A group of Havre de Grace football family members counted down the clock’s final seconds, savoring each number. The significance of hitting triple zeros with a lead was monumental.
The Warriors didn’t win a single game all of last year, finishing 0-10. Coach Brian Eberhardt opened this season hoping only to take a step forward. They took a significant leap in capping the regular season 4-5. But more remarkably, No. 7 seed Havre de Grace upset No. 2 Brunswick, 35-32, in the Class 1A North Region quarterfinal Thursday night.
Eberhardt could only crack a smile.
“After you have a year like that, it’s tough,” he said. “But it speaks volumes about the kids that we had coming in this year. We had the most kids we’ve ever had come out since I’ve been here. I thought, ‘0-10? We’re not gonna be able to field a JV team.’ And typically you see some attrition but we didn’t have one single kid quit. I’m just so happy for them but they don’t know how to win.”
A few of his players took steps from the bench toward rushing the field before the clock fully counted down. When they did officially close the win, elation ensued, posing for pictures together, sharing hugs and screaming all to grab hold of the moment.
Eberhardt reminded them to act like they’ve been there before. The truth is, they haven’t.
Havre de Grace fields more sophomores than seniors, who are still learning the ropes at the varsity level.
That was evident from the start of Thursday night’s game when Brunswick punched first. The Railroaders landed a first-quarter right hook that left the Warriors, at one point, gasping to keep the game competitive.
Railroaders senior running back Ben Wells capped off a six-minute opening drive with a 1-yard rushing score. Then came another, this time a 20-yard run with 1:46 to go in the first.
Havre de Grace’s first play from scrimmage after that was an interception against the right sideline, handing the ball back to the home team. The play after that? A 36-yard touchdown, this time through the air to Wells making it 19-0 after one quarter.
“They don’t give up,” Eberhardt said. “We were down 19-0 in the first quarter and these guys kept fighting. With young guys, they need to feel some confidence. … They just got a little taste with that first touchdown and then were extremely confident in the locker room.”
The Warriors came back up for air with some help from quarterback Jaylin Solomon.
The sophomore manufactured the first scoring drive with his legs, capping it off with a 5-yard rushing touchdown. Solomon then looked to the air, finding Deyshawn Henderson in the end zone on fourth down in the waning seconds of the first half to make it 19-14 at the break.
“I thank my line, I thank my coaches,” Solomon said. “I thank everybody that’s on this team I love everybody.”
It was a shootout from there.
Havre de Grace and Brunswick traded deep balls to open the second half, 67- and 59-yard passes, respectively. Both sides tacked on another.
But Solomon’s most crucial play came in the game’s closing act.
The Warriors held their final three-point lead with three minutes to go. A few penalties set them back to a 3rd-and-28 from their own 33-yard line. What seemed like a likely stop would’ve made it fourth down, giving the ball back to the Railroaders for a two-minute drill.
Instead, Solomon scrambled left and right around the pocket and when he couldn’t find anything upfield, he took off rushing for a first down and more. “When the play dissolved,” he said, “I just saw open field.”
With Brunswick out of timeouts, Havre de Grace eventually ran out the clock to its final seconds — a magical turnaround from a dejected no-win season to an unlikely road playoff win.
