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After his on-field team meeting following Saturday's 34-25 loss to Baltimore's Dunbar High School, Forestville Military Academy football coach Charles Harley had his seniors line up on one side, the coaches and underclassmen on the other.

It was very much like the ritual following most high school football games, when opposing players shake hands to show good sportsmanship. This time, though, it was so that the coaches and underclassmen could thank the seniors, who had just played their final game for the Forestville Knights.

This season ended just like the other years these seniors have been at Forestville. The Knights lost to Dunbar in the 1A South Region playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

"I didn't want it to end like this," junior running back Rahmann Lee said. He talked about the seniors and how they didn't want to end their high school careers with another playoff loss to Dunbar.

"I know the seniors are the ones who make the plays, but as a junior, I wanted to step up and help," he added. "This is my first time playing Dunbar, but I knew how important it was to the seniors."

But just qualifying for the playoffs seemed unlikely three weeks in to the 2009 season, when the Knights were 0-3 after losses to Gwynn Park, Potomac and Riverdale Baptist. But Forestville won five in a row after that, including a 22-20 victory against Frederick Douglass. Only the shocking 30-24 loss to Fairmont Heights prevented the Knights from closing out the regular season with seven consecutive victories.

The win streak started when coach Charles Harley decided to move star wide receiver Antonio Belt to part-time quarterback against Surrattsville. In that game, and for the rest of the season, he had Belt alternate between throwing the ball and catching passes from Ricardo Smith, the team's other quarterback.

Lee's emergence at running back was another key. He ran for 835 yards and 13 touchdowns, including a 154-yard, five-touchdown performance in the regular season finale against Largo. He followed that up with 152 yards and two scores against Dunbar.

"I'm glad that we just stepped up and beat good teams," Lee said. "We beat Douglass, we beat Friendly."

Many of the departing seniors were key players, including Belt, Smith, receiver Antonio Wood and many of the linemen. Belt has yet to decide where he will attend college, Harley said. According to Rivals.com, a Web site focusing on college football recruiting, Belt is considering offers from the University of Maryland, Temple and Rhode Island.

Harley said the lack of depth is a concern, especially since half the players who played on Saturday are departing seniors.

"We had a ton of heart," Harley said. "These guys are true knights, true warriors in the truest sense of the word. You have to figure, there are 23 of them — six of them are freshmen who don't play, so basically they're going into a game where maybe 16 guys are going to play. And they know that week in, week out, and they still fight with all they have. We will always fight that way."