Perry Hall falls to North Point in state semifinals

North Point continued its quest to get back to the state championship game when they dominated Perry Hall on both sides of the ball and emerged with a 34-6 victory in the Class 4A/3A state semifinals.

The Eagles (11-2) will play Mervo at 7 p.m. Thursday in a rematch of last year’s title game, which the Mustangs won, 14-7.

Perry Hall was held to 62 total yards from scrimmage, including just four on the ground, while the Eagles racked up 280 yards, including 222 rushing yards.

Noah Pr’Out led the Eagles with 104 yards on 19 carries. Russell Jackson rushed for 86 yards on 12 attempts and DJ Brown had 63 yards on 10 carries in the first half before departing with an injury.

“They beat us up front to be honest. Offense and defense, they really controlled the line of scrimmage,” Perry Hall coach Ryan Pittillo said. “They were very strong up front.”

Perry Hall’s opening drive was its longest, when they ran seven plays and running back Lamont Smith gained 21 yards on four carries, but a pair of penalties set them back and they turned the ball over on downs.

“[Perry Hall] came out playing lights out,” North Point coach Bill Condo said. “They are very aggressive and I felt like they were trying to bully us there on that first drive and we’ve been there and we were able to get some stops early.”

Senior defensive end Nate Templeton spent most of the night in the backfield, and when he wasn’t making tackles his teammates were gang tackling behind the line of scrimmage. Perry Hall had nine plays from scrimmage that went for negative yardage.

“It was team defense overall,” Templeton said. “We are just a team and we practice Monday through Thursday and we work on technique.”

“I’m super proud of Nate. He’s one of the few returning guys we had up front from last year and tonight he was hungry to get back to that state championship,” Condo said.

North Point opened the scoring on its first possession when it travelled 54 yards on eight plays. Jackson’s 18-yard run capped the drive and Christian Solomon’s extra point made it 7-0 with 4:28 left in the first quarter.

North Point fumbled on its next drive, but Perry Hall’s drive ended when Vernon Allen was stopped on fourth-and-4 by Nasir Eatman and Seth Gathers on the first play of the second quarter. Gathers, who was second on the team with 80 tackles, will play next year at James Madison University.

The Eagles took advantage of the field position and scored on a 14-yard run by Brown for a 14-0 lead. They extended it to 21-0 before halftime after an 8-yard touchdown run by Pr’Out.

“He was a big part of their team all year and he’s a good football player,” Pittillo said. “They are loaded, that’s why they are there every year. They are well-coached, they have got a ton of good athletes and they play in these games every year.”

“We have a lot of skill guys,” Condo said. “We try to spread the wealth. Our offensive coordinator does a great job of doing so. We have weapons and we had a guy [Brown] go down and [Pr’Out] stepped in there.”

The lead swelled to 27-0 in the third quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by Aaquor Moses. Perry Hall’s only score came on a 50-yard fumble return by Da’Sean Spicer.

“We returned a fumble for a touchdown and I’m proud of our guys for that,” Pittillo said.

But the best plays the rest of the were a 20-yard pass to Jalil Frazier that deflected off two Eagles and a 21-yard pass from quarterback Terrell Hearn to Corey Costner. Costner was the hero of the Gators’ 39-2 victory over Thomas Wootton with four touchdowns, but he couldn’t find pay dirt Friday night.

“When they are in your backfield all day, it’s hard to throw or run,” Pittillo said.

The Eagles scored their final touchdown on a 37-yard pass from Kyler Ferriera to Gathers with 31 seconds left in the game.

North Point will make it third straight trip to the state title game after winning it in 2022 and Templeton is ready.

“We are very good and we are going to find out next week at states how good,” he said.

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