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Correction: This story was corrected on Nov. 23, 2009. An explanation of the correction is at the end of the story.

Nick Forbes' feet and the hands of De'Andre Scott earned a region football championship for Gov. Thomas Johnson High Friday evening, as the Patriots captured the Class 4A North crown with a 44-26 victory over host Patterson at Baltimore's Polytechnic High.

Forbes, a senior running back, rushed for 288 yards and five touchdowns for the Patriots (8-4), who will play Old Mill of Anne Arundel County in a state semifinal next weekend. Scott intercepted four passes, returning one 65 yards for a touchdown. Deonta Winston rushed for 105 yards and two touchdowns for Patterson (9-3).

Thomas Johnson ran off 27 unanswered points to build a 22-point advantage before a long fourth-quarter drive finally pushed the Patriots into the final four for the second time in three seasons. TJ head coach Ben Wright said his team's difficult regular season schedule has benefited them in the postseason.

"A lot of people wrote us off after losing to Fort Hill and Linganore," said Wright. "[The players] just hang in there. They do some crazy things and I give them heck."

The Patriots watched a 34-12 advantage dwindle to 34-26 late in the third quarter. The visitors answered with a 16-play, 48-yard drive that consumed more than nine minutes as Felipe Gaete sent a line drive kick through the uprights for a 31-yard field goal.

Scott, who had two interceptions coming into the game, snagged his fourth and final pick of the night with 2:25 remaining in regulation, and Forbes found the end zone for the last time with 37 seconds left. The University of California-bound performer kept the Patriots' long possession intact earlier in the quarter with a five-yard run on fourth down and an 18-yard burst on third-and-long.

"[Patterson] started to catch on to what we were doing," said Forbes, who gained 229 of his yards during the first two quarters. "The line stepped up and opened up some holes, and I just had to do what I'm there for; running the ball hard and keep the feet moving."

His powerful legs did a lot of that in the first two quarters. After Brandon Brownfield's game-opening 51-yard kickoff return, Forbes went off right tackle for a 38-yard scoring run.

Patterson responded with a nine-play, 53-yard drive as Chad Bittner took the ball from Patriots' defensive back Victor Walker in the end zone for a touchdown. The Baltimore City school gained the lead on its next possession as Winston scored from 22 yards out, capping a nine-play, 80-yard surge.

Forbes made Patterson's lead short-lived, bouncing off one would-be Patterson defender and breaking a tackle of another en route to a 31-yard score. After turning back the Clippers on downs, Forbes exploded through a hole and went 84 yards for his third score, sending him clear past the 100-yard mark with eight minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the opening half.

Forbes surpassed the 200-yard mark with a 39-yard scoring run with 83 seconds left in the second quarter. Scott set up the drive with his second interception of the half. He grabbed a tipped pass and went the other way for a score, extending Thomas Johnson's lead to 34-12 in the third quarter.

"I just saw the quarterback get hit and the ball come out wobbly," said Scott, a junior. "We started switching up the line calls, making the line tight so they weren't getting those big runs."

The last time Thomas Johnson reached the state title game was in 1997.

"Our issue is we're not very big," said Wright. "It doesn't really matter right now, winning the region means a lot to our seniors."

"We have one goal and that's to get to states," said Scott.

Correction: The final score of the Class 4A North Region championship game between Gov. Thomas Johnson and Patterson High was incorrectly changed on Nov. 21, 2009, due to reporter error. The correct score is 44-26.