North County (6-1) brought its "playground offense," as coach Chuck Markiewicz likes to call it, to Severna Park (5-2) last night and destroyed the Falcons, 48-19.
Frank Brown (10 rushes for 81 yards) and Mike Quarles (2-for-32 rushing, five receptions for 41 yards) ran wild while quarterback Eric Howard (14-for-25, 191 yards and three touchdowns) passed and passed. Damon Martin (three receptions, 87 yards, one touchdown), Quarles and Kevin Mitchell seemed to catch everything Howard put up. Martin kicked extra points and even threw a touchdown pass on a halfback option play.
"We show you everything and teams can key on Brown or anybody else, we don't care," said Markiewicz, the county's run and shoot pioneer. "We'll find ways to score."
The start of the game was no indication of what was to happen as Falcons sophomore Mark Frye intercepted a Howard pass and raced 35 yards to paydirt. The kick by John Milisitz was good and Severna Park had an early 7-0 lead, but that was to be the last time they would lead.
Martin returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to a touchdown and then kicked the extra point to make it 7-7.
North County added four more touchdowns before halftime.
On the final play of the first half, Howard pitched to Martin, who somehow stepped up between three charging linemen and fired a 37-yard bomb into the right corner of the end zone where Kevin Mitchell was waiting for the Knight's fifth touchdown of the half.
"We just didn't tackle, that's it," said Falcons coach Andy Borland.
Borland's Falcons tackled a little better in the second half, but had too much ground to make up as they suffered one of the worse home defeats in school history.
The Falcons held the Knights to one touchdown in the third period.
"We played well in the second half bu couldn't keep the ball away from them in the first half, couldn't get those seven- to eight-minute drives," said Borland.
The lone Knights' score in the third period came on a 56-yard Howard pass to Martin.