High school football: Wise shuts out Bowie

Second-ranked Wise established a Maryland public school state record with its eighth consecutive shutout Saturday afternoon. The Pumas blanked visiting Bowie, 35-0, to set up a showdown with 8-1 Charles H. Flowers next Saturday in the regular season finale for both teams.

Wise (9-0) has not allowed a point since Suitland scored a second-quarter touchdown in the season opener on Sept. 5. Wise went on to win that game, 14-7. Suitland earned a 21-20 victory in overtime against Flowers on Oct. 10, so next Saturday's meeting between Wise and Flowers could determine the top seed in the upcoming 4A South Region playoffs.

"I told our guys that I was proud of them for what they've accomplished," said Wise fourth-year coach DaLawn Parrish. "They were able to do something that had never been done before. This is a very special group of kids. The seniors are very dedicated and they've been here since the school opened. But our goals are a lot bigger than this. We want to defend our region title and get back to states. It's a very tough region. Like we found out last year, it's tough to beat good teams in the region a second time."

Wise two-way lineman Anthony McDaniel described the current shutout streak as "dessert," and said the team still has much bigger aspirations.

Next weekend's showdown at Flowers will give both teams plenty of incentive heading into the playoffs, where the two teams could meet again in the region final. Wise traveled to Flowers last year and blanked the Jaguars 28-0 in the region final.

"It's great that we keep winning and the shutout streak is really like dessert," McDaniel said. "We thought we were going to come out and punch them in the mouth early and they would be done. But it didn't happen like that. They did some good things against us in the first half and we had to make some adjustments at halftime. We went back to a power running game and we moved them back. We got more pressure on them in the second half and forced some turnovers, and that helped."

Bowie (4-5) started the game with a long drive, and the Bulldogs looked as if they were going to end the Pumas' bid for an eighth consecutive shutout on several occasions. In the first half, the Bulldogs put together three 11-play drives that lasted a total of nearly 15 minutes, but their attempts to reach the end zone failed.

On Bowie's first possession, kicker Bruce Mosley had a 35-yard field goal attempt blocked, and the Pumas' Jabril Baldwin returned it 70 yards for an apparent touchdown. But the officials whistled the play dead inadvertently during the return and gave Wise the ball at the Bowie 30-yard line.

Bowie started the second quarter with another long drive that stalled in Wise territory, and this time a Mosley punt left the Pumas' pinned at their own 3-yard line. But Wise went back to its punishing ground game, and the Pumas needed only six plays to go 97 yards. Deontre Johnson carried three times for 75 yards on the drive and capped it with a 47-yard run to give the Pumas a 6-0 lead with 6:34 remaining in the first half.

Bowie got close to scoring at the end of another long drive, but Mosley dropped a deflected pass at the Wise 15-yard line.

"If we can come up with that catch there and get on the board before halftime, it's a whole different game," said Bowie coach Lionel Macklin. "We did a lot of good things in the first half. We just didn't come away with any points. But I'm proud of the kids for coming in here and fighting hard the way they did. After we fell behind we took a few more chances and that led to some turnovers, but once you get behind you get away from your game plan and started pressing a little bit. But I was happy with the effort."

Wise got on the board again when the Pumas capped a 12-play, 40-yard drive that lasted more than seven minutes with a 1-yard run by Rahsaan Moore. On the Bulldogs' next play from scrimmage, Baldwin intercepted a pass by Jordan Maslanik and returned it to the Bowie 7-yard line, and two plays later Moore again plowed forward from 1 yard out to give the hosts a 20-0 lead.

Wise got its next points in bizarre fashion when Bowie's Kevin Clayborne misplayed a Titus Till punt inside his own 5-yard line and tried to elude the onrushing Pumas by going backwards. Eventually he fumbled the ball through the back of the end zone for a safety.

Wise got two more touchdowns in the last four minutes, one on a 2-yard run from 5-foot-9, 325-pound defensive tackle Samuel Burrell on a play dubbed "32 fat" and another on an 11-yard pass from Smith to Victor Tabbs with 1:22 remaining.

This story is from The Gazette group of community newspapers published by Post-Newsweek Media, a unit of The Washington Post Co.