IJAMSVILLE- The Oakdale Bears football team huddled around each other – taking a knee as they focused their eyes on head coach, Kurt Stein. Some had a fiery demeanor while others were ruminating about the past. Stein himself, stood over his Bears team that just accomplished a feat that has never been attained before.
“I’m so proud of you guys,” Stein told his Oakdale team. “We have something special here.”
After being eliminated by South Carroll in a stunning first round playoff loss last year, Oakdale was left with a bitter taste in their mouths. They swore to never overlook an opponent again. Or to let win-loss records define opposing organizations.
The 2014 first round playoff loss still lingers in the back of their minds.
How have they responded?
Pretty remarkable. In fact, they haven’t skipped a beat. Coming into Friday night, the Bears were off to their second 3-0 start in a row and have racked up 150 points. Like 2014, they went into Week 4 having to face county foe, Urbana.
Last year, they found themselves on the losing end when Urbana scored on a last second touchdown to drub the Bears. On Friday night, the tides turned and all the painful memories faded rather quickly for Oakdale (4-0) as they dropped Urbana (1-3) for the first time in school history, 35-7.
“There was a lot of talk about how we (Oakdale) could beat schools from different states or out of region, but we can’t beat schools in our conference,” running back Malik Boyd said who finished with 62 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. “We wanted to put those talks to rest.”
For Boyd, it makes the victory taste even sweeter as he attended Urbana Middle School and was supposed to be apart of the Urbana Hawks football team from the get-go as a freshman. But the decision to transfer into the Oakdale district eliminated any chance of that happening.
“People asked me why would I leave the Urbana district for Oakdale when there is no legacy,” Boyd said. “I wanted a fresh start, so why not start one?”
Since coming onto the scene in 2013, the Bears have accumulated an 18-7 record with Boyd in the backfield and he holds school records in rushing yards and touchdowns. So yes, Boyd certainly is leaving legacy imprints in the Oakdale football organization, but he’s not the only one that’s doing so.
His running back counterpart, Percy Agyei-Obese, seems to be gaining a step every week since coming from Ghana his freshman year. As Agyei-Obese, a junior, isn’t as polished as Boyd, he expresses dynamic speed and was dubbed the nickname “Ghana Great” for his explosiveness that distorts defenses.
“We always have a guy that can carry the rock,” Stein said. “The best thing is they are both home run hitters. Both of them can break out a long run.”
While neither of them really busted out for a gashing run Friday night, they both found the end zone twice.
“We’re starting a legacy,” Boyd said as he raised a smile at Agyei-Obese and gave him a playful handshake.
For the first time in school history the Bears are off to a 4-0 record and it seems the program is reaching new heights. But a 4-0 record isn’t good enough in Agyei-Obese’s and the rest of the Oakdale team’s eyes as they are set on something even greater.
“This feels great, no doubt, but it’s time for the next one and we’ll be pulling out film on Monday,” Agyei-Obese said, who finished with 42 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries.
Two minutes and 58 seconds into the game, Oakdale found themselves down in the hole.
Bears quarterback Sean McGaughey was picked off by Urbana’s Jacob Galloway, setting the Hawks up at their own 46-yard line. On the very first offensive play, Urbana flashed a wrinkle of trickery as Hawks quarterback Tyler Woodward connected with Galloway on a 36 yard reception that put them on the doorstep in just a blink of an eye.
Four plays later, Urbana’s Xavier Campbell found the end zone on a three yard run to put the Hawks up, 7-0. And for Urbana to perform a well engineered drive that was translated into points is exactly what the doctor ordered for head coach Dave Mencarini.
“We haven’t had a lot of good things happen to us the past couple of weeks,” Mencarini said. “We haven’t been coming out strong. Had a great defensive play on the first series and then ran a trick play on the first offensive play to try to steal momentum. The kids executed well and I was hoping to build off of that.”
Right when Urbana looked rejuvenated and lively, Oakdale throttled ahead and scored the games final five touchdowns. The tenacious Bears defense only let Urbana sustain three drives into plus territory the entire game.
Mental errors doomed the Hawks at making any sort of comeback. When the game was still in striking distance, 14-7 in favor of Oakdale, the Bears had the ball on the Hawks 13-yard line.
That’s when the untimely miscues relapsed – Urbana only had ten defensive players on the field. Oakdale capitalized on a Sean McGaughey 13-yard touchdown pass to Ben Simonica to make it a two score game with 5:53 left until halftime.
“We’re young, man,” Mencarini said. “I’m not going to use our inexperience as an excuse on why the score was 35-7. Just making a lot of mistakes mentally. We’re not going to give up. We’ll continue to fight as the season goes on.”
It’s never good to lose a playoff game on your home turf, especially if you’re the number one seed, but the Oakdale football organization have something to sit back and learn from – to not take anything for granted. And when asked about facing Linganore, one of the top teams in the state, two weeks from now, they shutdown those talks immediately.
“We’re solely focused on Catoctin,” Stein said, who was apart of the Cougars 2009 state championship team. “Yes, Catoctin is struggling this year, but we’re not going in there thinking we have it won. I used to be apart of that organization. I know how they manage things. We’re not taking them lightly.”
Everyone is talking about Damascus, Linganore and Seneca Valley as the ones to beat in the 3A West. I think it’s safe to add Oakdale in that conversation. Though no one is speaking of the Week 6 matchup against Linganore that’s 13 days away, we can’t help but to bat an eye at a barnburner in the making. And maybe, just maybe, the legacy that Malik Boyd is leaving on the Bears organization can be taken even deeper – a possible run at the state crown.
“I’m so pumped,” Agyei-Obese said. “Just so pumped. I live for this.”
“People don’t understand,” Boyd said. “We learned from last year. This team has it all. We just need to keep pushing forward and have our minds set on one thing at a time.”
Oakdale’s Sean McGaughey went 14 for 19 on 179 yards passing and one touchdown. Urbana’s Elijah Atkins had 12 carries for 37 yards.
Box score
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| OAK | 7 | 21 | 0 | 7 | 35 |
| URB | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
Scoring summary
| URB | OAK | ||||
| 1st | 9:02 | URB | Xavier Campbell 3 yard rush (Collins kick) | 7 | 0 |
| 6:57 | OAK | Percy Agyei-Obese 6 yard rush (Brummer kick) | 7 | 7 | |
| 2nd | 11:39 | OAK | Malik Boyd 2 yard rush (Brummer kick) | 7 | 14 |
| 5:53 | OAK | Ben Simonica 13 yard pass from Sean McGaughey (Brummer kick) | 7 | 21 | |
| 1:34 | OAK | Malik Boyd 8 yard rush (Brummer kick) | 7 | 28 | |
| 4th | 6:59 | OAK | Percy Agyei-Obese 9 yard rush (Brummer kick) | 7 | 35 |
