Author: Damon Anderson

This week’s matchups offer a blend of history and rivalries!

Quince Orchard (7-0) at Northwest (6-1): Battle of Rivals- Friday night lights will blaze as the undefeated Quince Orchard Cougars prepare to face the once-mighty Northwest Jaguars, now looking rather vulnerable. Last week’s stumble against Churchill showcased Northwest’s weaknesses, leaving them in a precarious position. However, in the world of high school football, history often repeats itself. A decade ago, an underdog Northwest team, fresh off a narrow defeat to Clarksburg, ambushed the then-undefeated Cougars to steal their championship dreams. Could history favor the Jaguars again?

1. Quince Orchard Cougars (Last Week: 1) – Undefeated at 7-0: The Cougars showcased their dominance once again, storming past Richard Montgomery with a commanding 43-7 victory. Running Back Iverson Howard was the standout player of the evening, amassing an impressive 111 yards of total offense and punching in three touchdowns. The undefeated Quince Orchard squad is now gearing up for a colossal showdown against archrivals Northwest in the highly anticipated Black Hole, Germantown this Friday night.

2. Walter Johnson Wildcats (Last Week: 3) – Unblemished at 7-0: The Wildcats continued their unbeaten streak in style, leaving Wheaton in the dust with a resounding 46-6 triumph. Next, they’ll take their unblemished record to Olney, where they’ll clash with a formidable Sherwood team in what promises to be a thrilling matchup.

Northwest (6-0) at Churchill (5-1): Huge seeding battle in the 4A West and the teams involved should also pay mind to the Gburg-SV game. If Gaithersburg wins, the Trojans should be favored to win out the rest of the season finishing 8-1. Thus, assuming NW loses to QO next week, the loser of this game has a very real shot of falling down to the 4 seed and likely meeting QO Week 11. If Churchill pulls this off, suddenly the path to returning to the state reseeding just got a lot easier (obviously them beating NW would mean they have a clear path to advancing no matter what, but never bank on beating the Jags twice). Northwest hasn’t quite looked like their dominant selves the last couple weeks, they did start well against PB but cooled off and PB made it too close for comfort before the Jags got an insurance score. But Churchill hasn’t exactly fully played their best ball either the last couple weeks, and will need to come out swinging to pull this one off. This doesn’t look like a great matchup for the Dawgs as NW’s D-Line should limit Avit and Churchill’s pass defense is not great. Churchill will need to execute near-flawless in the passing game. Overall we think the Bulldogs keep it very close, but the Jags stay one step  ahead in a classic. Prediction: Northwest by 8

Paint Branch (3-3) at Blake (6-0): Once Blake beat Sherwood, without a whole lot of quality opponents on the Bengals’ schedule many immediately turned their eyes to this matchup. Blake has only beaten PB 3 times in the last 20 years, and are on a 10-year losing streak. If there was any time to get back in the win column, it’s now as PB is reeling having not been able to put it all together against their quality foes. However, our gut doesn’t like Blake in this one. Chalk it up to the Panthers being more battle tested and showing signs of improvement against Northwest. Prediction: Paint Branch by 6 

1. (LW 1) Quince Orchard 6-0: The Cougars handed out their 5th shutout of the season, beating Seneca Valley 28-0. Running Back Iverson Howard had 125 yards of total offense and 1 touchdown in the win. Quince Orchard will travel to Richard Montgomery on Friday.

2. Northwest (LW 2) 6-0: The Jaguars defeated Paint Branch 28-13.  Northwest had 201 passing yards and 2 touchdowns as a team.  The Jags will travel to Potomac to take on Churchill in a huge matchup next.

Below you’ll see the most recent updates or final scores of the 2023 week 6 MCPS football games. The scores will be updated as we receive them. If a score isn’t listed, it’s because we haven’t yet received a report from the game that we can confirm. An ‘F’ signifies the score is confirmed as being final.

Thursday Games:

Northwest (5-0) at Paint Branch (3-2): Northwest looked very mortal against BCC and the Panthers, who were looking like distant longshots last week, may just have a shot if they can find a way to apply the film. One might think the Panthers’ defense, which has been performing consistently well in spite of the gloom, might be able to do what the Barons defense did. Could this, of all years, be the year PB gets that long sought after first ever win vs. the Jags?  WJ was able to gash PB on the ground, and NW’s offense has the personnel to run a similar attack between dual threat QB David Davis, a plethora of speedy rushers and a huge O-Line.  Prediction: Northwest by 15

Seneca Valley (3-2) at Quince Orchard (5-0): SV’s got a little mojo back after boat racing RM. Unfortunately, handling the Rockets in the trenches is not a particularly notable accomplishment and SV will likely be in for a world of hurt against QO.  Prediction:   QO by 35

Below you’ll see the most recent updates or final scores of the 2023 week 5 MCPS football games. The scores will be updated as we receive them. If a score isn’t listed, it’s because we haven’t yet received a report from the game that we can confirm. An ‘F’ signifies the score is confirmed as being final.

Thursday Games

Sherwood (3-1) at Gaithersburg (3-1): In-county, this looks to be the most competitive high-level match. After playing each other every year from 2002 to 2014, these two teams square off once again after a 9 year hiatus. It will be a matchup of two top MoCo running backs in Gideon Ituka vs. Van Mahoney. Whoever can generate the most offense outside of their bellcow will likely walk away the winner. Don’t underestimate Gburg, aside from an expected blowout loss to QO they’ve taken care of business against opponents you’d expect a good team to easily handle, and are surely hungry for a statement win. I see this being a pretty tight affair with lots of scoring, but right now I think Sherwood gets the edge based on their earlier schedule being tougher, more proven defense and desire to bounce back from the Blake loss. Prediction: Sherwood by 13

Richard Montgomery (2-2) at Seneca Valley (2-2): A somewhat intriguing matchup that pits strength against strength: RM’s high-flying offense vs. SV’s ferocious defense. SV has some ballhawks that we expect will generate several turnovers and possibly rival the offense in terms of scoring output. Prediction: Seneca Valley by 17