DeMatha Opens Season At No. 1 In Maryland
A 2,000-yard rusher returner, a lineman who has commited to Wake Forest and another lineman considered among the top juniors in the country. This is DeMatha, and for the fifth time since 1990, the Stags start the year as the No. 1 team in The Maryland Associated Press High School football poll.
The Stags received 10 of 12 first-place votes and start the year at No. 1 ahead of defending Class 4A state champion Eleanor Roosevelt, which received the other two first-place votes.
Gilman, riding a 21-game win streak and opponent to No. 1 DeMatha on Saturday, opens at No. 3. Suitland is fourth and Seneca Valley, last year's No. 1 and winners of 39 straight games, starts at No. 5.
The rest of the Top 10 includes Sherwood, Urbana, Westlake, Damascus and Randallstown.
DeMatha was ranked No. 1 to start the 1990, 1993, 1994 and 1998 seasons. The Stags went coast-to-coast as No. 1 in 1998. The other three years, they failed to hold the No. 1 spot. However, in 1995, DeMatha finished at No. 1 despite not starting on top.
Seneca Valley's selection as No. 5 keeps the Screaming Eagles in the state Top 20 for a record 80th straight week, dating back to the 1993 season. DeMatha has been ranked 64 straight weeks. DeMatha has been ranked for 117 of a possible 120 weeks since the state poll debuted in 1990. Seneca Valley has been ranked 116 weeks. The two schools have combined to spend 79 weeks in the No. 1 spot. No other school has held the No. 1 ranking for more than seven weeks. DeMatha and Seneca Valley are the only schools to be ranked every year of the poll.
DeMatha returns All-State candidate Anthony Riley, who rushed for more than 2,100 yards as a junior. Art Orlebar, a senior lineman who originally went to DeMatha to play basketball, has verbally committed to Wake Forest on a football scholarship. Also, Jimmy Key was projected as one of the state's top recruits until a decision was reached that he must repeat his junior year. This will be Key's fourth season of football, and DeMatha coach Bill McGregor said Key will transfer to a prep school next year, not to jeopardize DeMatha's standing as a high school.
Georgetown Prep, which debuts at No. 13 in the preseason poll, is back in the state Top 20 for the first time since 1997. No. 15 Thomas Johnson and No. 16 Mount St. Joseph -- schools that each held a No. 1 ranking for one week -- and Oakland Mills are back in the Top 20 for the first time since 1998. Oakland Mills was headed toward a ranking last year until the program was forced to forfeit five games due to an ineligible player. The other 16 teams in this year's preseason poll were ranked at some point last year.