Sports

Your Wilde Lake Football "Vying for the State Championship" Primer

A recap of the Wildecats' run through the playoffs, plus information on tonight's state championship.

(UPDATED, 12/2 2:15 p.m.) 

1985. 1990. 1991. 1992. 1997. 

2010?

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The Wilde Lake Wildecats football team will vie for that tonight: a sixth state championship, the first in 13 years.

Their opponent in this Class 3A finale: Franklin High School of Reisterstown.

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Here's how Wilde Lake got there...

The Wildecats  to Atholton High School, a 27-15. Both teams were already in the playoffs, set to face each other the following week. The defeat would give Atholton home-field advantage for that game.

As it would time and time and time again in the playoffs, Wilde Lake went into enemy territory and came out triumphant.

Against Atholton, Wilde Lake , winning 21-7.

That earned Wilde Lake a rematch with River Hill,  just a month back. The game would be at River Hill.

Wilde Lake not only took River Hill into overtime, but .

The Wildecats had been only the third-seed coming out of the 3A East, and they were the lowest seed in this semifinal round. The semifinal game?

That would come against Damascus, the top team in Maryland.

That would come at Damascus, at that.

, 21-14.

Which brings Wilde Lake to tonight. Though the last state championship came in 1997, the school has been in this position very recently, playing in the state championship in 2008 but losing to Westlake High of Waldorf, 13-0.

"Hopefully they avenge it," said Derrick Jordan, a wide receiver on that 1997 championship team. "Some of the players that were on that 2008 team are on this team. Hopefully payback is on their mind."

Jordan is now 30, a member assistant at the . He'll be watching the game from work tonight.

"You always support where you came from," he said.

And this 2010 team reminds him of his 1997 team, from the strong defense and the key plays to the hot playoff run as an underdog.

"In the paper it was said that we had no chance of winning each playoff matchup that we had," Jordan recalled. "We had Milford Mill – we weren't supposed to beat them. We played Friendly. We definitely weren't supposed to beat them, especially that being a road game at night. We weren't supposed to beat Thomas Johnson. We beat them all."

Watching in the stadium tonight will be Danny March, the quarterback of that 2008 team.

"A couple of my friends go there, and a couple of my friends still play. I think I'm more excited than they are, honestly," said March, a 2009 graduate who is now 19 and a student at .

He says this year's success is due to good chemistry. "Most of the players on the team, they hang out together, they play multiple sports together. They just have a good feel for each other, and that makes it work."

And if the Wildecats win tonight, March won't feel any disappointment that he's not on the field

"Just to see Wilde Lake still doing good is good enough for me," he said.

Many of the former players attending the game still live in the area. As for Patrick Brown, a tight end on the 1990 and 1991 championship teams?

He's flying in from his home in Los Angeles.

"Primarily, seeing the game was the emphasis," Brown said Thursday afternoon, on a layover in an airport halfway across the country just five hours before game was set to begin . "And then I realized it's my mother's birthday on Sunday. Had it not been my mom's birthday weekend, I'd be coming back anyway."

Also, Brown said that Wilde Lake's head coach, Mike Harrison, is a friend who had coached him two decades ago.

"I sent him an e-mail back at the beginning of the playoff run," Brown said. " 'If you make the championship, I'm there.' "

Here's how you can watch the game:

The game starts at 7 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. For those who can't make it, the game will be broadcast on the local CW station, WNUV channel 54. Check your local listings.

For those attending the game, tickets are $8 (for those 7 years old and older) and parking is $5. Parking lots open at 5 p.m. Ticket sales start at 6 p.m.

Wilde Lake is listed as the visiting team for this game. Its fans enter through Gate A on Hamburg Street.

And for those of you who can't make it and can't watch it, Columbia Patch will be live blogging the game tonight.


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