Another week down and another routine week where the Damascus Swarmin’ Hornets and Seneca Valley Screamin’ Eagles are coming off of throttling victories.
This Friday night, the two traditionally rich, undefeated 8-0 football programs that hail from Montgomery County’s elite gridiron grass roots collide and seemingly project to have a violent ripple-effect throughout high school football’s version of the SEC – the 3A West.
What exactly is at stake? Quite a bit, as the winner of this heavyweight slug-fest will most likely capture the coveted reigns of the number-one seed and ultimately secure home field advantage throughout the grueling region of the ever so wild 3A West.
No. 3 Damascus has absolutely steamrolled opponents this year, outscoring the opposition by a whopping total of 422 to 70 as their closest game was the first game of the season, when they dismantled no. 5 Quince Orchard, 39-17. University of Maryland commit, running back Jake Funk leads a potent Swarmin’ Hornets rushing attack into “Death Valley” on Friday night looking to retain the regions top seed.
As for no. 5 ranked Seneca Valley, they have had their fair share of lopsided victories as well – totaling 367 offensive points and only giving up a mere 57 to competitors. Earlier in the season, they downed the back-to-back 4A state champions, Northwest (14-7), and have appeared to resurrect old motives that once won 12-state championships over a 27-year time span.
Since 2007, Damascus has won five of the last eight meetings, including a 46-13 thumping on their home soil last year. Seneca Valley, meanwhile, is looking for their first victory over the Swarmin’ Hornets since 2011.
With these two forces squaring off, something clearly has to give in. Here is what you can expect come Friday night in Germantown.
When: Friday, October 30th
Where: “Death Valley”, Seneca Valley High School, Germantown, Maryland
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Updates: @MDSportsAccess, via Twitter
Line: Damascus -7, according to USA Today High School Sports Predictor
Damascus keys to victory
(No surprise here) Ride the seemingly unstoppable Funk-train
Even Stevie Wonder could point tabs on the Swarmin’ Hornets bread and butter. And that is to feed the pigskin to the rambunctious, terrorizing back of Jake Funk and let the bed-rock offensive line pave the way.
Since the start of the 2014 season, Damascus has gone 21-1 with the Funk taking hand-offs out of the backfield and has outscored opponents 911-205 since then. The lone loss came to Franklin in the 3A state championship in a game they held a 21-0 halftime lead.
This season, Funk has exploded for 30 touchdowns in eight games and has compiled over 1,300 total yards over that span. Not to mention, his lowest output of the year was when he ran for 113-yards on 11 carries in the Week 7, 63-7 throttling of Walt Whitman. And that’s considered “containing” Mr. Funk.
Expect a heavy dosage of rumbling number 34 on Friday night.
Take care of business
Though the focus level is sharper, Coach Wallich has not done anything out of the ordinary to prepare his group for what is the biggest game up to date for Damascus this year.
He has expressed the confidence in his men that if they stick to their normal practice routine and prepare for the situational packages the opposition may throw at them, business will be taken care of on a Friday night basis.
The senior leaders of D1-commits linebacker DaQuan Grimes, lineman Jacob Bradshaw and runningback/safety Jake Funk know what to do when the limelight is shined on them as this isn’t their first rodeo.
It should be a routine business trip for the Swarmin’ Hornets if they hit all of the marks on Friday night.
Seneca Valley keys to victory
Play effective 2-dimensional offense to keep Damascus defense on their heels
As cliche as it sounds, one must be able to move the ball through the air and on the ground to be a successful football team at any level. On Friday night, the Seneca Valley offense must be on their A-game for a full 48-minutes as they cannot afford one hiccup due to Damascus’ ability to pile up points in a hurry.
In the pass game, quarterback Petey Gaskins has the athletically large receiving core in the 6-foot-1 Antonio Fox and 6-foot-3 Cortez Ervin to overpower the Damascus secondary. The ground game features the shifty, explosively violent 5-foot-6 back of Adrian Feliz-Platt and the physical Darius Golston to keep the ball moving down the field if proper penetration off the offensive line is created.
If SV picks their poison correctly, they will be right there throughout the entire 48-minute heavyweight bout. However, one slip-up could lead to another and it may be too little too late.
Avoid self-destruction at all cost
Seneca Valley has the athletes and personnel to overcome this Damascus team, it’s just, can they put it all together and shock the world?
Coach Kim and his guys like to think so. A hindrance for this Screamin’ Eagle team in the past has been their inability to play as a whole and buy into a formulated game plan, therefor leading into a downward spiral and self-implosion come game-day.
This year, however, is night and day compared to years in the past. Even though Kim’s slender roster of 30-some odd kids could be a cause of concern due to fatigue, he has full belief in every single one of them on and off the field – to go to class, get their work done and when 2:30 strikes, surrender to the program, unite with each other and put in the necessary work to be better than yesterday.
Jake Funk and the Damascus offense will have their moments. And so will Seneca Valley. It will come down to having the mental toughness and wherewithal to overcome adversity when that one chip doesn’t fall the Screamin’ Eagles way and not letting it snowball into something unsolvable.
My key match-ups
| Damascus | Seneca Valley | |
| RB Jake Funk | vs | Front-7 |
| CB Markus Vinson | vs | WR Antonio Fox |
| LB DaQuan Grimes | vs | RB Adrian Feliz-Platt |
| Defensive line | vs | Offensive line |
| Coach Wallich | vs | Coach Kim |
What they’re saying
Jake Funk on Twitter
Got guys all around me that are on the same mission as me???
“In Mongtomery County, it seems like people either love me or they hate me.” – Damascus running back Jake Funk
Fox5 on Twitter
My right hand behind me and my savages beside me™ ??
“On Friday night, expect the unexpected.” – Seneca Valley wide receiver/defensive back Antonio Fox
Kyle McFadden on Twitter
Found this plastered outside of Coach Kim’s office at Seneca Valley HS. Pure motivation for the Screamin’ Eagles.
“We’re motivated. The kids are pumped. We’re going to give everything we got, lay it all out on the line. It’s going to be a serious slug-fest.” – Seneca Valley head coach Fred Kim
Michael Cornejo on Twitter
alright people, let’s make this clear. if Damascus vs Seneca Valley isn’t your Game of The Week, you shouldn’t be covering football in MoCo.
“The focus level is sharper, but we’ve done nothing out of the ordinary to prepare for this game. We’re going to play Damascus football.” – Damascus head coach Eric Wallich
The final scoop
This is why we love high school football. It really doesn’t get much better than a match-up like this. Two undefeated teams both ranked inside the states top five media poll with a combined 19-state championships and major playoff ramifications on the line. And I didn’t even mention the historic, feuded rivalry between the two Montgomery County elites with a crowd size expected to top 5,000 hungry football fans.
“It’s going to be a straight up slug-fest for 48 minutes,” Seneca Valley head coach Fred Kim said. “A heavyweight battle of two teams trading blows. It’s going to be exciting.”
For Seneca Valley, they will play host to one of the highest magnitude of games the county has seen in quite some time.
“We’re blessed to be apart of a game like this,” Kim said, who will lead his team behind the Screamin’ Eagle faithful tomorrow night. “The crowd is going to be electric.”
If Kim’s Eagles want to come out of Death Valley tomorrow night on the winning side of things, they know they need to do at least one of two things. That is to either contain the terrorizing running back of Jake Funk or have enough offensive fire power to overcome Damascus’ ability to put up touchdown after touchdown.
“Funk, we need to get after him,” Kim said. “One guy will not bring him down. The kid is tough as nails.”
Say Funk has a routine night of running for over 200 plus yards and a handful of touchdowns, the game may very get out of hand in a hurry. But, Kim and his well-coached unit like to think optimistically.
“We need to not be intimidated because he is terrorizing,” Kim said. “Everybody needs to be in on the tackle.”
The biggest piece in the Seneca Valley offense on Friday night will be the 5-foot-6 roadrunner of Adrian Feliz-Platt who has compiled nearly 1,300 all-purpose yards and 25 total touchdowns this season.
“I will lay everything out on the line for my brothers,” Platt said. “Blood, sweat and tears. It will all be out there.”
As for Damascus, they enter the game as the slight favorite, but don’t pay any attention to the outside noise that tries to disrupt the program.
“It’s just football,” Funk said. “At 6:30 on Friday night, everything will go down in-between the white lines.”
And for the senior leaders leading the way such as Funk and senior linebacker DaQuan Grimes, they know what to expect when the time comes.
“We’re staying focused,” Grimes said. “For us (senior leaders) we’ve ramped up the practices to match a playoff atmosphere like we’ll see on Friday night.”
It will be just another business trip Friday night for head coach Eric Wallich and the Swarmin’ Hornets as they will travel into Germantown Friday night looking to retain the 3A West number one seed and state title aspirations.
“There’s going to be lots of hitting, but we’re just going to play our game,” Wallich said.
Though it’s Week 9 and the playoffs are a mere two weeks away, football fans from around the community will get treated to a Halloween Eve clash, playoff prelude tomorrow night. So buckle up and grasp your nerves tightly because we could be in for a classic.
My prediction: The state’s top-gamechanger, Jake Funk leads his laser-focused Damascus team to a 35-14 win and retain the 3A West number one seed
You can follow me on Twitter @k_fadd and Maryland Sports Access @MDSportsAccess for coverage of the marquee rival game tomorrow night.
Feature photos taken by MCmedia.com and The Washington Post.
