MRH Wins Postseason Game Without Head Coach

Motivation didn’t seem to be a problem Wednesday night for the football team. The Devils rolled visiting Principia 38-0 in the first playoff game of the postseason, improving the Blue Devils' overall record to 9-2. Principia’s season ended at 2-8.

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The Blue Devils were playing their third game without head coach Brandon Gregory. It came out today that without pay on Oct. 18 for an incident with a student, and will be gone for the remainder of the season.

Assistant coach Sterling Finney was in command, and said the team is taking Gregory’s suspension as an opportunity to teach overcoming adversity.

“That’s just an obstacle, just a situation that we have to deal with,” Finney said. “Those are some of the similar situations you have to deal with in life.”

“We teach our kids that in life, you’re going to have some obstacles, and true character is shown by what you do with those obstacles. If you can adapt to this, that’s a life lesson. We use that as motivation.”

Junior quarterback Kahlid Hagens certainly looked motivated as he completed 11 for 16 passes for 252 yards. He threw two touchdowns and had one interception. MRH student game announcer Scott Lunte told the crowd in the fourth quarter that Hagens had just become the third quarterback in MRH history to pass for more than 2,000 yards in a season.

“We have a good feeling,” Hagens said, when asked if the team is keeping it together under the situation. “We just want to keep our heads focused and keep our minds on the prize. State championship.”

Hagens was the first Blue Devil to cross the goal line, with a 2-yard keeper, after the Panthers fumbled a punt snap. Senior kicker John Barron made the point-after then, and on all five MRH touchdowns.

A pass to sophomore as the first quarter ended made it 14-0. The Devils held the Panthers, and Thomas scored again, this time on a 22-yard run. Again Principia was stopped, and again MRH scored, on Hagens second running touchdown, making it 28-0.

Barron put a dramatic exclamation point on the half as he hit a 43-yard field goal as the buzzer sounded, to make it 31-0.

The Devils scored on their third play in the second half with a 15-yard pass play to sophomore Cortland Brooks to make it 38-0, which turned out to be the final score of the game.

The Panthers found a couple cracks in MRH’s armor in the third and fourth quarters, intercepting a bobbled pass that should have been the sixth Devil touchdown, and marching it to the MRH 24 before finally giving it up on downs.

Thinking of the games ahead, Finney said there are things the Devils need to work on.

“We can’t have those kinds of turnovers in the red zone like that when it counts,” he said. “We’ll definitely correct those mistakes.”

The next game MRH will play in the postseason will be against , at Brentwood, on Monday night. The Eagles beat Carnahan 17-14 to advance as well.

The last time MRH and Brentwood met, in the second game of the regular season, MRH .