Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007
Hours before it’s homecoming football game, Paint Branch officials were hard at work fixing the ‘‘PB” emblem on their field that had been spray-painted with pro-Springbrook inscriptions, likely by students at its Northeast Consortium rival school.
It was about the only thing that went wrong for the Panthers all day.
In a nearly perfect display across the board, the Burtonsville boys scored touchdowns on all six of their first-half possessions while capitalizing on two Blue Devils turnovers, as Paint Branch rolled to a 40-point halftime lead and cruised to a 53-21 victory last Saturday.
‘‘We’re just starting up now,” said Paint Branch quarterback Scott Barnes. ‘‘It’s definitely the best I’ve felt since I’ve been here. The plays are so good right now, and with these kind of results, it shows.”
For the second week in a row, the Panthers (4-2 record) put what was expected to be a close game out of reach with huge opening halves, as well as the second straight game they scored 28 second-quarter points. A week ago, their scoring barrage put away Einstein by intermission.
Saturday, they were even more dominant, however. It started immediately, when Panther linebacker Victor Gray recovered the first of two fumbles on the game’s opening play. Cornerback Ishmael Sankoh would later pick off a pass from Springbrook (2-4 record) quarterback Phoenix Butler-Poole, and the defense pitched a shutout through the first 24 minutes.
But the other side of the ball was even better. Utilizing a spread offense with three- and four-wide receiver sets, Barnes directed an attack that piled up an outrageous 574 yards of total offense. About the only slip-ups were three missed extra-points.
‘‘We’re really coming together and it starts with Scott,” said Paint Branch head coach Mike Nesmith. ‘‘We can go shotgun now. We didn’t go shotgun in the beginning of the year because we couldn’t — if you look at the tape against Kennedy, the first time we went shotgun, we snapped the ball into our butt. Now, we’re starting to spread the ball around.”
Barnes was just one of the heroes on a day where there were too many to county. The senior signal-caller threw for 309 yards (255 in the first half) and four scoring strikes. Wideouts Jordan Tidwell and Rocco Perciavalle each went over 100 yards receiving, hauling in three touchdowns combined. Halfback Tristan Alleyne picked up huge chunks of yardage all day, catching three screen passes that went for 79 yards, while chalking up 184 on the ground, including an 84-yard scoring scamper that concluded the scoring. And Gray, though more noticeable on defense, nabbed a 7-yard score on a spectacular fingertip grab.
To the Blue Devils’ credit, they didn’t go quietly into the late-afternoon sunset, despite the obstacles. As the second half began, they had been out-scored 75-0 in their previous six quarters, including their loss to Sherwood the week prior. And they were without the services of inside linebacker Darius Hill, probably their biggest impact player.
Though it was too little, too late, the offense showed as much life as it had all season in the final two quarters. Butler-Poole threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns, getting the offense on the scoreboard with a 4-yard toss to wideout Mitchell Pollard. In the fourth quarter, he hit halfback T.J. Waters (four catches, 80 yards) on a 43-yard fade down the left sidelines and tight end Joey Daniels (seven catches, 89 yards) on a 10-yard out route to breathe some life into a team that desperately needs it.
‘‘I mean, if there’s any positives to take away from something like that, it’s that we came out a little more intense than the first half,” said Springbrook coach Rob Wendel. ‘‘It seems to me we lacked the big play all year, so it was nice to get a couple of nice passes. But they’re a good team, they have a good line and they exposed us offensively. They out-coached us and beat us up.”
It’s come together at the right time for Paint Branch, who now has become a serious postseason contender in the Class 3A Division. With the toughest part of its schedule a thing of the past, they have must-wins against Wheaton, Blake and Watkins Mill upcoming before what could ultimately shake up everything in the playoff race, the season finale against Damascus at home.
‘‘We wanted to be at least 2-2 at end of stretch of state powers, with Sherwood, Kennedy and Seneca Valley,” said Nesmith. ‘‘We put ourselves in position for a playoff spot. But with two losses already, every game’s a big game.”
