That’s just what Stags football has looked like this fall. All year, DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor had stressed that these games — WCAC bouts — are 48 minutes of grit, always tight, and will be lost if they are not treated as such; likewise, a team can win each of those 48 minutes only if its practices are perfect. Nearly 100 practices later, and the Stags, McGregor said, have yet to have a bad one or one in which they didn’t work as hard as possible.
Now, with that ethos, they will ride into the WCAC championship game Nov. 21 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis against No. 1 Good Counsel, which beat No. 14 Gonzaga, 20-2, on Friday night.
“We just outwork everybody,” Coombs said. “We work harder. We lift harder. We run harder. We’re just built different.”
For years, DeMatha (9-1) has made a habit out of showing up in these postseason games, with a conference-record 24 championships. But its WCAC rivals — St. John’s (5-5), Gonzaga and Good Counsel — had all captured titles since the Stags’ last in 2016. So since August, DeMatha assumed the personality of its coach. McGregor describes himself as a creature of habit. Habitually, they built.
“The guys have done everything I’ve asked them to do,” McGregor said. “You’re going to play like you practice.”
DeMatha took control early. Coombs found a hole in the offensive line, hit it and ended up in the end zone 55 yards away on the first drive. Several plays later, a DeMatha lineman came up with a Cadets fumble. Though the Stags didn’t convert then, it was telling of the sort of wire-to-wire drubbing they inflicted. The next drive, they were stuffed at the 1-yard line. In the drive that followed, Coombs punched in a two-yard run to give the Stags a 14-3 halftime lead.
The Stags didn’t give up in the next 24 minutes. With a menacing defense led by Emmett Laws — who had more than a half-dozen tackles in the backfield, including the sack on fourth down that set up Coombs for his third score — they never looked in danger of conceding their lead.
“Until that clock hits 0:00, we won’t be satisfied,” junior quarterback Denzel Gardner said.