St. Mary's Ryken football shuts out Archbishop Carroll, heads to WCAC Metro Division final

Printed by the Enterprise on November 12, 2018

By COLIN STOECKER cstoecker@somdnews.com

At a time of the year when many football teams are packing up for another season, St. Mary's Ryken proved that it wanted to keep playing by shutting out Archbishop Carroll, 48-0, defeating the visitors from Washington, D.C., for the second time in two weeks to secure themselves a spot in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Metro Division championship game.

By halftime, the Knights held a 42-0 lead as sophomore quarterback Trevor Nored threw five touchdown passes before the half and had 185 yards in the game. They scored once more in the fourth quarter to wrap up the shutout win.

"It was good, I trusted my O-line. That's how I did it today," said sophomore running back Jamaree Bowman, who had three touchdowns in the win. "The O-line and my teammates helped me to get those touchdowns. During the summer we worked hard and tonight was cold, but we wanted to get a ring and it would mean a lot to us. I'm super psyched for the game on Sunday, I've been waiting for it the whole season."

St. Mary's Ryken (9-2 overall) will play Bishop O'Connell (Va.) in the final at 1 p.m. Sunday at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. O'Connell upset Paul VI (Va.) in the other Metro semifinal, 35-33.

"I think we started off a little slow," Knights head coach Aaron Brady said. "We had a fumble in the first series, but our defense came out. You have to give a lot of credit to our defense tonight. [Carroll] is big and they have a lot of speed and we were able to knock them down. [Carroll] is a big-play team, and last week when we played them they had two touchdowns early and they were all big plays.

"We give a lot of credit to our defensive coaches and players for changing that this week. Will McKay, our inside linebacker, had a great game. Ryan Wheeler and Ja'Marcus Holt on the D-line really made some big plays early. And they kept them from running the ball, and once you get a team like that having to pass they can't make plays."

St. Mary's Ryken scored its first points of the game on Bowman's 36-yard touchdown catch from Nored. With junior Garrett Watkins' extra point, the Knights led 7-0.

Nored found senior wide receiver Camden Boyle in the end zone with a 22-yard pass and the lead was 14-0 with 2 minutes 48 seconds left in the first quarter.

Sophomore wide receiver Will Johnson caught a 17-yard pass from Nored to go up 21-0 with 9:26 before the half.

Nored then found sophomore wide receiver DJ Williams in the end zone on a 4-yard pass for another touchdown. With Watkins' extra point good, the Knights led 28-0.

Nored hit Bowman again in the end zone with a 17-yard pass. The extra point was good, giving the Knights a 35-0 lead.

St. Mary's scored once more before the half. On a Carroll punt, the snap was fumbled, then when the Lions picked it up to punt, the ball was blocked by junior defensive end Ryan Wheeler, who recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. Watkins' kick was good and the Knights led 42-0 going into halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, Bowman had his last touchdown with 9:05 left to play in the final quarter of the game off of a 47-yard run. The extra point failed, leaving the final score at 48-0.

"I just want to praise the whole team," Carroll junior quarterback Ryan Otey said. "We stuck together throughout the whole game. We didn't come out as hot today in the end. It feels bad because we should have been in the championship with O'Connell. We beat them in the homecoming game, but we just have to hit the weight room in the offseason and be ready for next year."

"It didn't go well. We lost 48-0. That's never a good thing," Carroll head coach Robert Harris said. "The way we go out it doesn't feel good, but we lost to a team that earned the right to be in the championship game. So hats off to St. Mary's Ryken. We have to go back to the drawing board. We're a young team. We only had about seven seniors this year, and about four of those guys were starters, so it was a real tough year for us as far as upperclassmen leadership. But I'm excited about next year. We have about 18 juniors returning and played about 5 freshman that started this year. So I'm excited for those young kids."

Getting to the WCAC Metro final is an accomplishment that reaches deeper than just the football program for the team and the players involved.

"We get to go to finals and go win a championship," Brady said. "That was our goal all year, so it's really exciting and it's great for the whole community here at St. Mary's Ryken to have a chance to play for a championship for the first time. So I hope we bring it home next week."

The Knights defeated O'Connell in a regular season matchup on Oct. 6, 42-6.