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	Photo by Skip Lawrence Thomas Johnson's Fabian Gonzalez, 3, carries the ball as Frederick's Xavier Robertson, 84, and Trayvon Hoy, the background, pursue him. Diving in the background is TJ's Brandon Berney.

The shirt was given to him by injured teammate Jeremy Grove, and it was a fitting garment for a stealthy quarterback who uses fake handoffs to prevent defenders from seeing that he's carrying the ball.

With his team looking to extend its 11-point lead, Lynch ran for the first two touchdowns of the second half -- including one on a play-action fake that threw off defenders -- to help TJ down Frederick , 34-10 , in Saturday's intracity football game.

The win snapped TJ's two-game losing streak, allowing the Patriots to enter the playoffs on a positive note. TJ (6-4) begins postseason play with a rematch against Urbana next weekend, looking to avenge its 10-7 loss to the Hawks on Oct. 9.

"Now we're just preparing and getting ourselves ready for next week," said TJ's Fabian Gonzalez, who returned a blocked punt for a touchdown in the first quarter. "We're going to make up for all the mistakes we made earlier in the season. We just hope for a big win and to go on to play at M&T (Bank) Stadium."

The Patriots didn't even need a victory to secure the playoff spot, but they got back in the win column after losses to Fort Hill and Linganore the previous two weeks.

"Winning, getting back on track, it's huge. Plus, it's always nice beating Frederick ," Lynch said. "Homecoming week, playing Frederick , it just gets the blood flowing. It's always nice beating your friends."

But one of Lynch's friends on his own team, Grove, was missing from the offense. Grove, the East Carolina-bound fullback/linebacker, was sidelined with an injury he suffered in last week's loss against Linganore . TJ coach Ben Wright said Grove might have a hernia, and his status is uncertain.

"It's week to week," Wright said. "He's a heckuva player."

Adjusting to Grove's absence, the Patriots switched from an I formation to the Wing-T. They also moved Nick Forbes to fullback, a move that became even more necessary because fullback Jeff Bryan had the flu last week, according to Wright.

With TJ only up 13-2 midway in the third quarter, Forbes (who rushed for 114 yards on nine carries) helped spark the offense's first scoring drive since his 16-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. On back-to-back plays, Forbes broke a 10-yard run and hauled in a 13-yard pass from Lynch, putting the Patriots at Frederick 's 2. Lynch then

scored on a sneak at the 2:14 mark.

In the fourth quarter, Lynch all-but iced the game by scoring on a five-yard run, putting the Patriots up 27-2 with 8:31 left. He reached the end zone after a play-action fake drew defenders to another ballcarrier. On the previous snap, he scored on an almost identical play, but the play had been whistled dead. The fake fooled the refs and drew an inadvertent whistle.

"He's very slick," Wright said. "He's a very good ballhandler."

And Lynch isn't the only involved in selling those fakes.

"The backs do a great job of carrying out their fakes," Lynch said. "It makes it kind of easy when we don't rush the offense and everyone carries out their fake, it just opens up."

Not to be forgotten was Gonzalez's momentum-boosting touchdown. After Richard Newman blocked Frederick 's punt, the ball popped up into the air and was immediately seized by Gonzalez. Gonzalez was tangled up in a group of players, but teammate Brandon Brownfield had a remedy.

"After I caught the ball, I was stuck," Gonzalez said. "And Brownfield just came and pushed me off the pile. I just launched out, and then I saw the end zone."

His touchdown return gave the Patriots a 13-2 lead with 4:16 left in the first quarter.

TJ's backup quarterback Brian Chase threw a 24-yard pass to Evin Vannoy in the fourth quarter.

TJ's defense also came up big. The Patriots held Frederick to minus-12 rushing yards through the first three quarters and grabbed three interceptions and recovered two fumbles.

In the first three quarters, Frederick 's only points came on a second-quarter safety. Deon Walker scored Frederick 's touchdown on a nine-yard run in the fourth quarter.

"We improved tremendously, and we wished we could've had a better show," Frederick coach Vince Ahearn said. "We're extremely proud of our kids and what they've accomplished this year."

Frederick finishes with a 4-6 record, but it had a roster full of young and inexperienced players who made strides. Some of those young players were even stars.

Sophomore wide receiver Jalen Gee had five more catches Saturday and finishes with 58, breaking the team's single-season record of 53 held by Chad Steiner. Sophomore running back Deonte Taylor rushed for 103 yards (most of them in the fourth quarter), becoming the first Cadet in five years to run for 1,000 yards.