Football: Motivated offensive line paves Damascus to third straight 3A West region title

DAMASCUS — After a considerable drop-off in performance from the first nine weeks of the regular season, Damascus coach Eric Wallich needed to give his team an extra jolt of motivation, hoping the Hornets would get back to dominant fashion.

Sure, an eight-point win against formidable Blair and a 14-point win against Linganore a week ago are two victories, no matter how you look at them, but the defending Class 3A state champions were searching for more.

That’s when Wallich gave the message that fueled a 42-21 victory over Oakdale in Friday night’s Class 3A West region championship.

“We were told we weren’t going to have Jake Funk, Da’Quan Grimes, all these guys,” junior lineman Jordan Funk said. “That just kind of puts a chip on our shoulder to better and better. We just want to show what we can do without them.”

There’s no disputing the impact that last year’s senior class had on the historic run by Damascus. But with how outsiders view this Hornets team — especially over the last two weeks — the notion rubs off as disrespectful to three of the five offensive linemen who paved the way for a record-setting a year ago.

After Friday night, the message is clear once again — to never downplay Damascus.

“We took that to heart,” junior lineman Michael Jurgens said. “We just wanted to come out today and just destroy them.”

Funk and Jurgens, with a new sense of motivation, helped churn out 464 yards on the ground. Well over half came and from University of Richmond commit, Markus Vinson (270 yards on 30 carries), who also scored every Damascus touchdown (six) on Friday night. Elijah Atkins ran for 118 yards on just 15 carries.

 

“That’s just how it works,” Funk said. “We’ve kept it going the whole season.”

Damascus, who benefitted off turnovers in the win over Linganore last week, replicated the outing on Friday. When Oakdale had staked their opening drive down the Hornet 10-yard line, Colby Starheim snagged an interception in the back of the end zone, which led to a nine-play, 90-yard scoring drive capped by a Vinson 35-yard run.

Oakdale got on the board when Cory Schlee found a wide-open Ritchie Case for a 27-yard touchdown with 1:40 to go in the first quarter. On the ensuing drive, Damascus took the lead back, 14-7, after a 74-yard drive.

Once again, the Bears sustained a drive deep into Damascus territory, but Schlee’s second interception plated a 99-yard scoring drive in which the Hornets took a 21-7 lead with 6:03 left in the second quarter.

Oakdale scored twice with under two minutes to go in the first half off a 3-yard run by Percy Agyei-Obese (80 yards on 13 carries) and a 32-yard bomb from Schlee to Bryce De Maille (55 yards on three receptions) with eight seconds remaining.

After the momentum swing, Damascus found themselves in a gridlock once again, tied 21-21 at halftime.

“I told them it was a start of a new game; 21-21,” Wallich said of his message at halftime. “They hit us right before halftime. Sometimes, teams lose momentum after that. But we knew we had the ball to start the second half to flip that momentum.”

On the opening offensive drive to start the second half, Damascus marched 78 yards, spanning six minutes and two seconds to take a 28-21 lead.

Oakdale got down to the Hornets 25-yard line on the ensuing possession, but the potential tying touchdown pass from Cory Schlee to Colin Schlee was negated due to a holding penalty.

“That dragged us down a little bit,” Cory Schlee said.

The play, which could have tied the game at 28-28, instead pushed the Bears back to the Damascus 40-yard line, and they couldn’t convert from there.

That’s when Damascus marched 80 yards in nine plays to give them a 35-21 lead just 40 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Out of the 68 plays, Damascus ran the ball 64 times, averaging just over seven yards per rush.

“We felt like offensively we could do just about whatever we wanted,” Wallich said.

After going 12-for-19 for 159 yards in the first half, Schlee was held in check in the second. Over the final two quarters, Schlee only completed one of his 13 pass attempts for 12 yards and was the culprit of four total turnovers.

“They were just getting a lot more pressure,” Schlee said. “They went into halftime and saw what we did, and they adjusted to it. Their adjustments were good.”

Friday night marked the 26th straight win for Damascus. They haven’t lost since 2014 in the Class 3A state championship to Franklin.

“Consistency,” Wallich said of the momentous run since then. “We preach the little things. … We have a lot of great football players.”

After the post-game festivities, which included many photo ops, Vinson said he’s treating his offensive line to Chipotle. Jurgens said the free meal sounded nice, while Funk playfully lobbied for more before pivoting to his specialty.

“I’d like a little more, but, you know, it’s his money,” Funk said. “I’ll just make a hole for him and he’ll run through it.”