Security blanket

Under a horde of watchful eyes, Devils trounce PB

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Springbrook defender Nick Oates (8) provides stiff resistance to Paint Branch running back Nathaniel Coston in the first half of Friday’s 29-7 Springbrook win. Coston didn’t return after halftime because of a sprained ankle, and the Blue Devils (2-2) held the Panthers (2-2) to 76 rushing yards for the game. Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Springbrook quarterback Harold Brantley (7) scrambles to evade Paint Branch defender Wilfred Beah Friday. Brantley, who also plays defensive back, enjoyed his biggest play of the night when he returned an interception 60 yards to set up Springbrook’s game-clinching touchdown in the second quarter.

This wasn’t just any game, though. That’s not enough to bring out six TV stations — channels 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 13. No, they were there for the hot story of the moment, the fact that two people have been killed after two recent Montgomery County Public School football contests.

The game itself — a 29-7 Springbrook win before 1,800 onlookers that was as authoritative as it was shocking — seemed to get swallowed up by the fanfare. Last Wednesday, Springbrook and Paint Branch officials decided to move the game up an hour to 5:30 p.m. — the only game of 11 MCPS games Friday to start early — in lieu of the recent tragedies that stunned Montgomery County and because of the long rivalry between the two schools.

On Sept. 23, a 15-year-old Rockville High sophomore, Kanisha Neal, was stabbed to death after the Sherwood-Blake game at Blake. A week earlier, on Sept. 16, a fight broke out after the Northwest-Seneca Valley game at Seneca Valley, resulting in the death of 23-year-old Germantown resident Stephone Wiggins eight days later from a brain injury.

In the wake of that fatal violence, as well as several other disturbing incidents recently — several small fights at the Blake-Paint Branch season opener on Sept. 9, and a bomb threat at Blake Friday that sent students home early — security permeated the Paint Branch-Springbrook game. Between six and eight county policemen (at least double the usual number) were present at any given time, along with six Springbrook security officers and another handful from Paint Branch. The security and media barrage made it difficult to focus on the game, according to Springbrook coach Rob Wendel.

‘‘It was tough,” he said. ‘‘I think Montgomery County football kind of took a hit, and it seemed like there were a lot of people here to check it out. It was kind of a zoo. This is my third football game as a varsity coach, and it was kind of crazy. I hope they’re not all like that.”

Paint Branch seemed awed by the scene. Not the media or the security — the game itself, as Springbrook won with ease.

Injuries were partially to blame for the Panthers’ lackluster showing. Already missing one of its top playmakers, wide receiver Dayon Arrington, who broke his thumb against Wheaton on Sept. 23, Paint Branch (2-2) suffered another big blow when running back Nathaniel Coston (7 carries, 34 yards) went down with a sprained ankle on the last play of the first half.

‘‘That really hurt us because we were limited in what we could do,” Paint Branch coach Ernie Williams said. ‘‘When you’re out two of your top players in the second half, it shortens up your playbook a little.”

But Springbrook had taken control well before Coston’s injury. Early in the second quarter, Blue Devils defensive end Walter Dixon forced a Coston fumble into the hands of tackle Roberto Diaz on the Panthers’ 23-yard line. Three plays later, running back Derek Overton (17 carries, 91 yards) gave Springbrook (2-2) a 7-0 lead on a 6-yard run.

On Paint Branch’s next possession, Springbrook free safety Harold Brantley (also the team’s quarterback) intercepted a pass from counterpart Scott Barnes (17 for 32, 182 yards) and returned it 60 yards to the Paint Branch 15. Three plays later, it was Overton again, this time on a 1-yard punch for a 14-0 lead. It was all the scoring Springbrook would need.

‘‘That’s why he’s back there,” Wendel said of Brantley. ‘‘You’d rather not have your quarterback playing defense, but he’s a good football player. He’s doing a nice job. He’s quarterbacking back there as a free safety. He understands what he wants to do.”

In the third quarter, Brantley connected with wideout Ben Simmons for an 8-yard touchdown pass and a 20-0 lead before Paint Branch finally got on the board 2 1⁄2 minutes later, when Barnes threw a 15-yard scoring strike to tight end Eric Schell (9 catches, 84 yards).

But the Blue Devils weren’t done. They tallied a safety on a blocked punt that rolled out of Paint Branch’s end zone near the end of the third quarter, and then scored their final touchdown on a 15-yard run by fullback Everett Pumphrey (13 carries, 70 yards) with 8:38 left.

‘‘Every time they were making progress, we just snatched it away from them,” Overton said. ‘‘It put us in the lead and gave us the momentum.”

Now, what appeared to be Paint Branch’s Northeast Consortium Cup is Springbrook’s for the taking. The Panthers soundly defeated Blake, 34-7, in the season opener but now can only hope that Blake beats Springbrook, which has won two straight after starting the season 0-2, to force a three-way tie. Blake (1-3) is the two-time reigning Cup champion, and Paint Branch won the two years before that. Springbrook, which faces Blake this Friday, has never won it since all three schools started playing each other in 2001.

‘‘It’s going to be big this year,” said Brantley, a three-year starter. ‘‘It’s something I haven’t done, and it’s something I want to — real bad.”