ANNAPOLIS — Former Fort Hill head coach Todd Appel, who won five state championships as the coach of his alma mater, took home another on Thursday as the defensive coordinator of Class 2A Stephen Decatur.
Decatur, located in Berlin on the Eastern Shore, defeated Huntingtown, 21-13, to cap a 14-0 season. Huntingtown finished 10-3.
It was Stephen Decatur’s first football state championship in history, and it marked the first time a Bayside Conference team has won a football state title since Cambridge-South Dorchester in 1996.
The Seahawks were led by Vanderbilt Brycen Coleman, who was involved in all three of their touchdowns. Coleman, the team’s quarterback, completed 20 of 30 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown, and he had 16 carries for 66 yards and two more scores.
Appel, a 1987 graduate of Fort Hill, resigned from coaching Fort Hill in 2020 and later served as an assistant coach at Snow Hill before moving to Stephen Decatur this season.
In 12 seasons as the head coach at Fort Hill, Appel compiled a staggering 142-16 record.
Earlier this year, Appel became the fourth Fort Hill coach to enter the Maryland Football Coaches Hall of Fame, joining Bill Hahn (‘88 inductee), Charlie Lattimer (‘89) and Mike Calhoun (‘01-02).
Class 1A/2A Dunbar 8 Calvert 0
Dunbar outlasted Calvert in an ugly, defensive slugfest to grab the Class 2A/1A title on Friday — its record 13th championship that broke a tie with Seneca Valley.
Dunbar (11-0) has now won 37 games in a row, the longest winning streak in the state. Fort Hill is second at 21.
In a game affected by wind and rain, neither offense could get going, totaling just 56 combined yards and four first downs in the first half.
Dunbar had -24 total yards in the second quarter on 13 plays.
However, the Poets executed when it mattered, as Antonio Lyde found the end zone on a 36-yard run in the third quarter and converted the 2-point conversion run for the game’s lone offense.
Dunbar has been no stranger to adversity this season.
The Poets’ first two games were ended early and weren’t completed. Their first — a contest with Loyola Blakefield that Dunbar trailed 21-0 late in the first half — was canceled after a 12-year-old boy was shot just outside the Poets’ stadium in East Baltimore.
Later that month, longtime coach Lawrence Smith was arrested by the FBI on charges of wire fraud, tax evasion and falsifying a tax return after he allegedly fraudulently obtained more than $215,000 in overtime pay
Smith is one of just three MPSSAA coaches with eight state titles, and his 49 playoff wins are the most by any coach.
Class 3A Oakdale 42 Linganore 35
Oakdale won a shootout with Linganore in the Class 3A championship Saturday night by riding its “Big 3” of Division 1 commits — avenging a runner-up finish last season.
The Bears (14-0) also won the 2018 title. Evan Austin, a Charlotte commit, and receiver Hunter Thompson, Ohio commit, combined for 454 of Oakdale’s 501 total yards.
Oakdale’s most heralded recruit, Dom Nichols, will be headed to the University of Michigan next season.
Oakdale, which averaged 43 points per game, defeated Allegany, 41-24, in Week 2.
“No Oakdale team in school history has faced a harder regular-season schedule than these guys did,” coach Kurt Stein said following the game, though Oakdale did drop Fort Hill from its schedule this season after losses of 49-21 and 42-7 the last two years.
Linganore running back Ethan Arneson went over 6,000 rushing yards for his career in the game and finished as Frederick County’s all-time leader in rushing yards and touchdowns.
His rushing total ranks third all-time in MPSSAA history behind Dunbar’s Tavon Austin and Glenelg’s Wande Owens.
Class 4A/3A Mervo 14 North Point 7
Mergenthaler Vo-Tech upset unbeaten and seemingly unbeatable North Point in the 4A/3A title game Saturday to give Baltimore City its second championship of the weekend.
North Point (13-1), the defending state champion, pitched shutouts in seven of its nine regular-season games, but Mervo (13-1) — whose only loss of the year came to Dunbar — put together the winning drive in the final minutes.
Trailing 7-6 with 2:33 to play, Mervo scored on just two plays, and quarterback Raymond Moore found Justin DeVaughn for a 31-yard score to win the game.
Mervo also captured the Class 4A/3A championship in 2021.
Class 4A Wise 21 Broadneck 0
DeCarlos Young scored a pair of touchdowns on Friday night to lift Wise to the Class 4A title — its sixth in 11 seasons.
Since 2015, the Pumas have a 100-4 record against Maryland public schools.
It was Broadneck’s first championship game appearance in 20 years.