Billy Cosh, Arundel, quarterback, senior Josh Furman, Old Mill, running back, senior
It's the game they will be talking about in local football circles for years: Old Mill 58, Arundel 55 in double overtime for the regional championship.
On one side, Old Mill running back Josh Furman ran 42 times for 414 yards and six touchdowns. On the other side, Arundel quarterback Billy Cosh threw 60 times for 443 yards and four touchdowns and ran for two more touchdowns.
Furman went on to carry the No. 1 Patriots into the Class 4A state championship. Cosh polished off a career that included 13 state passing records.
Who's better? You pick. We can't.
Each is about as good as it gets at his position, so they share Offensive Player of the Year honors.
"They're probably the two best players in the state," Broadneck coach Jeff Herrick said. "The thing that tied them both together, and I'm sure everyone who played against them would agree, you needed to make sure your defensive game plan was geared to stopping them."
Furman, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound speed demon, finished his season with 2,285 yards rushing and 31 touchdowns. In the two games leading up to the state final - where he was sidelined after six carries with a knee injury - he ran for 615 yards and scored eight touchdowns.
Clocked at 4.36 seconds in the 40-yard dash, Furman blew by defenders to break big plays.
"He was a lot tougher than we thought watching him on film," said Sherwood coach Pat Cilento, whose team fell to Old Mill, 20-13, in the state semifinals when Furman scored on a 6-yard run with 20 seconds left.
"He fought for those extra yards and in the game we watched nobody could get a hand on him. We thought he'd go down with arm tackles and stuff like that. He's a legitimate runner."
Cosh, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound passing sensation, had a great arm, was exceptionally accurate and had a keen mind for the game.
"When you have a player that's of his caliber that can coordinate the pass protection, can coordinate the running game and can coordinate the passing schemes, and then execute any one of those three aspects of the game, he was virtually impossible" to stop, Herrick said. "We felt their offense was operating at a collegiate level. That's how well they were in sync, and they were in sync because of Billy Cosh."
In leading the No. 3 Wildcats to the Anne Arundel County title and the Class 4A East regional final, Cosh threw for 3,913 yards, completing 292 of 448 passes for 56 touchdowns - all state records. For his career, he was 594-for-909 for 7,433 yards and 112 touchdowns - all state records. He also set a season mark with 4,074 total offensive yards.
Cosh will graduate early and head off to Kansas State in January, while Furman plans to announce whether he will play for Michigan or Virginia Tech after the Maryland Crab Bowl. Both will play in the Baltimore vs. Washington all-star game on Dec. 19 at Towson University.