The season finale for Johns Hopkins and McDaniel used to mean so much more.
But now, for two of the worst teams in the Centennial Conference, all it represents is the last football game for seniors, one final time to score a touchdown or make a tackle before calling it a career.
Recommended Stories
“It means everything to me,” Johns Hopkins senior linebacker Adam Winter said. “It’s the last time I’m ever going to play football again. I’m just trying to make my family proud, and I’m sure that’s how every senior on this team is.”
The rivals play Saturday at McDaniel?s Scott S. Blair Stadium in Westminster, with two teams who have combined to win at least a share of 11 conference titles in the past 10 years playing for nothing but pride in their 86th meeting.
And both will be coming off shoddy performances. Johns Hopkins (3-6 overall, 2-5 league) played terribly in the first half in a 19-11 loss to Franklin & Marshall, and McDaniel (1-8, 1-6) allowed 21 fourth-quarter points in a 38-14 loss at Gettysburg. Now, Hopkins is looking to avoid its worst finish since going 1-9 in 1989. McDaniel, which has lost its past six games against the Blue Jays, last finished a season with just one win in 1988.
“We played well until the fourth quarter,” McDaniel coach Tim Keating said. “We had a chance and we let it slip away. I think we were our own worst enemy.”
Johns Hopkins coach Jim Margraff thought the exact opposite of his team, calling the first half “the worst” he?d seen in 18 years as the Blue Jays coach. The Blue Jays closed their home schedule 0-5 at Homewood Field, failing to win a home game in a season for the first time since 1989.
“For years, we were known as a home team,” Margraff, said. “That’s something we have to work on for next year.”
The last home victory for the Blue Jays was a 48-7 win over McDaniel last November. With the win, Hopkins improved its series edge to 45-35-5. This year, despite the better record, Johns Hopkins enters with even less momentum.
“I think our guys will rebound, the players are pretty resilient. They have a great challenge in front of them,” Margraff said. “McDaniel is on the upswing. We were improving and we wanted to show we were improving, but we tooka giant step back [Saturday]. I think next week means a lot, certainly for our seniors in their last game, but it also means a lot for our young guys, seeing what kind of mettle they have heading into the offseason.”
