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SPORTS WEEKLY
Volume 2 Issue 42 - Tuesday, November 1, 2022
CECIL COUNTY
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‘Just a big relief’: Noah Wallace
Tigers score 22 unanswered to down Indians, claim inaugural Battle of 272 trophy
By Victor Hensley
RISING SUN - The inaugural – and aptly named – Battle of 272 had everything you could’ve wanted from an end-of-season rivalry clash. And with motivators like cross-town bragging rights, free chicken sandwiches and a soon-to-become iconic trophy on the line, how could it have been anything other than a slugfest? After a tight opening half, however, Rising Sun (6-3) turned to some of its usual suspects – namely senior quarterback Gannon Russell – to pull off a near-perfect ending, rattling off 22 unanswered points to
down the North East Indians (1-8), 35-14, and claim the first-ever Battle of 272 title. “Kudos to them,” said Clem Vaughan, the Tigers’ head coach, after the win. “North East, they’re going to come out and punch you in the mouth. Luckily, we withstood it and stayed in there and fought and started doing our thing in the second half, so we just kind of wore them down in the end.” With the two schools being just 8.4 miles away from one another – and both technically being located in North East – it was only fitting for this storied rivalry to finally get the Susky Bowl treatment, trophy and all. Even if you weren’t
aware of the geographical similarities between Rising Sun and North East, it would’ve taken just a few minutes of watching the players on the field to come to the conclusion that this was a rivalry game. The physicality, the chippiness and the trash talk were all present for the Battle of 272, which included an incredible defense-heavy ballgame with big, game-changing plays to boot. And as the cliché goes, this was one of the few matchups this season where you could actually throw out the record books. No matter what, this was going to be a gritty win for the team fortunate enough to
pull it out. Early on, the Indians used their speed to get off to one of their best starts of the season. North East needed just four plays to find the end zone on its opening drive, when senior quarterback Luke Keefer found junior wide receiver Evan England on a slant route over the middle. England then proceeded to get to the right sideline, cut upfield and burn past everyone in the Tigers secondary for the 60yard touchdown, giving the Indians a 7-0 lead to start things off. It would be the first of England’s two scores on continued on A-5
shoots 4-under to earn 2nd-straight 1A/2A state title By Victor Hensley
COLLEGE PARK, MD - Noah Wallace has accomplished everything he’s set out to do throughout his first three seasons of high school golf. But even with two trophies under his belt, he still isn’t finished. Last week, the soft-spoken North East junior put Cecil County on the map for the second-straight season, taking home the MPSSAA 1A/2A Men’s Golf State Championship during a three-day tournament at the University of Maryland Golf Course in College Park, continued on A-8
Panthers’ Ethen Gunter hits
1,000 yards in shut-out win over Eagles
By Victor Hensley
All season long, the Perryville Panthers have stared their mistakes in the face. Some have been small, but others have been game-altering. Yet, last Friday night against Bo Manor, the Panthers showed what a clean, mistake-free game can look like – and showed that, if they can begin to string those together, they’ll likely be a tough out come November. That’s because the errorless Panthers (5-4) earned a blowout win, 37-0, over the Bo Manor Eagles (5-4) in a game that saw them thrive offensively, win both the turnover and field position battles and finish out the regular season with their most complete performance of the year. “All year long, we’ve kind of had some self-inflicted wounds, where we’ve turned the ball over, didn’t execute on special teams or, defensively, gave up big plays,” said Sean Sandora, the Panthers’ head coach. “Friday night, everything came together. We didn’t turn the ball over, we forced two turnovers. On special teams, I think their average starting field position on kickoffs was in the 20s. … We just played pretty good football for 48 minutes and didn’t beat ourselves, which is a first this season.” Instead of making mistakes that kept the Eagles in the game, Perryville put its foot on the gas and simply never let up, scoring more points (37) than it had in any of its previous seven games. The Panthers’ success began on the ground, where junior running back Ethen Gunter officially joined the 1,000-yard club after posting 147 yards on 21 carries (7.0 yards per carry) to go along with three scores. “He’s just a great kid, he does a very good job,” said Sandora when asked about Gunter’s 1,000-yard season, a mark no Perryville running back has hit since Sandora’s been coaching there. “He’s one of our top film watchers. … He does a great job of preparing for games and then, on top of it, he runs hard with a great pad level and stays low. And our o-line, hats off to those guys. They’ve really been blocking well since the Edgewood game. “I think (Gunter hitting 1,000 yards) is more important for our o-line because they really take pride in blocking for him,” Sandora added. “It makes (Gunter) happy because, when he scores a touchdown, our continued on A-7