Hornets sting Blazers, 17-7

SEPT 25, BLAZER STADIUM—

As of this time last year, the Blazers already had two shutout victories and were on their way to a second consecutive 5-4 season. Unfortunately, Blair has opened the season 0-3 following a disappointing 17-7 loss to a Damascus team that is currently ranked 17th in the area by the Washington Post.

Coming off of a 7-2 loss at Sherwood on Sept 12, in which the Blazers' only score was a voluntary kneel down by the opposing punter in his endzone, Blair looked to capture its first win of the year. Unfortunately, penalties and mental mistakes led to the Blazers' demise. Senior running back Perry Smith felt that Blair had the ability to win but gave the game away. "It was an even battle, but we beat ourselves. We had a mental collapse. It wasn't that they were so good; we played poorly," he said.

The game began as a defensive struggle, as neither team had success in gaining yardage in the first quarter. However, the Hornets made a 17-yard pass off of a fake punt that led to the game's first score, a 32-yard field goal with 4:35 remaining in the second quarter. On the opening drive of the second half, Damascus completed 29- and 24-yard passes, which led to a two-yard touchdown run.

Fortunately, the Blazers were able to strike back, as the offense had its first score in over seven quarters. In easily its best drive of the young season, the Blazers marched 87 yards to pay dirt in four minutes as the team capitalized on several key passes. Senior quarterback Jonathan Gregory threw 21- and 13-yard passes to juniors Michael Stewart and Jordan Townsend. These led to a 23-yard touchdown strike from Gregory to senior wide-out Josh Garcia with 4:45 left in the third quarter. This same combination hooked up for the Blazers' last touchdown in the team's first game, a 15-12 loss to Magruder.

Garcia credited his QB, who was seven-of-eleven for 84 yards, for the good pass, which enabled him to score. "Jonathan Gregory read the defensive scheme and made a great decision to throw the ball early. I just caught it and gave [a defender] a move, and the next thing I knew I was in the endzone," he said.

The Hornets stormed back by putting together a string of big runs leading up to another goal-line rushing touchdown. This put Blair behind 17-7, a deficit from which it was not able to come back, as Smith coughed up the ball twice in the game's final quarter.

This season the defense has played well, not allowing any opponent to score more than two touchdowns per game. Unfortunately, the team's inexperienced offense has underperformed.

Ninth-year coach James Short believes that the team has the ability to improve on their poor start. "I don't think we have performed up to our potential yet. I feel we can do better," he said.

Senior fullback Hansel Cedeno realizes that the team urgently needs to begin winning if it hopes to have its first-ever trip to the postseason. "We have to win every single game in order to make the playoffs," he said.
Last year, Blair demolished the Blake Bengals, 22-0. This year, the team hopes to rejuvenate its faltering season over Blake in its next game.

The Blair-Blake match-up is at home this Friday, Oct 3 at 6:30 p.m.