Stone shuts out Raiders

Football team wins first game for sixth straight season

Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008

Senior running back Zach Lohr scored twice on the ground and returned a blocked punt for a touchdown as Stone won for the sixth opening night in a row, 32-0, over visiting Leonardtown on a Friday evening that saw the beginning of Tropical Storm Hanna’s rains come through the area.

‘‘It was 12-0 at halftime, so we just pushed through it the last half of the game,” Lohr said.

Stone’s last opening night loss came on Sept. 7, 2001 against Frederick Douglass. The Cougars have faced Leonardtown on four of their last six opening nights and won all four, outscoring the Raiders, 134-18.

‘‘This is a good victory, because it gets us all hyped up,” said Stone senior quarterback Thomas Lyles, who had 68 yards passing and another 34 on the ground.

Stone (1-0) got scores on both sides of the ball as well as on special teams with Lohr’s return. Senior linebacker Vincent Eubanks returned a Raiders fumble 29 yards to finish off the game’s scoring, just a minute after Lohr’s 60-yard scamper to the end zone.

‘‘It’s a victory, we’ll take it,” Stone head coach Jeremiah Vedis said. ‘‘We just got to come out and get better. We’re not there yet, but it’s a good start.”

Leonardtown (0-1) returned just two offensive and three defensive starters from a squad that won three games a year ago. The Raiders turned to junior quarterback Will Pagliarulo, who was playing in his first varsity game. Pagliarulo completed 5 of 19 passes for 62 yards and two interceptions, both coming on consecutive drives at the end of the first half.

‘‘He did a great job,” Leonardtown second-year head coach Anthony Pratley said of Pagliarulo. ‘‘He kept his head in there. He was under a lot of pressure all night long. We got some things to correct, but I saw some really positive things. The rain didn’t help us any; we got to learn to catch the ball, wet, dry or whatever it is, we still got to catch the football.”

Leonardtown drove down to Stone’s 32-yard line on its first drive of the game, which ended on one of three Raiders lost fumbles. It was the closest they got to the end zone in the game.

‘‘Stone outplayed us, it’s just that simple,” Pratley said. ‘‘You got to give them credit, they came prepared. ... We got up early on them a little bit, started moving the ball, and then when it rains it pours and that pretty much sums it up tonight.”

Stone could not do anything off miscue and the game remained scoreless until midway through the second quarter when Lohr scored from four yards out. The two-point conversion failed, but the senior had his team’s first touchdown of the season and Stone led 6-0.

‘‘The first one there was just punch it in, got the workhorses to punch it in from the [4] yard line,” Lohr said.

Leonardtown went three and out on its next possession and Stone drove down the field for its next score after Lyles’ 22-yard punt return.

At the Raiders’ 43, Lyles quickly got the Cougars into the red zone with a 31-yard strike to senior Antwan Farrow, who laid his arms out to bring in Lyles’ throw. After a false start penalty, Lyles ran 15 yards down to the 2. The Raiders stopped Lohr from getting in on first and goal, but Lyles wasn’t stopped and scored from the 1. The conversion again failed and Stone led 12-0, a lead it would take to halftime.

‘‘After the first one I threw, [Vedis] said I needed to start running more,” Lyles said, ‘‘so I started running more a lot, then he said, Calm down and run it, then throw it a little bit,’ and then I did a little of both.”

Late in the third quarter, Leonardtown settled for a punt on its own 29, but Lohr blocked it and returned it for a score. The conversion failed again, but Stone led 18-0 with 2:01 left.

‘‘I sprinted in there and smacked the ball down, picked it up and scooped it in,” Lohr said.

Vedis added: ‘‘He’s tough. He’s come a long way, he’s our workhorse and he had a real good night.”

Pagliarulo opened up the fourth with a 27-yard pass to senior Rusty Dobson, who juggled the ball but held onto it down the sideline. That put Leonardtown in Stone territory at the 43, but three straight incomplete passes after junior Darren Reed’s three-yard run ended the drive. Reed finished with 15 carries for 50 yards.

‘‘We got a lot to learn, we got nine games left,” Pratley said. ‘‘I told them, ‘You better have a short memory, because we got Westlake coming to our house [at 7 p.m., Friday], so we don’t have any time to pout about it, that’s for sure.”