OWINGS MILLS, Md. — McDonogh continued its undefeated start to the season Friday night, defeating Calvert Hall 24-10 in a big conference clash.
The victory carried extra significance for McDonogh, which entered the matchup looking for revenge after falling to the Cardinals by a touchdown last season. The Eagles improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play, while Calvert Hall dropped to 0-1 in conference action and 2-3 overall.
McDonogh struck early with a big play from its offense. Quarterback Jackson Herbert connected with Carlos Ferguson, who broke multiple tackles and fought through contact near the goal line with help from his teammates to reach the end zone. The touchdown gave the Eagles a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Ferguson made his presence felt again on the defensive side of the ball later in the quarter, intercepting an overthrown pass from Calvert Hall quarterback Oliver Noll and giving McDonogh favorable field position.
The Eagles quickly turned the takeaway into points. Herbert stepped up in the pocket and found Rob Moore on the run for a touchdown connection in the end zone, extending the lead to 14-0 late in the first quarter. McDonogh carried a 17-3 advantage into halftime.
The game settled into a defensive battle through much of the second half before another turnover helped swing momentum decisively toward the Eagles.
Early in the fourth quarter, Moore came up with an interception to give McDonogh possession once again. On the next play, Matthew Tees broke free for an 85-yard touchdown run, stretching the lead to three scores and putting the game out of reach.
Calvert Hall responded with its lone touchdown late in the game when Noll connected with Micha Morozov on a touchdown pass with about three and a half minutes remaining.
However, the Eagles controlled possession the rest of the way. Ferguson added a highlight-reel catch to help move the chains as McDonogh converted key first downs and ran valuable time off the clock to secure the 24-10 victory.
McDonogh head coach Hakeem Sule praised his team's resilience, particularly after losing one of its top players early in the game.
"All week we just talked about playing hard for four quarters," Sule said. "Last year we lost to Calvert Hall. Had an opportunity to come back and take the lead and we didn't get the game. We didn't finish it. This year we had a guy go down early, one of our better players, CJ Davis, and we didn't know how we were going to respond, but this team has a lot of grit and they responded well with a dominant performance over Calvert Hall, which is a big win for us in conference play."
On the Eagles' first drive, Davis went down to the ground hard on an incompletion. Davis remained on the ground for several minutes while the game was paused just four minutes into the first quarter. He was eventually taken off the field on a stretcher and went to a local hospital in an ambulance.
McDonogh Athletic Director Jeff Parsons told WMAR that Davis briefly lost conscious after he hit the ground. Parsons said that Davis will be "fine" and the trip to the hospital was out of an abundance of caution.
Calvert Hall will look for its first conference win next week when it travels to face St. Mary's. McDonogh faces another major conference test next week when the Eagles travel to Severn to take on Archbishop Spalding.