Glen Burnie football builds big early lead, cruises to 44-22 win over North County

The Glen Burnie Gophers were strong in all facets of the game Thursday at North County. Their defense was dominant, the offense was putting up points at will in the first half, and special teams even got in on the act with a score.

The final score of a game that left the home fans mumbling and grumbling from start to finish didn’t necessarily reflect the true nature of the play, as Glen Burnie left with a 44-22 victory.

The Knights losing by 22 points is enough to groan at but it was a deficit they could not overcome after falling into a big hole early.

The Gophers defense shut down the Knights offense in the first half. Glen Burnie was up 30-0 by the end of the second quarter. The Gophers opened the second half with a kickoff return for a touchdown to put them up 36-0.

However, the Knights did not go down without a fight. They outscored the Gophers, 16-6, in the third quarter to cut the lead to 20.

The Knights’ late spark was not enough, though. The Gophers responded with another late touchdown with a completed two-point conversion to go up 44-16.

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Glen Burnie coach Alec Lemon spoke humbly about his defense’s performance on the field.

“You gotta play four quarters,” Lemon said. “That’s why we play the game. Any team can come back. It doesn’t matter if they’re down by 35 or 100, they always have a chance to come back. That’s why you play the games.”

The Gophers did not play perfectly, but they handled business through all four quarters of the game. The Knight on the other hand did not look ready to play from start to finish. A few turnovers on offense and miscues by the defense and special teams caused the game to get away from them early on.

Though the game was firmly in his team’s control the entire time, Gophers middle linebacker Johnathan Maddox was not so happy with the Knights putting up as many points as they did.

“First and foremost, I think 22 points is too many,” Maddox said. “But we got a team that played good. We just got to tighten down on our assignments, keep playing team ball, look out for one another and keep playing good football.”

The Gophers leave the game on a good note and with a win to improve to 2-1. In the end, that’s what matters the most to them.

“We got a win,” Lemon said. “We’ll take it. It’s hard to win, but we’ll take it.”