Football: New Town Drubs Pikesville in Season Opener

With 17 of his 22 starters back from last year’s team, New Town High School football coach Joe Holland is hopeful “this is the team” to challenge for the program's first-ever regional championship.

The Titans have made the playoffs each season since Holland was hired in 2008, but have fallen in the first round each year.

With Saturday’s season-opening 44-6 win against Pikesville serving as an early indication, though, Holland believes this year’s Titans have all the pieces to make a much more substantial run this season.

“We hope this is the team to do it,” Holland said of his team’s quest for a regional championship. “We have a lot of talent on both sides on both sides. And, overall, we played well [Saturday].”

Against Pikesville, the Titans established a 22-0 lead by halftime and tacked on three more touchdowns in the second half.

Senior running back Darrell Wyche, an elusive player with good speed, led New Town with 93 rushing yards and a touchdown on just eight carries. He also had two catches for 53 yards.

As a team, the Titans racked up 210 rushing yards.

“We have a good stable of running backs,” Holland said, “so we’re able to be versatile in how we run the football. We were able to take advantage some of what they were giving us.”

New Town senior quarterback Shawheem Dowdy added 171 passing yards, although he threw an early interception. He did, however, score on a 2-yard run early shortly into the first quarter and threw a 19-yard touchdown to Rayshawn Clark midway through the second quarter.

“Overall, it was a very good effort for us,” Holland said.

Panthers quarterback Julian Barnes, meanwhile, threw for 220 yards, completing 12 of his 23 pass attempts. He tossed both a touchdown and an interception.

His 90-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Devin Pack trimmed Pikesville’s deficit to 28-6 early in the third quarter.

Pack tallied a game-high 145 receiving yards on three catches. Each of his catches went for gains of at least 20 yards.

In all, Barnes completed passes to five different Panthers receivers.

“Julian continues to grow up, and we had some receivers step up,” Pikesville coach Jamie Willis said. “The offensive line also protected pretty well. For the most part, we’re happy with our effort, but we’ve still got to grow and continue to get better.”

Pack voiced a similar sentiment.

“We were able to make some plays on offense,” Pack said. “We’ve just got to keep working hard, but we’re going to get better.”