During one sequence in the second half of Friday afternoon's Arundel-Old Mill football game, the Patriots' training staff got quite the work out.
Old Mill players kept hitting the turf when the whistle blew. Training staff responded by sprinting onto the field, but after running multiple repeats switched to something more like a jog.
Over a span of several mintues, it looked like a cramping epidemic had broken out on a breezy, 70-degree afternoon in Millersville.
Five Patriot defenders went down during a long Wildcats drive that concluded when Arundel scored its second touchdown of the game. The score turned what must have felt like a comfortable 17-7 lead for Old Mill into a 17-14 nail-biter.
The rash of injured Patriots continued into the next offensive drive, when two more players hit the turf and later hobbled off the field. All-Metro defensive back Marcus Hicks, also a running back, scored two touchdowns in the game for Old Mill despite being a repeat hobbler.
The injury stoppges made it a strange second half, but the breaks in action didn't hurt the No. 4 Patriots, who beat the No. 11 Wildcats 24-14.
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