Will the third time be the charm for Eastern Tech?

The Mavericks advanced to the Class 2A state championship for the third consecutive year after beating previous Frederick Douglass, of Prince George’s County, 27-12, Friday evening at the Community College of Baltimore County-Essex.

Eastern Tech will face Queen Anne’s for the title Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium.

The Mavericks lost to River Hill in the final in each of the last two seasons.

“You are always glad to get another shot, but we know the challenge in front of us,” said Eastern Tech coach Marc Mesaros, whose team beat Queen Anne’s in a state semifinal last season. “A lot of kids and teams say our goal is to win a state championship, but very few people can realize that goal.”

The Mavericks’ convincing victory over Douglass (10-3), the 16th-ranked team in the Washington D.C. area by the Washington Post, should them a big dose of confidence.

Eastern Tech (11-1) rolled up 293 yards rushing and sacked Eagles’ quarterback Richard Barber five times.

Mavericks’ senior Zack Burkhardt quarterback threw only four passes, two of which went for touchdowns. He also rushed for 91 yards on 16 carries.

Teammate Emmanuel Gbor, a senior, gained 105 yards on the ground and recorded two sacks from his defensive end position.

The Mavericks didn’t need a lot from their defense in the second quarter when their offense scored three touchdowns in a span of 7:53.
 
Running back Marquiese Bannister staked the Mavericks to a 6-0 lead when he scored on 4th-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line with 7:57 remaining. It was his third carry inside the 5-yard line on the series that covered 80 yards on 12 running plays.

Douglass answered, moving 57 yards on four plays to match Eastern Tech. Emmanuel Paul’s 39-yard burst up the middle with 6:06 left for the equalizer.

It took the Mavericks only 23 seconds to respond as Burkhardt hit a wide-open Criszon Brown for a 44-yard score.

Eastern Tech capitalized on a Douglass turnover for its third touchdown after Burkhardt engineered a four-play drive, running for 17 yards on one play and finishing with a 12-yard scoring pass to Bannister.

Kyle Kratochvil kicked his third extra point to make it 21-6 at the intermission.

“We figured if we could get up on them, we could force them to do some things that they are not real comfortable doing,” Mesaros said.

The Eagles managed to cut the margin to 21-12 in the third quarter as Barber teamed up with William McKenzie (4 catches, 104 yards) on a 70-yard touchdown pass.

“McKenzie is probably one of the best wide receivers I have ever seen,” Mesaros said. “They did the right thing (by) going to him when the chips were down.”

Mesaros countered by putting the ball in the hands of one his best players after Douglass scored in the third period — the hard-charging Gbor, who rushed for 42 yards on five carries on the Mavericks’ last scoring drive. He finished it off with a 10-yard run.

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