D8 MARYLAND3AFINAL A little razzle dazzle lifts Wilde Lake to a title
Viera’s touchdown pass and scoring run help subdue Franklin, 21-14
BY JOSH BARR
baltimore—The teamwith the so-called vanilla offense reached deep into its playbook and a pair of trick plays lifted 10th-ranked Wilde Lake to its sixth state title. Running back Khalil Viera
threw a tiebreaking touchdown pass just before halftime, then added a 36-yard touchdown run on a double handoff midway through the third quarter as the Wildecats beat Franklin of subur- banBaltimore, 21-14, intheMary- land 3A championship game be- fore 3,500 atM&T Bank Stadium on Thursday night. “I got a little razzle dazzle in
me,”Wilde LakeCoachMikeHar- rison said with an ear-to-ear smile. “Hey, in ’97, [former coach] Doug [DuVall] did the same thing – hitch and pitch got us down to the 10-yard line and three plays laterwe threwa halfback pass for a touchdown and beat Thomas Johnson, 7-0.” Thursday’s victory wasn’t
quite as dramatic as that 1997 championship, themost recent of theWildecats’ five previous state titles, when Harrison was on the sideline as an assistant coach. Wilde Lake (11-3), which played on the road as the lower seed in its first three playoff victories, controlled things throughout against Franklin. Still, it was 7-7 late in the first
half when linebacker Anthony Miller intercepted a pass and returned it 44 yards, giving the
EZ SU
KLMNO
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2010
VIDEO PREVIEWS: Post reporters break down Friday’s Maryland 4A final and Saturday’s Virginia AAA Division 5 semifinal.
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST Wilde Lake running backKhalil Viera breaks free on his way to the end zone for a 36-yard score in the third quarter. The Wildecats won their sixth state championship.
Wildecats the ball at the Franklin 16-yard line with 54 seconds left. Two running plays netted seven yards and Harrison called his final timeout of the half. “We kept watching what the
cornerback was doing and thought he was biting up there trying to be run support,” said Harrison,who normally relies on his team’swing-T rushing offense to gain yards. So Harrison called for Viera to
take a pitch to his left and then throw, a difficult maneuver for a right-handed thrower. Viera watchedtomake sure thedefense flowedtohim, thenthrewto open wide receiver Eron Pruitt in the back of the end zone for a nine- yard touchdown and a 13-7 lead with 34 seconds left in the half. It wasWilde Lake’s only completed pass in the game. “I was shocked they called it,” said Viera, noting that he does
throw the ball occasionally in practice as the third-string quar- terback. “But we had gone over it in practice.” In the third quarter, facing
third and six from the Franklin 36, running back E.J. Gilman took a toss to the right and handed off to Viera heading back toward the right. Viera burst through some defenders near the line of scrimmage, put his hand down to maintain his balance
and scooted into the end zone. Joe Kelly’s two-point conversion runmade it 21-7. “We weren’t going to line up
and bang it directly down their throats.We had to resort to some of the stuff we might not run all the time, but we practice it,”
Harrisonsaid.Thewing-T“works forus. It’s our style, our character. We were able to win 11 football games running the most boring offense in the state. I’mokaywith
WILDE LAKE FRANKLIN 21 14
that. We’re state champions. It’s fine.”
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Maryland 4A
No. 5 Urbana (12-0) vs. No. 6Wise (12-1) Friday, 7:30 p.m. atM&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore
Howthey got here:Urbana quietly has put together one of the
most dominant seasons in state history. TheHawks have yet to trail and their first-team defense has allowed just 15 points.Urbana blanked PerryHall, 28-0, and Patterson, 34-0, to win theNorth Re- gion, then took care ofNo. 14 Gaithersburg, 37-6, in the state semifi- nals. Wise lost its season opener, then took off on a 12-game win streak. The Pumas have had some closer calls, trailing at halftime in three of their past four games, including last week’s 14-7 victory over No. 16 Broadneck in the other state semifinal. Watch for:Neither of these offenses is dazzling, but both defenses
have demonstrated an uncanny ability to force turnovers and create short fields for the offense. The team that controls the line of scrim- mage will have the upper hand. Both have gotten to the state final in similar fashion, by relying on a running game and taking advantage of opponents’ mistakes.Urbana’s defense has been terrific, led by pres- sure-creating DEs JudeMerkel and Colton Kmetz. But they will have a challenge against Wise’s physical running game, led by patient run- ning backUriah Bethea (1,582 yards, 24 touchdowns). On the other side of the ball,Urbana quarterbackMichael Spahr made the throws when he had to against Gaithersburg and he might need to do the same this week to loosen things up for running back Wes Garey (1,030 yards, 19 touchdowns). The skinny: Wise needs to avoid its pattern of slow starts. Falling
behind in this game could be costly. Conversely, if the Pumas can get on top early, it will putUrbana in the unfamiliar position of trying to play catch up.
Fifth-rankedUrbana, shown practicing this week and having yet to trail in a game, will face sixth-ranked Wise for theMaryland 4A title.
Urbana’s Bing has pain that’s minor compared to past obstacles
Versatile senior suffered major injuries in a car accident a year ago, but now he’s back on the field BY JOSH BARR
Early on Thanksgiving after-
Aaron Bing spent Monday morning in a doctor’s office in
Germantown.Thebrokenbonein his right hand (suffered a month earlier) and the broken bone in his right wrist (suffered two weeks earlier) had mostly healed, thanks to the help of a
brace.That was the good news. The bad: His broken right thumb, suffered while making a tackle three days earlier, was going to need a cast. Bing, a senior wide receiver, cornerback and punt returner for fifth-ranked Urbana, was disap- pointed. Although he insisted he could play all of his positions despite the hard navy blue cast that runs up his forearm, the 6-foot, 170-pounder immediately knewhis role likely willbelimited to playing only on defense Friday night when theHawks play sixth- ranked Wise in the Maryland 4A championship game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. “It’smy pain and it’s not doing
any more damage,” Bing told his mother, Loretta. “I should have not said anything about it. What would a couple more days [with- out a cast] have meant?” After all, Bing reasoned, the
pain was minimal—compared to his injuries from this time last year.
noon 2009, Bing and two older siblings left their grandmother’s house in Poolesville to buy some soda for the family dinner. One mile into the short trip, things went very wrong. Blake Bing, then 18, was driv-
ing his mother’s white 2006GMC Envoy when he came around a sharp curveonJerusalemRoad— nearly the same spot when his sister, Lauren, then 22, had wrecked her car two years earlier. A car was parked along the right side of the slick, muddy two-lane road without a shoulder. He can- not remember exactly what hap- pened, but Blake figured he either hit the brakes and slid or swerved and over-corrected. All of a sud- den, the Envoy was sliding down an embankment and smashing into a tree. An insurance compa- ny investigation showed that Blake was driving 32 mph at the time of the crash, though Lauren said he was not going that fast. Blake and Lauren walked away
without injury. Aaron, though, had been seated behind the driv- er’s seat and the impact with the tree had almost destroyed the roof of the car, driving it into where Aaron had been sitting. With the help of a passerby, Blake climbed on top of the car and pulled off the door so that Aaron could be taken out of the vehicle.
Two hours earlier, he had been
at basketball practice. Now, Aar- on Bing had 10 broken ribs, two punctured and collapsed lungs and tears in his liver and stom- ach, resulting in internal bleed- ing.
An ambulance took Aaron to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. There were tubes everywhere, it seemed. Doctors told Loretta and ShawnBing that the third of their four children had multiple life- threatening injuries. They said there appeared to be some bleed- ing on the brain, and they pre- pared for emergency surgery. “I knew we were in trouble
when the nurse and doctor came out to us and the nurse had tears in her eyes,” Loretta Bing said. The operation went as well as possible. Aaron was kept in a coma for 48 hours as doctors waited to see how his body re- sponded. After waking up, he soon asked for a pen and paper and wrote his questions: What happened? How were Blake and Lauren? When could he get back on the basketball court? Aaron spent six days in inten-
sive care, then returned home. By January, he was back in school, though he lacked stamina and was barely able to get through a full day of classes. By February, he was back on the basketball court, getting a few spare minutes as a
reserve guard while the Hawks advanced to the state semifinals for the first time ever. After bas- ketball season ended, he played on the Urbana lacrosse team. Then it was time to get ready for football season. Under first-year Coach Ryan
Hines, Bing has taken advantage of his opportunities. He moved into the starting lineup at wide receiverandsafetyandhas been a standout.Onoffense, he leads the team with 28 catches for 394 yards. On defense, he has inter- cepted seven passes, returning four for touchdowns. In last week’s 37-6 victory over 14th- ranked Gaithersburg in the state semifinals — after breaking his thumb in the first quarter—Bing had a 40-yard punt return to set up a touchdown. “If you see the tape, I’m trying
to hold onto the ball because I couldn’t hold it well because of the thumb— it hurt so bad,” Bing said. Coming out of the game, however, “was definitely not an option. If we were to lose that game and I quit, I’d never be able to live withmyself.” Now, Bing and his teammates
are preparing for one final game together. The Hawks’ defense is perhaps the best in the state, and the team has yet to trail in its 12 games. If Urbana wins, Bing could be
in for quite a
celebration.Most of the team’s other seniors gave each otherMohawk haircuts prior to a game against Thomas Johnson on Oct. 8, Bing put off taking his turn, saying it would have to wait until the week of the state final. When the Hawks beat Gaithers- burg last week, Bing said he was not cutting his floppy brown hair unless they won the state title. “Mama’s not lettinghimget the
—Josh Barr
PHOTOS BY RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST
Urbana defensive back and wide receiver Aaron Bing, left, has taken advantage of his opportunities under first-year CoachRyanHines.
Mohawk yet because he doesn’t have his senior picture yet,” Lo- retta Bing said. That picture, the one that near-
ly never happened, is scheduled for Saturday.
barrj@washpost.com D
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Maryland 4A final between Urbana andWise.
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