Frederick quarterback Deon Walker dropped back, flicked his wrist and admired his spiral in flight. All that was left to do was celebrate the touchdown. Walker repeated that process three times in the second half against the visiting South Hagerstown Rebels last night, totaling 106 yards and propelling the Cadets to a convincing 35-0 win.
The victory was the highlight of an up and down season for Frederick and their junior signal caller.
Walker, who was the Cadets' starter at the beginning of the season, has been battling a hip injury all year that kept him off the field until last week.
"Coming back off the injury has been a little hard," Walker said. "But coach has left me out so I could get into the flow and get comfortable. As soon as that happened things just took off."
The running game also pitched in for Frederick , as Andrew Hartman carried the ball 17 times for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
"I was relieved that we got this done," Frederick coach Vince Ahearn said. "We are still not sure what kind of team we want to be, but tonight we did pretty well in all phases."
Frederick 's defense held their own as well with 11 sacks, 3 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries on the way to posting their first shutout of the season. Junior linebacker Michael Brown led his squad with an impressive 20 tackles and two sacks.
The Cadets were spurred on by some sloppy play from the Rebels, who committed 16 penalties overall and quickly became their own worst enemy.
South Hagerstown gave the Cadets new life twice in the second quarter, committing two fourth down penalties on consecutive drives that resulted in first downs. Frederick took advantage of both and turned in the only two scores of the first half and were ahead 14-0 at the break.
"The penalties hurt us on both sides of the ball," Rebels coach Greg Kellick said. "We were inconsistent as well, we just didn't make adjustments when we needed to. Really we just became our own worst enemy."
The South Hagerstown offense rarely touched the ball in the second half, and when they did it was following a Walker touchdown strike.
"We just got some confidence in the second half," Walker said. "When we got in a rhythm it was nice to see."
Ahearn said his team took a huge step forward with the win, especially on offense.
"The biggest difference is we didn't turn the ball over," he said. "Were were making some mistakes but weren't making the big ones. Last week Deon threw three interceptions, this week he had three touchdowns."
