Dundalk shuts out Glen Burnie to advance in Maryland 4A football playoffs

DUNDALK, Md. — For an entire half, Dundalk and Glen Burnie couldn't find the end zone. Once the Owls finally broke through, they didn't look back.

Dundalk scored 25 unanswered points in the second half to shut out No. 6 Glen Burnie 25-0 in the opening round of the Maryland Class 4A high school football playoffs.

Dundalk entered the postseason at 6-3, good enough for the three-seed in the 4A East Region while Glen Burnie earned the East Region's sixth seed with a 3-6 record.

Neither team scored in the opening quarter, and a pair of unusual plays kept it scoreless in the second.

Glen Burnie attempted a fake punt early in the quarter, but a pass intended for a wide-open Hayden Wallace fell incomplete and gave Dundalk favorable field position.

The Gophers quickly got the ball back. Near the goal line, Dundalk quarterback Matthew Jones rolled to his left and had his pass deflected. The ball bounced around before Wallace came away with an interception.

Dundalk had another opportunity to score immediately before halftime with a field goal attempt, but the kick came up short. Glen Burnie's Darius Lee caught the ball in the end zone and appeared to return it the length of the field for a touchdown, but the play was ruled a touchback because the kicked ball had crossed the goal line.

The teams went to halftime tied 0-0.

Turnovers continued to define the game early in the third quarter. Dundalk's Ryan Akin intercepted a Glen Burnie pass, only for the Owls to fumble the ball away almost immediately afterward. The Gophers were unable to turn the turnover into points.

Dundalk finally broke through midway through the third.

Jones floated a pass to Kam Briscoe, who made two defenders miss before racing into the end zone to give the Owls a 7-0 lead.

Dundalk struck again late in the quarter. Qamar Wise took a handoff in the red zone, bounced off a would-be tackler in the backfield and ran in for a touchdown to extend the lead to 13-0.

The Owls continued pulling away in the fourth. Jones dropped back to pass in the red zone but, with nowhere to throw, took off and ran into the end zone himself.

Jamaree Frazier added a pick-six in the fourth quarter to help push Dundalk's advantage to 25-0.

After being held scoreless for the entire first half, the Owls had turned the playoff opener into a rout.

"The biggest thing was the response," Dundalk head coach Chrys Lane said. "Our kids, we challenged them and we've been challenging them all season, we've really been challenging them at halftime. Like, 'When are y'all going to arrive?' Let's show everybody that Dundalk football is real and we're back to what we used to be."

For Lane and the Owls, the postseason is now about surviving one week at a time.

"This is a boxing match for us," Lane said. "So we're looking at it as one round at a time. We're not getting knocked out. That's our biggest thing. Approach that we know it's do or die for us. We either going to win or go home and we [are] not trying to go home right now."

Dundalk advances to face Annapolis in the second round.

This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.