The Game Everyone Wants to See
DeMatha's R.J. Shannon, left, and Good Counsel's Nick Jenkins are looking forward to their teams' meeting on Nov. 3.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
It has become an annual meeting of top teams featuring elite college-bound prospects. They're perennially at the top of The Post's rankings and fighting for first place in one of the Washington area's toughest leagues.
When they play, double the normal amount of security guards are hired to oversee a standing-room-only crowd. Port-a-potties are installed. And the home school -- which keeps the gate receipts -- makes several thousand extra dollars.
The region's biggest game? DeMatha vs. Good Counsel.
"I don't know their side of it, but obviously they're the best team we play every year," said Good Counsel Coach Bob Milloy, carefully being understated. "They're the top team. I don't know how they feel about it, but I kind of think they feel the same way."
The teams have played some epic games over the past two seasons, with DeMatha winning three of the four meetings, including victories in consecutive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title games. The victories haven't come easily -- those three wins have come by a total of five points, including 21-20 in overtime in last season's title game and 22-21 on a second-chance field goal during the regular season.
"It seems like w henever we play, the game has special meaning," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "So everybody gets into it a little more."
This season promises to be no different when the teams meet in the regular season finale Nov. 3 at Good Counsel. It could be the final game at the Wheaton school, which is scheduled to move to a new location in Olney over the winter. DeMatha enters the season ranked No. 1, Good Counsel No. 12.
The last time the teams played at Good Counsel, then-No. 2 Good Counsel scored a 31-21 victory over the No. 1 Stags before an overflow crowd.
"I don't know how many people we had," Milloy said. "They had them around the track and all up and down the hill. It was a mob scene. It was great. There was excitement. It was the way it should be."
Expect the same that first Friday night in November.
