MPSSAA 4A Football State Championship
Wise Coach DaLawn Parrish said he thought he saw it coming.
"We kept watching film and we kept saying that if we execute, it could get ugly. And it did."
Parrish's Pumas defeated Howard High School 55-6 Friday night at M&T Bank Stadium to win the MPSSAA Class 4A state championship.
Senior CJ Rainey, who has committed to play collegiately at the UMass, rushed for 156 yards and five touchdowns to lead Wise, which finished the season 14-0.
Quarterback Jabari Laws rushed for one score and threw for another, and Michael Clark scored a 53-yard touchdown the only time he rushed the ball.
Wise, as you might expect, dominated the stats, with 395 yards of total offense to Howard's 127 and 18 first downs to the Lions' eight. Clark's touchdown gave the Pumas a 41-0 lead and triggered the "mercy rule" running clock.
Wise's victory was the second straight blowout victory for a Washington-area team in the state finals. Damascus won the Class 3A crown Thursday, 55-14 over Dundalk.
"We would love to play Damascus," Parrish said when he was asked if his team had one more game in it.
Star running back Malik Anderson gained 130 yards on the ground for Howard, much of it coming on a fourth-quarter drive in which he ripped off a 46-yard run and scored on a 4-yard carry that nearly saw him tackled for a 6-yard loss.
The Lions finished their season 13-1.
Rainey started the Pumas' scoring when he capped a seven-play, 80-yard drive with a 5-yard run. Wise got a two-point conversion after bad snap on a kick attempt was tracked down by holder Myles Wolfolk, who found Kofi Yeboah in the end zone.
It took Wise just one play to score its next touchdown. After taking over at Howard's 39-yard line following a penalty on a Lions punt, Jabari Laws found Damon Hayes streaking down the sideline. The kick gave the Pumas a 15-0 lead with 5:50 left in the first quarter.
Howard fumbled the ball back to Wise on its next possession, and Rainey made them pay, capping a six-play, 30-yard drive with a 2-yard run. The kick gave the Pumas a 21-0 lead.
Rainey scored again on the first possession of the second quarter, his 6-yard run finishing off an eight-play, 63-yard drive for the Pumas.
And Wise's final score of the first half came from, you guessed, Rainey, who ran it in from 10 yards out to give the Pumas a 34-0 lead.
Howard had a chance to score at the end of the half on a drive helped by two big penalties to Wise, a personal foul and a pass interference call. But the Lions could only get as close as the Puma's 14 yard line before a sack and an interception ended the half.
"We kept watching film and we kept saying that if we execute, it could get ugly. And it did."
Parrish's Pumas defeated Howard High School 55-6 Friday night at M&T Bank Stadium to win the MPSSAA Class 4A state championship.
Senior CJ Rainey, who has committed to play collegiately at the UMass, rushed for 156 yards and five touchdowns to lead Wise, which finished the season 14-0.
Quarterback Jabari Laws rushed for one score and threw for another, and Michael Clark scored a 53-yard touchdown the only time he rushed the ball.
Wise, as you might expect, dominated the stats, with 395 yards of total offense to Howard's 127 and 18 first downs to the Lions' eight. Clark's touchdown gave the Pumas a 41-0 lead and triggered the "mercy rule" running clock.
Wise's victory was the second straight blowout victory for a Washington-area team in the state finals. Damascus won the Class 3A crown Thursday, 55-14 over Dundalk.
"We would love to play Damascus," Parrish said when he was asked if his team had one more game in it.
Star running back Malik Anderson gained 130 yards on the ground for Howard, much of it coming on a fourth-quarter drive in which he ripped off a 46-yard run and scored on a 4-yard carry that nearly saw him tackled for a 6-yard loss.
The Lions finished their season 13-1.
Rainey started the Pumas' scoring when he capped a seven-play, 80-yard drive with a 5-yard run. Wise got a two-point conversion after bad snap on a kick attempt was tracked down by holder Myles Wolfolk, who found Kofi Yeboah in the end zone.
It took Wise just one play to score its next touchdown. After taking over at Howard's 39-yard line following a penalty on a Lions punt, Jabari Laws found Damon Hayes streaking down the sideline. The kick gave the Pumas a 15-0 lead with 5:50 left in the first quarter.
Howard fumbled the ball back to Wise on its next possession, and Rainey made them pay, capping a six-play, 30-yard drive with a 2-yard run. The kick gave the Pumas a 21-0 lead.
Rainey scored again on the first possession of the second quarter, his 6-yard run finishing off an eight-play, 63-yard drive for the Pumas.
And Wise's final score of the first half came from, you guessed, Rainey, who ran it in from 10 yards out to give the Pumas a 34-0 lead.
Howard had a chance to score at the end of the half on a drive helped by two big penalties to Wise, a personal foul and a pass interference call. But the Lions could only get as close as the Puma's 14 yard line before a sack and an interception ended the half.
| December 4th, 2015 | By: Ed Waldman |