By Kyle McFadden
BALTIMORE- As Jake Funk walked off the turf field at M&T Bank Stadium 365 days ago, he was clouded with many daunting questions.
What went wrong? Why did this have to happen? How could this be reality?
On that same night, with the Class 3A state championship on the line, Funk’s Damascus team took a 14-point lead over Franklin into the half. Little did they know at the time what would transpire the next two quarters – two 35-yard-plus bomb’s in a span of just minutes into the second half vanished the 14-point halftime lead.
Everything after that was history – Franklin, not Damascus, was the team hoisting the wood-carved trophy. Funk could feel the sorrow from his teammates, seniors among them, that would never play in a high school football game again as they wept. He stood on that same turf field teary eyed and spirits crushed, witnessing a trophy celebration that should have been his.
Every single second of that moment, Funk soaked in like a sponge. It imprinted a vision in the back of his mind that would fuel a fire and unleash an inner-motivation.
Fast forward 365 days later, Damascus and Funk put themselves in the exact same position. All season long, records were broken and opponents were chewed up and spit out. Damascus didn’t care about numbers logged on a stat sheet. Simply put, what occurred one year ago triggered it all.
But, all the painful memories faded so quickly on Thursday night, it became a vanished nightmare that will never come haunting ever again as Damascus thumped Dundalk, 55-14, to claim their eighth state championship in school history.
“I looked back at pictures from last year, it hurt so badly,” Funk said, referring the 35-21 loss to Franklin in the 3A state championship. “We had that to look back on. It fueled a fire in all of us.”
Just when you thought Funk was already having a jaw-dropping season, he made your jaw drop some more. Amassing 289 total yards and seven touchdown’s, on high school football’s biggest stage, to already add to the video-game-like season.
But, Funk doesn’t care about numbers.
He doesn’t care about the records that have been shattered. The 2,866 rushing yards he ran for, good for third most in the state’s history. The 57 times he found the end zone, a state record by a mile and a half. Or that his team was the highest scoring offense in Maryland history, accumulating 662 points.
Those all just came with it. With blood stains smeared up and down his golden pants, all he cared about was the wooden-carved, state championship that was now in his possession.
“Records are nice and all, but I had no intentions,” Funk said. “I wasn’t worried about it. They all just came with the journey.”
On Damascus’ first offensive possession, they took a four minute and 45 second long drive, 44-yards down the field that was hammered home by who other than Funk on the 1-yard score.
“Being in that other (press) room last year hurt us, badly,” head coach Eric Wallich said.”We’re now in this room, I give credit to all these boys and the coaching staff. They worked their tails off.”
Minutes later, deep into their own territory, Dundalk quarterback Darius Sample was sacked by Damascus’ Jacob Bradshaw, losing control of the football. The Swarmin’ Hornets pounced on the loose ball at set-up superb field position at the Dundalk 13-yard line. Two plays later, Funk found the end zone on a 4-yard run to make it 14-0, Damascus with 2:37 remaining in the first quarter.
“He’s been doing it all year,” Wallich said of Funk. “He’s an incredible back, when you have a guy like that you feed him as much as you can.”
Dundalk then found life just minutes into the second quarter as Sample engineered a well orchestrated 92-yard drive and capped it off with a 2-yard quarterback sneak. The Owls converted on the 2-point conversion to bring the game in striking in distance, 14-8, still in favor of Damascus.
Flashing back in his mind, Funk wouldn’t allow what transpired last season, to happen again. Three plays later, he ripped off a 39-yard touchdown. That’s when the flood gates opened as Damascus scored on their next three offensive drives drive leading up to halftime on three Funk touchdown’s of seven, six and 13-yards.
The score quickly ballooned to 41-8 at the half.
Though Funk’s heralded performance was the talk of the night, his offensive line and defense capped off a season where they were just as dominant as well. The Swarmin’ Hornets defense forced five fumbles, four converted to turnovers. And totaled five sacks, for a loss of 44 yards. Two of those came from Jacob Bradshaw and one of his forced fumbles set-up an easy score.
“I watched so much film,” Bradshaw said. “Their line had a tendency to take a step back and I took advantage of that. It hasn’t hit me fully yet, but it’s just amazing to pull it all together.”
In the front-7, linebacker Da’Quan Grimes stuffed numerous of opportunities on Dundalk the offense. When a play appeared to open up, Grimes was there to deny any chance of that happening.
“Our coaches always enforce us to do our job,” Grimes said, who had a team-high six tackles. “I knew we had the power to do what we did, but realistically, I didn’t expect to have the season that we had.”
And in the secondary, junior Markus Vinson carried on what he was most valuable for all season long – patrolling a secondary that gave up very few chances to the athletic Dundalk team.
“We kept doing the same thing every week,” Vinson said. “The same mentality, week after week. All season, I used my speed to my advantage, it obviously paid off.”
When it was all said and done, the scoreboard glowed atop of M&T Bank Stadium with the final score of “Damascus 55, Dundalk 14”. The classic Gatorade bath was performed and the festivities that will forever last, began. Funk took a leap into his student section, saluting the fans that he played in front of since he was a little kid as they chanted in unison “We got the Funk.”
What used to be a nightmare, transformed into a storybook ending.
“This is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” Grimes said.
“I come from a family that preaches to work hard,” Funk said. “They raised me the right way. This is a dream come true, but it’s more than football. It’s something I’m going to miss greatly. I’m thankful for the whole town of Damascus.”
You can follow me on Twitter at @k_fadd and Maryland Sports Access at @MDSportsAccess
Notes: Funk was named Maryland high school football Gatorade Player of the Year Thursday morning. He finishes his high school career second in scoring with 101 touchdowns and holds the single season scoring record with 57 touchdowns in one season
Box score
Damascus 14, 27, 7, 7, – 55
Dundalk 0, 8, 0, 6 – 14
Scoring summary
First Quarter
Damascus, Jake Funk 1-yard run (Curry kick), 5:48, DAM 7 DUN 0
Damascus, Jake Funk 4-yard run (Curry kick), 2:29, DAM 14 DUN 0
Second Quarter
Dundalk, Darius Sample 3-yard run (Kobi Eure pass from Darius Sample), 9:09, DAM 14 DUN 8
Damascus, Jake Funk 33-yard run (Rush failed), 8:23, DAM 20 DUN 8
Damascus, Jake Funk 7-yard run (Curry kick), 5:42, DAM 27 DUN 8
Damascus, Jake Funk 6-yard run (Curry kick), 4:05, DAM 34 DUN 8
Damascus, Jake Funk 14-yard pass from Julian Kinard (Curry kick), 0:53 DAM 41 DUN 8
Third Quarter
Damascus, Jake Funk 39-yard run (Curry kick), 6:17, DAM 48 DUN 8
Fourth Quarter
Damascus, Will Armstrong 1-yard run (Curry kick), 9:58, DAM 55 DUN 8
Dundalk, Da’Quan Thomas 34-yard pass Darius Sample, 0:22, DAM 55 DUN 14
Damascus individual statistics
Passing:
#7 Julian Kinard, 4/6, 29 yards, 66.7 comp. %, 1 TD
Rushing:
#34 Jake Funk, 31 carries, 270 yards, 6 TD’s, 8.7 avg, 44 long
#16 Markus Vinson, 7 carries, 28 yards, 4.0 avg, 8 long
#11 Will Armstrong, 3 rushes, 14 yards, 4.7 avg, 11 long
#7 Julian Kinard, 2 rushes, 5 yards, 2.5 avg, 5 long
Receiving:
#34 Jake Funk, 2 receptions, 19 yards, 1 TD, 9.5 avg, 14 long
#3 Owen Starheim, 1 reception, 11 yards, 11.0 avg, 11 long
#16 Markus Vinson, 1 reception, -1 yard, -1.0 avg
Tackles:
#5 Da’Quan Grimes, 6 total tackles, 1.0 sack,1.5 tackles for loss
#36 Colin McLaughlin, 5 total tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss
#27 Ben Lokos, 5 total tackles
#42 Elijah Baisden, 4 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss
Dundalk individual statistics
Passing:
#15 Darius Sample
Leave a Reply