In the mess that the 2A South was coming into Friday night, two teams set themselves apart. One being Calvert, beating Westlake 15-12; The other being Stone, who dropped Patuxent. Patuxent, who was coming off of a pair of convincing wins, played host to Stone on their senior night. Stone came off of a big win against Calvert last week.
In this game, Patuxent received the opening kickoff, and used a mix of draws by Chris Long, and designed keepers by Reese Crounse to drive deep into Stone territory. They cashed that drive in on a 5 yard run up the middle by Long. They kicked the point after, and were up 7-0 with 7:43 left in the first quarter. On the ensuing possession, Stone ran their coveted option scheme to near perfection. Quarterback Jon Lewis made the right reads most of the times on this drive. When he didn’t, his backs backed him up and made plays. Faced with a 4th and 3 on the Patuxent 30, Stone called a sweep to Aaron Harris who picked up 5 on the play. On the next play, Hassan Marshall bullied his way over 2 Patuxent defenders, as well as the Side judge on his way to a 25 yard touchdown run. This knotted the game at 7 with 3:01 left in the first quarter.
Patuxent received the kickoff, and went backwards from there. An illegal shift, a hold, an incompletion, and an 8 yard sack gave them a 3rd and 33 from around midfield. Crounse attempted to throw a seam route to Greg Leonard, but was intercepted by Taejon Gray, who bolted from his safety position to make a play on the ball. Stone again drove down the field on the Panthers, but couldn’t punch it in on 3 plays from inside the 2. They settled for a field goal, and took the lead at 10-7 with 6:38 left in the half. On the next possession, Gray was gifted his second interception as he read a flat route beautifully, and made a play on the ball over top of the receiver. Stone then used the passing game to score in two plays. They had a 23 yard completion to put them at the 24 yard line, and then Jon Lewis lofted a pass into the back corner of the end zone, and Demitri Morsell tracked it down. Stone took a commanding 17-7 lead into halftime.
On the first possession of the half, Stone pieced together a few first downs, but fumbled the ball away to the Panthers. To start the second half, Patuxent trotted out Jalen Gross to play quarterback. On the first drive, Gross couldn’t spur anything in the Panthers as they were forced to a 3 and out. They punted the ball down the 15 yard line, but a fair catch interference call moved the ball up to 30. On the next play, Holliday took a hand-off, ran through his hole, and wasn’t touched as he ran 70 yards into the end zone. The only two Panthers that had a shot at bringing him down dove and ended up just short as he crossed the goal line. This pushed their lead to 24-7, and basically cemented the game.
Patuxent, again, couldn’t get anything offensively. For the second straight time, they went 3 and out, and a punt out of bounds gave Stone the ball at their own 36. Stone’s drive stalled, and attempted a fake punt on a 4th and 5 from their own 48. They ended up short, and turned the ball over on downs. Patuxent punted again following this turnover, but forced Stone to do the same. On their next possession, Patuxent got the ball moving as they drove down inside the Stone 10 yard line. Gross then scrambled, and dove into the end zone to make it 24-14 with 4:51 left in the game. Patuxent’s onside kick went into the arms of Stone. They had one more shot to turn it over on downs with 2 minutes left, but Stone converted. Stone ran the clock out, and took the game 24-14.
Aaron Holiday led the way for Stone with 103 yards rushing on 7 carries. They improve to 7-2, and will play Huntingtown next week. For Patuxent, Chris Long had 73 yards rushing on 14 carries. The Panthers drop to 7-2, and will play Westlake next week, most likely for a playoff bid on the line.