HYATTSVILLE- Before his team left the field on Friday night to pack up their belongings after a 24-14 loss to rival Gonzaga on national television, DeMatha head coach Elijah Brooks firmly said “this is all apart of the process, men.”
His team’s four turnovers and 11 committed penalties for 79 yards wasn’t formulated into the weekly game plan, but he took the devastating loss and flipped it into a learning experience.
“We can either let this get to us and be done for the season or we can come together, handle our business and still win it all,” Brooks addressed to his team.
Seemingly every drive all night long that the Stags fought to sustain were hampered by penalties and sloppy handling of the pig skin.
“That killed us,” Brooks said. “We don’t have too many plays for 1st and or long yardage situations. Can’t do that and expect to win a rivalry game.”
On Dematha’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Maryland commit Lorenzo Harrison shaked and baked Gonzaga tacklers – cooking the Eagles for a highlight reel 92-yard touchdown.
Harrison finished the game with 179 rushing yards on just 10 carries.
It was fitting for DeMatha to take their first offensive play from scrimmage 92 yards to the end zone and find themselves up 7-0 off the bat, being the third ranked team in the nation.
But little did everyone know that would be one of the few bright spots in the game for the Stags.
Gonzaga pounced on DeMatha, forcing those four turnovers – thus translating into extra possessions. The Eagles almost doubled the amount of offensive snaps with 60 to the Stags’ 32.
“Gonzaga beat us in all three phases of the game tonight,” Brooks said. “Our discipline is killing us. We can’t have those mistakes and expect to win.”
When it appeared DeMatha cleaned up the woes, an untimely penalty or two would halt a drive or a turnover would occur.
At halftime, the game was still in reach for the Stags, down 14-7, despite all of the hiccups. But Gonzaga kept pounding the ball down field – behind running back Tyree Randolph, who had 160 total yards and two touchdown’s on 34 touches. Defensively, the Eagles harrased the DeMatha offense, holding UMD commits Lorenzo Harrison and Tino Ellis to a combined 11 touches all game.
“There are no trophy presentations out here,” Brooks said. “We’re going to bounce back from this. It just wasn’t our day.”
DeMatha quarterback Beau English completed eight of his 14 pass attempts for 83 yards and committed one interception.
Gonzaga quarterback Sam Brown completed 17 of his 22 pass attempts for 222 yards and one touchdown.
You can follow me on Twitter at @k_fadd and Maryland Sports Access at @MDSportsAccess.
Box score
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| GON | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 24 |
| DM | 0 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 14 |
Scoring summary (NOTE: Due to no on-field game clock, the times of each score are not listed)
| DM | GON | |||
| 1st | DM | Lorenzo Harrison 92-yard run (PAT good) | 7 | 0 |
| 2nd | GON | Max Fisher 34-yard pass from Sam Brown (PAT good) | 7 | 7 |
| GON | Tyree Randolph 3-yard run (PAT good) | 7 | 14 | |
| 3rd | GON | Tyree Randolph 3-yard run (PAT good) | 7 | 21 |
| DM | Tino Ellis 59-yard run (PAT good) | 14 | 21 | |
| 4th | GON | Brian Johnson 37-yard field goal | 14 | 24 |
Leave a Reply