”
Northern’s injury woes nearly got worse on the first shift of the game, as Caparratto took a puck to the knee. But after missing a couple of shifts, the senior defenseman returned to the ice to eventually contribute a goal and an assist.
“This was a tremendous game for all our players,” Northern coach Mark Clark said. “All these guys pulled together as a team.”
Northern made La Plata earn the Cup, and remained on the attack looking for the trying goal right up until the final buzzer. But in the end, it was La Plata finishing its season 16-2 overall and adding to the Southern Conference championship trophy it received before the game.
“They’ve had it for a while,” La Plata co-captain Brad Lawson said. “It’s kind of nice for it to change.”
La Plata 3, Northern 2
N 1 0 1
L 0 1 2
First period
N – Powers (Caparratto), 9:36
Second period
L – Savoy (Higgins, O’Leary) (pp), 14:23
Third period
L – Berryhill (Higgins, Savoy), 4:07
N – Caparratto (O’Connor), 5:49
L – Higgins (unassisted), 11:48
astates@digitalsports.com
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Altered States No. 5
Posted on 18 February 2009 by .
Altered States, No. 5
Feb. 19, 2009
It’s that time of year again–the fun time when the state championship trophies start getting handed out. In the past week the Westlake and North Point boys indoor track teams brought home the 3A and 2A state championships, respectively. La Plata wrestling made its fourth straight appearance in the state duals, and this year brought home the 4A/3A runner-up trophy to join two championship trophies. Last night, I watched La Plata’s hockey team squeak out a 3-2 win in the Chesapeake Cup championship game to wrest the Cup from Northern’s possession.
Leonardtown’s boys basketball team upset Stone last night, which only adds to the interest in the upcoming 4A East playoffs. Calvert’s girls had a win at North Point within sight before the Eagles sealed the game at the line late. Speaking of that girls game, there are some pretty decent teams in the conference this year, but most of the games I’ve been to have been played in front of, well, not much more than nobody (except for Great Mills — man, do they travel well). Why? Give them a chance while there’s still some basketball to watch.
I’m not one to really make predictions — OK, I am, but generally I don’t write them — but I will go so far as to say I think La Plata losing the state dual final last week is bad news from everybody else at the SMAC tournament this coming weekend. And actually, I think it’s pretty much bad news for everybody else in the weeks following, too.
Is anybody else sick of hearing about steroids? Obviously, it’s had an extremely detrimental effect on some people. Personally, I just think it’s really old news at this point. That era in baseball is stained. We all know it, move on.There’s more than enough negativity going on these days without more of the same.
See ya’ next week — and don’t forget to add SMAC Digital Sports as a friend on Facebook (P.G.’s ******* us in friends — let’s fix that).
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Basketball: Results from 2/18
Posted on 18 February 2009 by .
Boys
Leonardtown 62, Stone 58
Chopticon 52, Huntingtown 47
Northern 57, McDonough 48
North Point 70, Calvert 36
Westlake 81, Patuxent 53
Girls
North Point 49, Calvert 39
Great Mills 71, La Plata 24
Leonardtown 47, Stone 24
E-mail results to astates@digitalsports.com
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