Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007
Parkdale High School football coach Quentin Hines stood under the goal post at Suitland High on Saturday afternoon and addressed his players, who nearly to a man appeared to be on the brink of tears. Then Hines turned around, threw his hat down on the grass and emotions overcame him, too.
It took an uphill battle for the Panthers to make the playoffs, but they had defending state champion Suitland in a corner in the Class 4A South Region final Saturday afternoon. That’s what made their 15-14 season-ending loss, marred by three turnovers including one leading to a Rams touchdown, so tough to take.
‘‘I just can’t believe it,” said senior wide receiver Kay Kromah. ‘‘Just like that. We were supposed to be the winners of this game.”
The Panthers’ 10-2 season ended on the same field as it started, although it would have been tough to predict 12 weeks ago Parkdale would have the Rams on the brink of playoff elimination. Parkdale fell on Sept. 8 to Suitland, 20-12 — a respectable score against a 12-0 team that will take on 4A East champion Arundel (12-0) in the state semifinals on Saturday.
‘‘Week 1, that’s when we knew we could play,” Hines said. ‘‘We saw coming out that we could do really well.”
When they came close once again the next week but fell, 40-33, to Charles H. Flowers, then got blasted 25-0 by Eleanor Roosevelt, some players got discouraged, said senior quarterback Eric Evans.
The burden fell on the shoulders of the seniors to keep everyone’s spirits up. After the Roosevelt loss, they resolved to win the rest of their games and finish 7-3, enough to get the fourth and final playoff spot, Kromah said.
The Panthers did their job and won the rest of their games. They got some help when the Jaguars and Raiders had to forfeit their wins to Parkdale for using ineligible players, and the Panthers ended up with the No. 2 seed.
‘‘It helped that we had those forfeits, but we would have ended up being the fourth seed and playing Suitland,” Kromah said. ‘‘It’s not like we weren’t supposed to be here. We’re supposed to be here.”
Parkdale showed up at Suitland looking like a team that belonged in the playoffs. The Rams had 11 penalties for the game and burned all their first-half timeouts in the first quarter, but the Panthers hit the ground running. Evans, who completed his first six passes and rushed for 226 yards, led Parkdale to the end zone on its first possession, scoring on a 3-yard run.
The Panthers remained in the lead, 7-0, into the second quarter, and looked ready to carry the advantage into halftime. But with just seconds left in the second quarter, the Rams blocked a 36-yard field goal attempt and James Proctor ran it back for a touchdown with no time left. Instead of Parkdale being on top at the break, Suitland led 8-7.
It could have been a dangerous momentum shift, but Parkdale kept Suitland in check. With just over four minutes left in the third quarter, Evans leapt over the pile at the line of scrimmage, cut left almost to the Suitland sideline, then right almost to his own sideline for a stunning 67-yard touchdown run that put Parkdale back on top.
But early in the fourth quarter, Suitland quarterback Carlos Fields hit Yanni Davis with a 6-yard touchdown pass, and Davis kicked the ensuing extra point as the Rams regained the lead for good. The score capped Suitland’s longest drive of the game (71 yards) and was the only time in three tries the Rams’ offense scored from the red zone.
‘‘They couldn’t really stop us,” said Evans, who was just shy of rushing for 1,000 yards this season. ‘‘We just shot ourselves in the foot.”
Hines said would like to see his Panthers back to this point next fall, but admitted that will take another tough run. With so many seniors forging this season’s success, he had one more reason to wish the year didn’t have to end so soon.
‘‘This is a senior-laden team,” Hines said. ‘‘We have about 20 seniors and that’s the toughest thing about a loss like this. You’re at the point where you’ve got to say goodbye.”
E-mail Kevin Hilgers at khilgers@gazette.net.
