Falcons Football Reaches Last 16

As the Severna Park football team gathered one final time after their 27-6 loss to Old Mill in the 4A/3A East region playoffs, there were mixed emotions.

The Falcons had just ended their season against a team they beat during the regular season, but just to get to the game at all required something that hadn’t been done since before some of those Falcons were born.

After starting the season 0-2, they ripped off six straight wins to put themselves within shouting distance of the No. 1 playoff seed. Despite a loss to Broadneck in the regular season finale, they rebounded with a hard-fought playoff win over Crofton to secure their first postseason advancement since 2008.

Even though the offense was stymied in the Old Mill rematch, settling for a pair of Gavin Fetty field goals, the team could look back on the season with satisfaction: seven wins, including that long-awaited playoff victory.

“It’s been a great season. Six-game winning streak, first playoff win in 17 years, and we’re going to take that and hopefully build from it,” said Severna Park coach Nick Marks. “It’s tough for that to happen (in the rematch), but that’s football. There’s going to be things that happen and you have to keep fighting, and they did. I’m proud of the team, and part of the guys.”

Severna Park built its resume on a stingy, opportunistic defense. They had 33 takeaways, led by four interceptions each from Tyler Lawhorne and Charlie Cavanaugh, and 27 sacks, headlined by Noah Croghan’s 18. Croghan, Lawhorne, and Landon Williams each had two fumble recoveries, while Croghan forced a further five fumbles.

On offense, Blake Howell threw for 11 touchdowns and ran for 10, while Jonathan Wark added 678 yards on the ground and six scores. The team's two leading receivers, Dash Havens and Cole Cavanaugh, combined for 728 yards and seven touchdowns.

Twenty-one seniors capped their careers on a high with the Falcons reaching Class 4A/3A’s last 16 teams standing: Williams, Lawhorne, Fetty, Howell, Wark, Cavanaugh, Joey Viskocil, Michael Queen, Cameron Wallace, Reid Bergstrom, Kamari Brown, Hayden Fox, Blake Howell, Isaac Graves, Dash Havens, Jackson Anders, Roy Bowerman, Asher Knickerbocker, Kameron Chapman, Matthew Murphy and Andrew Webster.

“We’ve been together for three years. A lot of these guys were sophomores on varsity during my first year,” Marks said. “They’ve done a lot of special things for Severna Park and put some building blocks in place, and now we have to build on it.”