Published on: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

By Brandy L. Simms

DeMatha’s bid to capture the Hyattsville private school’s first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title in four years fell short Sunday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

Good Counsel defeated the Stags, 26-14, to earn the Falcons’ fourth consecutive league championship.

Good Counsel was led by the senior trio of quarterback Brendan Marshall, running back Dorian O’Daniel and wide receiver Kendall Fuller who accounted for all four of the Falcons’ touchdowns in the win.

DeMatha quarterback John Lovett gave the Stags a 6-0 lead in the first quarter when the junior scored from five yards out. However, Good Counsel answered with touchdown passes from Marshall to Fuller to take a 14-6 lead at the intermission.

“We thought we had a lot to prove,” said Fuller, a Virginia Tech commit, who caught a 6-yard and a 31-yard touchdown pass from Marshall in the second quarter. “A lot of the DeMatha players were talking trash saying that we were soft so we kind of took that to heart.”

Lovett connected with Darryl Turner from nine yards out and Lorenzo Harrison ran in the two-point conversion to enable DeMatha to tie the game at 14-14 in the third quarter before the Falcons managed to pull away for good.

Fuller caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Marshall with 6:59 left in the third quarter before O’Daniel put the finishing touches on the victory with a four-yard run late in the fourth quarter.

Good Counsel senior linebacker Reggie McGee sacked Lovett on the ensuing possession before cornerback Kirk Garner intercepted the DeMatha quarterback to seal the win.

Good Counsel (11-1) finished the season on an 11-game winning streak while DeMatha (9-3) failed to avenge a three-point regular season loss to the Falcons.

“They’re fundamentally good,” Fuller said. “We knew we were going to have to come out and play hard. Just because we beat them last game we knew we couldn’t come out easy so we took them very seriously. We always got respect for DeMatha but we always remember that that’s our rival.”