ELDERSBURG — South Carroll is capable of making big plays, putting points on the scoreboard in just a matter of seconds.
And in just a matter of minutes Friday night, the Cavaliers were cruising past Century.
SC used four long first-quarter touchdowns to handle the Knights on the road 42-7, capturing its second straight county championship and clinching a spot in the Class 2A West playoffs in the process.
"To jump on Century like that and get them down like that, I think maybe they were a little shellshocked there in the beginning," Cavaliers coach Steve Luette said. "It's great when that happens. It just gives you a lot more opportunities to do a lot of things as the game progresses."
On South Carroll's first play from scrimmage, junior Jamar Williams received a handoff on an end-around and bolted down the left sideline for an 80-yard touchdown just 20 seconds in. It was the second time this season that Williams opened the game with a rushing score.
"He's extremely dangerous," SC senior Patrick Kelly said. "He's easily, in my opinion, the fastest kid in the county. … He's just explosive on every play and he doesn't ever get tackled by just one guy."
Century (5-4, 3-2 county) stalled in its own territory on the ensuing drive and had to punt it away. On the return, Kelly took it 67 yards for a score, putting the Cavaliers (8-1, 6-0) up 14-0 just over three minutes in.
SC didn't stop there in the first quarter. Steven Baca scored on a 22-yard run and AJ Linn threw a 53-yard touchdown to Brent McPherson still with over a minute to go in the first quarter, as the Cavaliers quickly had a 28-0 lead.
Meanwhile, SC's defense limited the Knights' offense for most of the first half. Joe Malagari notched an interception and Century had just minus-7 yards on the ground in the first two quarters.
The Cavs' defense then got in on the scoring in the third quarter. Talmadge Eller returned an interception 42 yards for a score with 8:58 to go in the third quarter, pushing the lead to 35-7.
South Carroll sealed the win with a 17-play, 93-yard drive, capped by a two-yard scoring run by Baca with 1:27 to play.
"Every game we want to go out and get a goose egg, we don't want to let a team score," Kelly said. "So it was disappointing letting them score on that one play. Overall, we could probably do better. But I think we still had a good game, we got a lot of turnovers and we had a lot of good plays.
The Knights avoided being shut out with 43 seconds until halftime, as Adam Lanni connected with Owen Gams for a 49-yard touchdown. That capped off an 85-yard drive that lasted just 1:36.
"The kids played real hard, it wasn't a lack of effort by any means," Century coach Jim Holzman said. "They came out and got some early touchdowns on us and it was just too hard to recover from."
The Cavaliers won their sixth game in a row, finishing off a perfect record in county play. SC hosts Westminster next week, which no longer counts as a county game, before beginning the playoffs.
The Cavs are currently the top seed in the 2A West region.
But before they got to that point, SC notched another goal for the season in another county title.
"Our motto this week was 'Make history,' and we did," Kelly said. "Our goal is to start heating up now. We have Westminster next week and we really want to take it to them. And then from there on out, we just want to make it to game 14. That's been our goal since the beginning."
South Carroll 28 0 7 7 —42
Century 0 7 0 0 — 7
SCORING SUMMARY
SC-Jamar Williams 80 run (Kyle Gavin kick)
SC-Patrick Kelly 67 punt return (Gavin kick)
SC-Steven Baca 22 run (Gavin kick)
SC-Brent McPherson 53 pass from AJ Linn (Gavin kick)
C-Owen Gams 49 pass from Adam Lanni (Christian Bergamaschi kick)
SC-Talmadge Eller 42 interception return (Gavin kick)
SC-Baca 2 run (Gavin kick)
UNOFFICIAL STATISTICS
Rushing
SC-Jamar Williams 5-92, Steven Baca 16-49, Dylan Bergman 3-24, Joe Malagari 3-16, AJ Linn 6-(-1), Talmadge Eller 1-(-3); C-Patrick Hunter 8-19, Brandon Brown 4-7, Johnny Pearson 2-3, Brenden Montgomery 1-3, Kevin Pearson 1-0, Adam Lanni 4-(-12).
Passing
SC-Linn 7-18-0 178, Douglas Summerlin 0-1-0 0.; C-Lanni 13-35-3 197, Chris Diorio 0-1-0 0.
Receiving
SC-Brent McPherson 3-74, Williams 2-43, Silas Kelly 2-37, Baca 1-24; C-Anthony Perrone 4-55, Bryce Harrell 3-55, Owen Gams 2-55, Jake Lettiere 2-21, K. Pearson 1-11, Brown 1-0.
jake.rill@carrollcountytimes.com
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