“We were here last year and lost a heart-breaker,” Smyrna coach Mike Judy said. ” . . . It just kinda scars your soul when you go through something like that. I’m just really proud of them and really proud that they got the opportunity . . . It was gonna be really hard to stop us.”
Smyrna (12-1) won its 11th straight since a 21-14 loss to Middletown on Sept. 16, having avenged that with a 48-0 semifinal romp over the Cavaliers. The Eagles had prevailed 46-21 at Dover on Oct. 22 and scored at least 40 points in each of their last nine games.
Quarterback Brian Wright completed 16 of 24 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns. Nolan Fretz had 99 yards on seven receptions with a touchdown.
Markell Holman, who had played his first three high school seasons at William Penn, gained 113 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns for the Eagles.
“We just have so many different aspects to our offense,” Wright said as Smyrna offensive guru Mike Marks joined him for some postgame revelry. ” . . . We just stay in the filmroom and grind and we haven’t stopped.”
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An onside kick, recovered by Smyrna’s Stephan Driver, turned out to be an early boost for the Eagles. They’d returned the favor by stopping Dover on downs at the Smyrna 29 on the Senators’ first possession. Six plays later Wright passed 26 yards for the TD to Fretz one play after a 30-yard Holman scamper.
Driver’s subsequent recovery gave Smyrna possession at the Dover 33 and a chance to quickly extend its lead. This time, Wright’s 30-yard throw to Fretz set up Holman’s 13-yard TD run.
Dover did then drive 56 yards for a touchdown, Nahseem Cosme throwing 14 yards to John Parker as the Senators cut the Dover lead to 12-7 and hinted they could make it a a game.
But Smyrna answered emphatically with 65- and 63-yard scoring drives. Knight finished the first with a 17-yard TD reception from Wright and the second with a 2-yard carry as Smyrna happily carried a 28-7 lead into halftime.
“Linemen were moving bodies,” Knight said. “We just had to execute our plays and that’s what we did.”
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It just got worse for Dover in the third quarter as the Senators fumbled the kickoff with Machai Stinnett recovering for Smyrna, leading to Knight’s 27-yard TD pass to Holman. Smyrna kicker Joshua Michael then recovered another onside kick, leading to Knight’s 6-yard TD run as Smyrna went ahead 44-7 and, due to mercy rules when the margin reaches 35 points, the clock kept ticking with 6:34 to go in the third quarter.
Smyrna, however, was merciless, getting another fourth-quarter touchdown on Holman’s 1-yard run.
Dover was seeking the third state football title since the tournament’s 1971 inception, having won Division I championships in 1977 and 1988. The Senators also reached the 2001 title game and lost to Newark.
The Senators (8-5) are in their second season under coach Chip Knapp, the long-time Wesley College offensive coordinator who was Wolverines head coach the last three years before the school’s 2021 closing.
“This is a quality team we played tonight,” said Judy, a Dover graduate who was a starting center and team captain at Wesley. “They’re very physical and talented. So you know it was gonna be tight early and we were just hoping that we would wear them down.”
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