CUMBERLAND: St. James defeated First Allegany on Thursday, 37–33. On Friday, Frankfort (49-12) and Briar Woods (28-7) destroyed the area-high home streaks of Mountain Ridge and Fort Hill, respectively.
Since Mountain Ridge started playing football in 2007, the county has never seen a week ending in a loss. When Fort Hill fell to Martinsburg, Beall lost to Severn, and Allegany lost to Keyser in Week 8 of 2003, my curiosity peaked.
Bishop Walsh lost to John Marshall
Smaller schools succeeded when larger ones failed. Bishop Walsh defeated St. James 46-42, led by a historic effort by its quarterback, while Westmar defeated Turkeyfoot 20-8. Chris Hendershot’s 472 passing yards and 37 completions set state records.
Two weeks, Week 3 of 1972 and 1976, saw losses for Bruce, Bishop Walsh, Allegany, Beall, and Fort Hill. For those who are curious, in 1976, Bishop Walsh lost to John Marshall, Keyser to Bruce, Allegany to North Hagerstown, Beall to Hampshire, and Fort Hill to Martinsburg.
All of the county schools suffered defeats in 1972 from the same opponents, with the exception of Bishop Walsh, which fell to Southern. I kept on, pushing through the opening of Bishop Walsh in 1969 as well as the start of football at Bruce in 1963 and Valley in 1964. Week 5, 1952 was, at last, the solution.
Allegany was defeated 7-0 by North Hagerstown, Beall was defeated 12-0 by Frederick, and Fort Hill was defeated in one of the most peculiar games ever played by Martinsburg. The Bulldogs were still manning the sideline, thus the game was played at Martinsburg’s field, which was not then known as Cobourn Field in honor of its namesake, John Cobourn.
After a high-scoring first half, Bill Hahn’s Fort Hill led 20-19. The game concluded 21-20 in Martinsburg’s favor following a Sentinel safety in the third quarter, which was the only score of the second half.
Aren’t use to losing
Luckily, Cumberland’s Catholic school LaSalle was off that week; otherwise, I’m sure the Explorers would have prevailed and I would still be poring over old newspaper articles. In retrospect, it actually isn’t as unexpected as it seemed at the time that this week’s winless county slate was the first in 72 years.
With a few notable exceptions, both Allegany and Fort Hill have been continuously strong for the past ten years. Beall, on the other hand, has won numerous games under Jerry Calhoun and has made runs at championships in the 1990s and 2000s.
All of our county schools—especially Fort Hill, which hasn’t dropped a game in the regular season in over ten years—aren’t used to losing. It’s probably not helping that there’s talk coming from across the Potomac River that Frankfort is the best team in the area. That claim’s veracity is a topic for a different column.
It’s a good thing that after five weeks, the season is still ongoing. Personally, I’d prefer to be the top team in December. In any case, our county schools have a unique chance to overcome hardship at the same time this week.