D.C. football notebook: Anacostia rallies for first win; Dunbar upsets Ballou

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/dc-football-notebook-anacostia-rallies-for-first-win-dunbar-upsets-ballou/2015/10/19/54a176dc-767c-11e5-b9c1-f03c48c96ac2_story.html

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The Anacostia football team came to the halftime locker room staring at a seventh-straight loss under a new coach this fall, down 15-0 against Coolidge and little more than belief to fall back on. But given the chance to quit on the season, the Indians’ seniors instead authored a comeback that will likely define their year.

Anacostia ultimately emerged with its first win of the year by showing off some of the resiliency built over a frustrating first six weeks of this campaign.

“It felt real good because we always believed we could do it, but we felt like something always went wrong,” said quarterback Talib Kingwood, who threw the game-winning touchdown pass to senior D’Montrae Reaves in the 22-21 triumph over the Colts Friday. “Having a comeback victory, that’s better than a blowout victory to me.”

Kingwood said first-year Coach Lamont Reid’s message at halftime Friday put the onus on the senior class, who then gathered together for a fiery talk before the second half began.

The Indians (1-6) then cut their deficit to one with two touchdowns only to watch the Colts take a 21-14 lead late in the third quarter. But senior John Marshall responded with a kickoff return to the Coolidge 3-yard line seconds later, setting up Kingwood and the offense to seal the come-from-behind effort.

“We’ve been in situations like that before. This is not our first time having a losing season, so we know how it feels to win and we know how it feels to lose,” Kingwood said. “It was like as soon as we came out of halftime. . . the whole game changed for us.”

It was Reid’s first career win since taking over for former Coach Cato June, who left for C.H. Flowers this offseason. The former North Carolina State defensive back remained positive through the early growing pains, emphasizing “something great is going to come from it.”

The players rewarded that patience this week.

Dunbar Coach Jerron Joe put on the film of the Crimson Tide’s 35-0 loss to H.D. Woodson almost three weeks ago and didn’t recognize the team he saw. Dunbar looked nothing like the group that started the season with four-straight wins, a mixture of rain, wind and sloppy play derailing whatever progress had been made.

Rather than yell and scream, Joe instead offered a simple reminder. He just pointed at the schedule.

“He kept preaching, ‘Five games left,’ and it woke us up actually when we seen there was only five games left,” senior Chrisdeion Alston said.

Dunbar reacted exactly how its coach hoped this past Friday, shaking up the DCIAA Stars division race with a gritty 12-6 homecoming win over Ballou.

Alston again proved to be the Crimson Tide’s catalyst, scoring the team’s first touchdown as a quarterback and finishing with three sacks as a defensive end. Tailback Monte Smith also played well on both sides of the ball, and Dunbar (5-2) mostly held Ballou stars Delontae Moore and Marquis Hamilton in check.

“We re-focused and let them know this is pretty much a must win,” Joe said. “Ballou beat Woodson and how you get that bad taste out of your mouth is coming out and beating Ballou.”