[Terpfan76]

Friday night, Fort Hill High School hosted Dunbar (D.C.) at Greenway Ave Stadium in Cumberland, Md. It was a pretty entertaining game with both teams playing hard in a mostly defensive struggle. There was a little smack talking going back in forth from time to time, but nothing more than what one would expect from any competitive sporting event. Then the third quarter happened.

With about 4 minutes to go in the third quarter in a 14-8 game with Dunbar leading, one of Dunbar's players and one of FH's players were doing a little talking (mind you I could hear what was being said or read lips from where I was sitting) when the Dunbar player pushed the FH player. It wasn't a real hard shove or anything but the Ref stepped in and separated the two players. Either the Ref or Dunbar's coach sent the Dunbar player to the sideline I'm guessing to cool his head a little. When he reached the sideline, the Dunbar player slammed his helmet off the ground and kicked it onto the field. It was hard to tell for certain if he kicked onto the field on purpose or whether it was accidental but never the less, a 15 yard penalty was assessed.

About three plays later the Dunbar player re-entered the game having been dressed down a bit by his coach, at least that's what it looked liked. FH's running back picked up about 4 or 5 yards and was tackled near the sideline of the visiting side. I couldn't see exactly what happened until tonight when I watched the broadcast of the game on tv, but what happened was a Dunbar player dove onto the pile a little late and another flag was thrown. It was clear from watching it on tv that it was a late hit and more than likely would have been called regardless of the games previous incident but it also had to be called as it looked as though the refs were trying to get the game under control. Another flag was thrown shortly there after as it looked as though the Dunbar coach may have said something or done something to warrant a 3rd personal foul.

After a conversation with the games officials, the Dunbar coaching staff rounded up their players and walked off the field earning them a hard fought forfeit. It didn't appear to be but a few players who couldn't maintain their composure. During this situation, it should be noted that FH's players re-huddled, then moved to their own sideline.

After walking off the field and under the stands to the visitor locker room, the Dunbar players re-emerged from the locker room and headed up to the school where FH's locker room is. I don't know what happened there other than the players and coaching staff where up there for about 10-15 minutes or so before boarding their charter bus for home.


. It was a really unfortunate situation as this had been a very well played game. I know I'm a FH fan and grad, but I've attempted to be as objective as possible from what I saw of the game.



This was taken from the Baltimore Sun's forums:

From local radio station that covered the game:

called the game on 99.5 (The Wolf) then immediately afterwards we discussed it on 1230 AM (ESPN RADIO). Here is what I learned. Before the game Jim Lohr and I went onto the field and talked to the Dunbar's coach. We just wanted him to share a little with us about what his team was expecting etc... He told us that he expected "home cooking officiating". Meaning, he said the referees were biased up here and that his team will not get a fair game and that other teams down in the D.C. area feel the same way. He further said that he likes these away games because his team gets paid to come up and play. A few weeks ago they traveled to Ohio and were paid $6,000. He said that he didn't mind losing when they get paid like that. He also said that these away games don't mean anything to him because his team doesn't need to win them to make the playoffs, they just have to win their five games down in their division.