Thanks To Dunbar, M&T Can Claim Miracle

Tavon Austin capped his stellar career at Dunbar with a 191-yard rushing performance against Fort Hill to help the Poets win their third straight state title.  (Sabina Moran/PressBox)

By: Keith Mills

It was one of those rare moments in sports when the result defies reality.

Fans will always remember the "Miracle on Ice." And who can forget Doug Flutie and Boston College's "Miracle in Miami." And now Baltimore fans will always remember a high school football game that fans already are calling "The Miracle at M&T Bank Stadium."

This wasn't Mike Eruzione or Flutie making game-winning plays still being talked about some 25-30 years later. This was a group of high school seniors named Perry and Farr, Austin and Brisbon, Brown and Mayo.

With a two-point conversion in the closing seconds, Dunbar beat Fort Hill of Cumberland, 20-19, at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium for the Poets' third straight Class 1A state football championship.

"Unbelievable," said former Dunbar coach Bob Wade, now Baltimore City's director of athletics.

"Just incredible," said Barbara Allen, Dunbar's athletic director.

"Made for television," said Dunbar coach Lawrence Smith. "It was just made for television."

In some minds, it might have been made for Hollywood.

"With 1:27 left, [deceased] coach Ben Eaton sent an angel down from heaven, and he guided us down the field for that touchdown," said former Dunbar quarterback Byron Selby. "What else could it have been?"

Whether it was indeed the spirit of Eaton, the former Poets coach who died before the 2007 season, or simply the incredible clutch play of Jonathan Perry, Tavon Austin and their teammates that turned sure defeat into victory, then so be it. Even Eruzione and Flutie would have marveled.

With 1:27 left in the game and Dunbar trailing, 19-12, the Poets faced a fourth-and-7 from their 12-yard line. One botched snap, one blown blocking assignment, one bad pass, one dropped ball and the careers of Perry, Austin and the other 25 Dunbar seniors would be over.

"We called our last timeout before that play," said Smith, who replaced Eaton last August and led the Poets to a 58-34 win over Fort Hill in last year's state title game. "I simply told the kids that we didn't have to score a touchdown but we did have to get a first down or the game was over."

"I knew to win the game," said Perry, "I had to get the first down. I dropped back and saw the defensive line just open up and then saw green grass and I just kept it."

He kept it for 13 yards and a first down at Dunbar's 25. But the Poets were still 75 yards from a touchdown with just 1:19 to play and no timeouts. That's when Perry, who had not completed a pass the entire day, went from high school senior to, in the words of Dunbar assistant David Lewis, "John Elway."

"It was just like 'The Drive,'" said Lewis, an outstanding basketball and football player at Dunbar in the late 1980s. "John Elway, 1987. When he beat Cleveland Browns."

In that historic game, Elway led the Denver Broncos on a 98-yard drive to tie the game with 37 seconds left, a game the Broncos won in overtime. But Elway had more then five minutes to work with on "The Drive." Dunbar's final drive began with 1:54 to play from its 9-yard line.

"In my mind, the season wasn't over," said Austin, who scored two early touchdowns to give the Poets a 12-0 first quarter lead before Fort Hill took control of the game. "I knew somebody had to make a big play. It didn't have to necessarily be me, just somebody."

"I was thinking first downs," said Perry, who came into the game having thrown for 1,655 yards and 18 touchdowns during the season. "I saw fight in the eyes of my linemen and receivers. I just felt I had to lead us."

And he did -- with an assist from the high school rule that stops the clock after each first down to move the chains.

First-and-10, Dunbar 25-yard line (1:19 left): Perry hits Avery Brisbon for 18 yards to the 43.

First-and-10, Dunbar 43 (1:06): Brisbon drops Perry's pass and the clock stops. "Actually, that dropped pass helped us," said Perry. "It allowed us to regroup a little."

Second-and-10, Dunbar 43 (:55): Perry to Austin, 10 yards to the Ft. Hill 47.

First-and-10, Ft. Hill 48 (:43), Austin drops Perry's pass.

Second-and-10, Ft. Hill 48 (:35), Perry scrambles, hits Michael McNeill for 14 yards to the 34.

First-and-10, Ft. Hill 34 (:25), Perry to Sean Farr, 20 yards to the 14.

It was Farr's first catch of the day, but not his most important. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound senior came into the game with 26 catches and nine touchdowns. Catch No. 10 came on the next play.

With 15 seconds remaining and fans from both teams standing and screaming, Perry dropped back in shotgun formation. The snap from center Joshua Melton scooted past Perry back to the 45-yard line. Perry kept his poise, picked up the ball, looked left and threw a rocket to Farr in the left corner of the end zone.

Fort Hill cornerback Ben Tucker dived for the ball in vain while Farr cradled it in his arms before falling over Tucker in the end zone.

"I knew Sean would catch it," Perry said. "I just had to get it there."

And he did, capping an astounding, 11-play, 91-yard drive that ended with just two seconds left in the game. Still, the Poets trailed, 20-19. Kicking the extra point was not an option so Smith and offensive coordinator Travis Blackston faced another decision: Which play to run for the two-point conversion that would decide both the game and the state championship?

"A lot of the coaches were saying, 'Run the fade to Sean, run the fade to Sean,'" said Smith. "The offensive linemen were yelling, 'Wedge block, wedge block and give it to the fullback.' That's when Tavon (Austin) came up to me and said, 'Give me the ball.' "

"The main reason I took charge," said Austin, "was if we would've lost I wanted it to be all on me, a four-year veteran. So if anything went bad, I wanted people to look at me."

Throughout the final drive, the offensive line of Antonio Brown, Devin Clark, Melton, Michael Mayo and Anthony Watters gave Perry the time needed to throw the ball. This time left tackle Mayo, left guard Watters and tight end Tevin Brown gave Austin just enough of a seam through the left side for the coveted two points and Dunbar's third straight state title.

"This will always stay with me," said Austin, who rushed for 191 yards in his final game, giving him 2,660 for the year and a mind-boggling 7,780 yards in his high school career. He scored 34 touchdowns this year and 128 for his career.

It's a career that places Austin alongside some of the greatest players ever to come out of the Baltimore area.

Loyola/Blakefield's Bob Williams and Bill Stromberg are in the College Football Hall of Fame, along with Poly's Jack Scarbath. Antonio Freeman, Greg Schaum and Mike Pitts also went to Poly and played in the NFL, as did Louis Carter (Arundel), Dave Pivec (Patterson), Andre Creamer (Northwestern), Charlie Pittman (Edmondson), Tom Gatewood (City College), Donald Brown (Annapolis), Irv Pankey (Aberdeen), Vaughn Hebron (Cardinal Gibbons), Sean Landetta (Loch Raven) and Victor Abiamiri and Jamal Cox of Gilman. Abiamiri, McDonogh's Eric King and Vincent Fuller of Woodlawn are currently playing in the NFL.

Jim Traber of Wilde Lake may have played in the NFL had he not chose major league baseball over football while Tommy Polley and Calvin Williams both went to Dunbar and played in the NFL.

Austin said West Virginia is at the top of his recruiting list -- a list that includes Maryland, North Carolina and Michigan -- but he won't officially announce his college plans until the February signing period.

Until then, he'll savor his final high school game, an improbable, Hollywood win that looked like it was over with 1:27 left and the Poets 75 yards away from the end zone.

"It's funny," Perry said. "We were talking about 'Remember The Titans' just this past week and how they scored on that last play of the game. On that last drive, my linemen said to me, 'We only have a minute left as high school teammates, let's do it.' This is the greatest thing I have ever been a part of."

"I've been around a long time," said Wade. "And that was the best high school football game I've ever seen."

"I'm numb, absolutely numb," said Smith. "Talk about a great group of young men who just refused to give in, refused to give up."

After Austin's game-winning run, the 5-foot-9 senior sprinted to the Dunbar fans with his helmet off and arms raised. Perry literally collapsed in front of the Dunbar bench, crying in the arms of assistant coach William Crawford while Sandra Eaton, the wife of Ben Eaton, took it all in just a few feet from where her husband held up the state championship trophy two years earlier.

"She was sitting in the booth with us," said Wade. "She said, 'I'm going down to the field. Ben would want me down there.'"

"Ben was here," Sandra Eaton said. "No doubt about it."

"Before that last play," said Smith to his team after the game, "and we're all trying to decide what to do, Coach (Anderson) Powell said, 'Let's leave it the hands of Coach Eaton. He'll take care of us.' "

Or, as former Poets quarterback Selby said, "Coach Eaton and his angel."

HEAP WATCHES FROM DUNBAR SIDELINE

There was a special guest on the Dunbar sidelines in the win over Ft. Hill -- Ravens tight end Todd Heap.

"I spoke at their banquet a couple of weeks ago," Heap said. "They asked me to come out to a game. I said it would be tough because we were on the road so much. I told them if they made it to the state championship game I'd be there."

Heap attended the game with Chad Steele of the Ravens P.R. department.

SIX POETS IN CRAB BOWL

Smith will be pacing the sidelines of Johnny Unitas Stadium Dec. 20 as the coach of the Baltimore team in the Crab Bowl, an all-star game featuring the state's premier high school seniors. Six members of Smith's Dunbar Poets are on the squad: Austin, Perry, Farr, defensive end Horace Miller, defensive back Courtney Bridget and running back/defensive back Davon Muse.

Perry will be joined at quarterback by Grant Enders of Old Mill and Kevin Fulton of Milford Mill, while three members of River Hill's two-time state championship team will also play.

Defensive back/running backs Malek Redd and Leron Eaddy and center/defensive tackle Sean Hull helped Brian Van Deusen's Hawks beat Eastern Tech, 31-7, to win their second straight Class 2A state title.

Speed wins in high school football. So does execution, depth and good coaching -- and River Hill has it all. With senior Michael Campanero limited to defense because of a bad hamstring, quarterback Luke Hostetler, Redd, Eaddy, Ryan Griffin and Kevin Johnson led a Hawks offense that rolled up more than 300 yards of offense.

Van Deusen, who will assist Smith in the Crab Bowl game, will say goodbye to 20 seniors, who leave with back-to-back 14-0 seasons, a pair of state championships and a three-year record of 41-1.

Loyola will also be well represented in the Crab Bowl game. Terence Garvin and Brandon Floyd helped the Dons finish a perfect 11-0 and win the MIAA A Conference championship.

Issue 132: December 2008