Having started coaching Patuxent’s football team in 2002, Coach Steve Crounse has had five SMAC titles, one region title and one state finals appearance. After his team’s 43-0 shutout victory over Great Mills, he can add more accolade to his mantle; 100 career victories. He has now a career record of 100 wins, and 48 losses.

During his career, the Panthers have had only two sub .500 seasons.

As voted on by the public, this was the game The BayNet was to cover this week. It may have started slow, but finished quickly. Patuxent’s first three drives resulted in no points after a fumble, punt and a turnover on downs.  They struck the end zone after Chris Long broke away from the group, and scampered to a 25 yard touchdown with 3:19 left in the first quarter. Patuxent fumbled the ball away again in the second quarter, but their defense wouldn’t allow Great Mills to get anything mounted offensively. They forced a Great Mills punt, and later scored on a 29 yard screen pass to Long from quarterback Jalen Gross. Patuxent’s defense had a great game plan to stop Great Mills best weapon, Yann Zeba. They let him run to them on the edges, and neutralized his speed by making him run backwards. After another Great Mills punt, Gross rolled to his right, and threw an out route to wide receiver Jared Massengill, who broke a tackle, and ran with the ball the remaining yards to collect himself a 73-yard touchdown reception. Great Mills punted the ball on their ensuing drive, setting Patuxent up with one more opportunity to score before the half. They too it, and again scored on a screen pass; this time from 76 yards out by Long, his third touchdown of the half. This brought the score to 29-0 as Patuxent used a Great Mills penalty to convert a 2 point conversion.

In the second half, the clock stopped often as players went down with cramping injuries. The clock didn’t stop again after an errant Great Mills snap was scooped up by junior defensive end Juan Watkins, and taken in from 20 yards out. This pushed the lead to 36-0, and the hard-to-achieve running clock*. For an insurance touchdown, Patuxent put one more up on the board, this time from a yard out as Issac Flemming dove over the goal line to make the score 43-0 Patuxent.

For Patuxent, quarterback Jalen Gross finished with 255 yards, and 3 scores. Chris Long had 96 rushing yards, 105 receiving yards, and 3 combined touchdowns. Patuxent improves to 3-0, and moves onto play La Plata at home to open conference play next Friday night at 7 PM. Great Mills drops to 1-2, and moves onto play Huntingtown at home  next Friday night at 6 PM.

*In Maryland High School Football, if a team goes up by 35 points in the second half, the only way the clock stops is for an injury, or a timeout.*