Who Is Leonardtown?

This Friday at 6:30 pm, Blake hosts Leonardtown in the 4A/3A football state quarterfinals. Despite a middling 5-4 regular season record, the Leonardtown Raiders won two consecutive playoff matchups to improve to 7-4 overall. Let’s get to know our upcoming opponent and how we got to this point.

Leonardtown High School, home of the Raiders, is situated in the Southern Maryland town of Leonardtown, the county seat of St. Mary’s County. Located a 76-mile drive from Blake, the school has a population of approximately 2,000 students, 72% of whom are white. One notable Leonardtown alumnus is Jamie “The Scottish Hammer” Gillan, the punter for the New York Giants, who began playing football there after moving from Scotland. 

The Raiders are coming off an upset win in the regional semifinal of Howard High School, the top seed in the East region. Leonardtown also has a strong early-season victory over North Point, a fellow state quarterfinalist and the team that defeated Blake in last year’s playoffs. The hard-fought 21-20 victory over the perennial contender suggests that Leonardtown may be better than their four-loss record suggests.

Meanwhile, the Bengals are rolling into the matchup with a 9-2 overall record and a four-game win streak. Led by Coach Marshall, Blake reached the state quarterfinals for the third straight year. Blake defeated Whitman last week to advance to this round and has a key 21-14 win over Montgomery Blair. However, the team lost to rivals Sherwood and Paint Branch. 

Ultimately, the quarterfinal matchup looks to be a close and competitive matchup. The Blake Bengals will hope to lean on their home-field advantage to conquer Leonardtown and move forward to the state semifinal.