Sports
Columbia Athletes Appear in National Playoffs
Local players part of post-season football teams at Towson, Salisbury.
This was a rough football season at the University of Maryland, where the Terps won just two of 12 games under first-year head coach Randy Edsall.
But at lower levels of the college game, the state was well represented in the national playoffs with teams from Towson and Salisbury universities.
And each team had several players on their roster from schools in the Columbia area.
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Mike Evans, a graduate of Reservoir High, played in all 12 games this year at Towson and made three starts. A junior tight end from Fulton, he had one catch for 30 yards.
Evans, who played three sports in high school, saw action for Towson at home Dec. 3, as the Tigers lost, 40-38, to Lehigh University in the Football Championship Series playoffs.
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Towson did not win a conference game in 2010 but this year the Tigers were the champions of the Colonial Athletic Association. It was the best turnaround in the country at that level.
"Not only am I proud to be the coach here, I'm proud to be a member of this community," Towson head coach Rob Ambrose said after the game. "I'm proud of my staff for fighting an uphill battle. I'm proud of my team for fighting even harder."
Other local players on the Towson roster included freshman linebacker Ryan Evans (Reservoir) and Eric Schuster (Reservoir), a redshirt freshman defensive back from the Laurel section of Howard County.
Trey Jackson (Howard High), a redshirt freshman linebacker, played in nine games, with one start and eight tackles this season. Justin Harris (Centennial), a senior defensive back, played in 11 games for Towson and had 37 tackles.
Salisbury lost 34-14 at Wisconsin-Whitewater Dec. 3 in the Division III national playoffs.
Junior Nick Aloi (Atholton) of Columbia ran one time for five yards and caught one pass for 18 yards for SU. Aloi played in 11 games, with two starts, and had one tackle on the year.
Juma Richards, a junior wideout for Salisbury, started on Saturday but did not have a catch. He is a graduate of Wilde Lake. Richards had 14 catches this year and ran four times for 133 yards.
