One win shy of becoming a team for the ages, Boys' Latin stumbled on the way to becoming the only 11-0 squad in school history by bowing to Archbishop Spalding, 12-0, in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference championship Saturday afternoon at Mount St. Joseph, in Irvington.

The Lakers (10-1) never found their rhythm and were unable to take advantage of excellent field position in a scoreless first half on drives that began at the Cavaliers' 45-, 31- and 43-yard lines, mainly because of penalties.

"We wasted a lot of opportunities, and you can't do that against a great team like Spalding," Boys' Latin coach Ritchie Schell said. "I'm not trying to take anything away from Spalding, but in a lot of ways, we beat ourselves."

The first and most devastating misstep came on Boys' Latin's first possession after powering to the Spalding 1-yard line. A false start, a holding penalty, a pass that lost 4 yards and a sack combined to push the Lakers back to their 21-yard line, from which senior R. G. Keenan's 38-yard field goal attempt fell a few yards short.

Then, after the Spalding punter was downed at his own 31, the Lakers missed another opportunity by committing two more penalties that ended the sequence with minus-2 yards.

The pratfalls continued in the second half, although the BL defense played well enough to preserve what could have been the program's first unbeaten team in 32 years.

"We only allowed one defensive touchdown," Schell said.

And that successful drive was spearheaded by sophomore junior varsity call-up Ryan Cochran's 61-yard sweep that gave the Cavaliers a chip-shot from the BL 4-yard line. Three plays later, senior Scott Sharik bulled into the end zone for a 6-0 advantage with 10:08 left in the third quarter.

"We told the kids at halftime that we just needed one or two scores," Spalding coach Mike Whittles said after beating the Lakers for the second time in a title game since 2005. "We said, 'If the offense can't score, the defense can.' "

The latter comment proved to be prophetic when junior Julian Washington scooped up a fumble and returned it 38 yards for the final score with 8:54 remaining in the game.

Before that, leading rusher Patrick Steele (28 carries, 68 yards) was denied by the slimmest of margins — an official even placed a card between the yardage marker and the ball to make the determination — on a fourth-down plunge at the Cavalier 25-yard line that might have gotten BL back in the game.

"We didn't deserve to win," Schell said. "But it wasn't from a lack of effort. I just feel badly for the seniors."

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user comments (1)

user albenza says...

It was Zach Waller that picked off the pitch pass on defense and ran it back for a 39 yard touchdown for Spalding!!!!!

Posted 11:47 AM, 11.18.09

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