ASHTON-SANDY SPRING- Lying down on the dormant pale-green grass and with a trainer attending to his ailing right ankle that swathed in grass-stained athletic tape, Travis Levy stared up into the fridgid Friday night sky grimacing in immense pain.
Just moments removed from a gritty 7-yard run late in the fourth quarter in which he bounced off whooping Paint Branch tacklers and stiff armed his way for an extra yard or two, Levy hobbled off the field – beaten down, fatigued and with the gas tank on E.
But when teammates proceeded towards him on the sideline to express their gratitude, he perked up from the dormant turf, exchanging playful handshakes with one another.
Amidst the celebrations, an assistant coach approached Levy and slapped his hand across Levy’s chest, letting out a loose joke to release the tension in the bitterly-cold atmosphere.
“Warm up, Travis! It’s almost November!”
That’s when Levy swiped a grin and knew his body withstood the wherewithal of the marquee rival game – compiling 234 yards and two touchdown’s to propel his no. 15 Warriors over no. 17 Paint Branch, 42-21, making last year’s contest in which they came up short, 26-22, a far fetched memory.
“I’ve been dealing with an ankle sprain since the start of the season, but that’s not slowing me down,” Levy said. “I’ve been waiting for this game since we came three yards short from the game-winning touchdown last year. I push myself to not let anything stop me. It’s my mentality.”
Levy set the tempo with his persistent mentality from the get-go, standing as a stiff task for the opposing Paint Branch defensive unit to just make a routine tackle on the physically packaged junior back. On the opening offensive drive, he compiled 36 yards on three touches, including a 27-yard pass in which he shaked off a few Paint Branch tacklers en route to the games opening salvo. Then, at the beginning of the second quarter, Levy plunged into the end zone on a 3-yard burst and hammered home a 2-point conversion to give his Warriors team the early lead, 14-7 with 10:54 left in the second quarter.
“I come out here motivated and just try to play my game.” Levy said who had 96 total yards in the games first 13 minutes and six seconds.
“He’s our horse,” head coach Chris Grier said. “Nothing slows him down. He’s our hardest worker and the final outcome shows that.”
Sherwood fired ahead when senior quarterback Shawn Bliss flipped a 35-yard touchdown pass to Christian Willis and then connected with West Virginia commit, Marcus Simms, on a 20-yard slant that he took 23-yards more to glide across the pylon to beat the halftime buzzer. The Warriors held a 28-7 lead after two frames.
For Sherwood (7-1), it was a much needed win despite being undefeated on the field. Week 1 against Bethesda-Chevy Chase, they were forced to forfeit due to an academically ineligible player that was deemed active.
“We knew we needed to get this win,” Grier said. “We’re all fired up right now.”
The Warriors dominated in almost every aspect of the game Friday night – outputting 493 total yards compared to the 272 that Paint Branch compiled. They also held the Panthers to 36 rushing yards on 15 attempts, forcing them to climb out of the hole through the air.
“It was an all around great team win tonight,” Grier said. “This is the start of a new journey.”
Though Levy was the talk of the night, overcoming a nagging ankle sprain to rumble for 200 plus yards and two scores, senior gunslinger Bliss tossed for 264 yards and five touchdown’s. He also completed a pass to seven different Sherwood teammates.
“We play as a team,” Bliss said. “If you try to eliminate one our playmakers, that’s okay, because we have enough to spread the ball around. This is a great win, but we aren’t finished yet.”
After coming three yards short a year ago and suffering a bone crushing loss that sent their playoff fate spiraling down in nightmarish fashion, Levy hobbled off the field Friday night knowing he put the nail in the coffin this time around.
“There’s no doubt I’ll be out there next week,” Levy said. “It’s the same goal from here on out until the start of camp, to win a state championship.”
You can follow me on Twitter at @k_fadd and Maryland Sports Access at @MDSportsAccess.
Box score
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| SHR | 6 | 22 | 7 | 7 | 42 |
| PB | 7 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 21 |
Scoring summary
| SHR | PB | ||||
| 1st | 10:04 | SHR | Travis Levy 27-yard pass from Shawn Bliss (Kick failed) | 6 | 0 |
| 7:31 | PB | J.D. Guerrero 20-yard pass from Armani Ceballos (Hernandez kick) | 6 | 7 | |
| 2nd | 10:54 | SHR | Travis Levy 3-yard run (Levy run) | 14 | 7 |
| 9:13 | SHR | Christian Willis 35-yard pass from Shawn Bliss (Harrison kick) | 21 | 7 | |
| 0:00 | SHR | Marcus Simms 43-yard pass from Shawn Bliss (Harrison kick) | 28 | 7 | |
| 3rd | 10:30 | PB | Justin Hockaday 3-yard run (Hernandez kick) | 28 | 14 |
| 0:50 | SHR | Marcus Simms 7-yard pass from Shawn Bliss (Harrison kick) | 35 | 14 | |
| 4th | 7:07 | SHR | Bob Jonjo 20-yard pass from Shawn Bliss (Harrison kick) | 42 | 14 |
| 6:15 | PB | Ivan Nnadi 31-yard pass from Armani Ceballos (Hernandez kick) | 42 | 21 |
Paint Branch individual statistics
| Passing | Comp. | Att. | Yards | Comp. % | TD | INT | QBR |
| #1 Armani Ceballos | 16 | 36 | 236 | 44.40% | 2 | 2 | 61.8 |
| Rushing | Att. | Yards | Avg. | TD | Long |
| #23 Justin Hockaday | 3 | 17 | 5.7 | 1 | 14 |
| #5 Gibbs Tinne | 4 | 15 | 3.8 | 0 | 7 |
| #1 Armani Ceballos | 5 | 7 | 1.4 | 0 | 10 |
| #2 Cedric Content | 2 | -3 | -1.5 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | 14 | 36 | 2.6 | 1 | 14 |
| Receiving | Rec. | Yards | Avg. | TD | Long |
| #7 Ivan Nnadi | 6 | 143 | 23.8 | 1 | 49 |
| #2 Cedric Content | 5 | 72 | 14.4 | 0 | 24 |
| #3 J.D. Guerrero | 3 | 28 | 9.3 | 1 | 20 |
| #23 Justin Hockaday | 1 | 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | 16 | 236 | 14.8 | 2 | 49 |
Sherwood individual statistics
| Passing | Comp. | Att. | Yards | Comp. % | TD | INT | QBR |
| #9 Shawn Bliss | 14 | 27 | 264 | 51.90% | 5 | 0 | 125.6 |
| Rushing | Att. | Yards | Avg. | TD | Long |
| #1 Travis Levy | 28 | 177 | 6.3 | 1 | 23 |
| #4 Robert Brown | 4 | 33 | 8.3 | 0 | 18 |
| #9 Shawn Bliss | 4 | 14 | 3.5 | 0 | 12 |
| #30 Nick Comeau | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 37 | 229 | 6.2 | 1 | 23 |
| Receiving | Rec. | Yards | Avg. | TD | Long |
| #7 Christian Willis | 3 | 62 | 20.7 | 1 | 35 |
| #2 Marcus Simms | 3 | 60 | 20.0 | 2 | 43 |
| #1 Travis Levy | 3 | 57 | 19.0 | 1 | 27 |
| #17 Ehimen Ikheloa | 2 | 46 | 23.0 | 0 | 24 |
| #30 Nick Comeau | 2 | 31 | 15.5 | 0 | 28 |
| #3 Bob Jonjo | 1 | 20 | 20.0 | 1 | 20 |
| #5 Leo Hanrahan | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 14 | 264 | 18.9 | 5 | 43 |
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