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ESPN2's broadcast of Thursday's highly-anticipated DeMatha-Good Counsel football game brought a degree of fanfare and intensity unknown to Maryland high school football.
More than 5,000 fans packed the bleachers in Olney for the Falcons' 42-21 win over DeMatha. ESPN used a crew of 40 people and seven different cameras to broadcast the game live. Of the 52 high school football games the network has aired since 2005, Thursday's was the first in Maryland.
"I think it's great," said University of Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen, who watched the game from the North end zone with several members of his staff. "This is a great rivalry. It gives these kids a great amount of exposure. The high school game has really grown in Maryland."
Fourth-year ESPN commentator Tom Luginbill said there was a sense of purity and energy in the stadium unrivaled in his experience. In the third quarter of Thursday night's game, DeMatha fans responded to a Tom Chroniger touchdown pass by rushing the fence behind the end zone, toppling it under their weight. Though the moment appeared chaotic, no one was hurt.
"The atmosphere here tonight was fantastic," Luginbill said. "I've never seen anything like it. When they scored on that pass and the DeMatha kids rushed the fence it looked like a European soccer game."
On the Good Counsel side, bare-chested fans painted in blue and gold carried the night's momentum, erupting into a frenzy on each of the Falcons' touchdowns. Good Counsel junior Sean Wright led the swarm, wearing a set of youth shoulder pads and bright blue and gold pajama pants as he waved a homemade flag that read: "GC Our Year."
"It's one of the biggest deals we've ever had," Wright said. "Ever since we heard about this in the summer we've been so excited about it."
In a flash, Wright's attention was drawn to the field, as Good Counsel running back Caleb Porzel scored the Falcons' third first-quarter touchdown. With their team leading 21-0, Wright led the Good Counsel fans in a goodbye chant to the visiting Stags.
"Start the buses," they shouted in unison.
Considerably calmer adult fans said the game seemed to bring the Olney community together, uniting schools from all over the region.
"I've noticed that there are a lot of kids from the public schools around here tonight," said 48-year-old Tom McMullen, a father of three who has watched two daughters graduate from Good Counsel. "They opened up the ticket sales to everyone at the gate and made it a community affair."
Bob and Kathy McAleer have two children who graduated from Good Counsel and one who is a junior. They likened the national media exposure to college prep activities that most high schoolers endure.
"We're always trying to prepare kids for college and this kind of experience does that for the players," Bob McAleer said. "Some of these guys are going to be on ESPN in the future so why not get used to it."
ESPN content producer Tom Scoffield is part of the group that determines which high school games will be broadcast during the year. Scoffield said the network tries to feature communities that have great football atmospheres, and individual players that are high-caliber college prospects. Sometimes, he says, the broadcasts can be a great opportunity for an unknown player to step into the spotlight.
"We were in Batesville, Mississippi, for a team that had won 78 straight games," Scoffield said. "We wanted to convey the energy and atmosphere in the town, and sure enough there was a kid who ran for 260 yards. It's always interesting to see how someone gets noticed. Being on a national stage like this is a great way to get noticed."
On Thursday, all eyes were on Good Counsel's most sought-after recruits: Porzel and linebacker Jelani Jenkins. ESPN ranks Jenkins among the top 10 recruits in the nation and the senior showed why Thursday, leading a defense that held DeMatha to just seven points in the first half. Porzel, meanwhile, ran for 124 yards and scored three touchdowns.
After the broadcast was over, the TV trucks packed up and the hoopla that came with them seeped out of the campus and on to the next town, where Luginbill, Scoffield, and a national audience are likely to meet another rivalry with more of the nation's top players.
"We've got 20 games this year and the bottom line is that people who love football are going to tune in," Luginbill said.
