MECHANICSBURG, PA — Ziyyon Bredell had plans on showering and taking the four-hour drive north to Syracuse on Sunday night. Braden Reed had a little more time to marinate in the few scant weeks he had of high school before graduation and his next football destination, which is a little closer to home, Villanova.
Bredell, Lincoln’s stalwart 6-foot-1, 175-pound wide receiver, and Reed, Pope John Paul II’s 5-10, 175-pound slot, combined to catch eight passes and 150 yards and two touchdowns for Pennsylvania in the 68th Big 33 game, but it was not enough, as Maryland won handily, 42-21, on Sunday night at Cumberland Valley’s Chapman Field.
It’s the first time that Maryland beat Pennsylvania, which leads the series 16-4, since winning 9-6 in 2018.
North Penn’s Aiden Eves was named Pennsylvania MVP, as one of the few who did a stellar job defensively for Pennsylvania.
Bredell and Reed combined for 150 of Pennsylvania’s 255 total yards of offense and scored two of Pennsylvania’s three touchdowns.
“My priority now is to win a national championship for Syracuse,” said Bredell, who is projected to be a defensive back at Syracuse. “I’m ready for college. Syracuse wants me mostly on defense. But I want to play both ways. This may have been the last offensive touchdown I catch. I can’t wait for Syracuse. I’m going to shower and get in the car with my family and take the trip to Syracuse. I would have liked to have walked off the field as a winner. But I’ll take this. You win some, you lose some.”
This could have been an eye-popping experience for Reed, but it wasn’t. There was major Division I talent on the field and Reed showed he could perform at their level. He finished matching Bredell’s Pennsylvania team-high four receptions, and had a 50-yard kickoff return called back in the fourth quarter.
What was on the field Sunday night was light years from what he faced in the Pioneer Athletic Conference this past season. He was unfazed. He is projected to be a slot receiver at Villanova.
“When you get recruited and you go to camps, you compete against a lot of better players, and in the state playoffs, we played a lot of really good teams (in PIAA Class 4A),” said Reed, whose Pope John Paul II won the Class 4A District 1 championship, before losing to eventual Class 4A state champion Bonner-Prendie in the second round of the state playoffs. “It’s good to go against this level of competition. This will prepare me for the next level. I graduate June 4 and I have to report to Villanova on June 29.
“I have the month of June and for me, it’s always been I am where my feet are. This was a great experience. For me, it’s about keeping my head down, working hard, and hustling.”
Bredell made the game somewhat interesting late, when he took in a 78-yard touchdown pass from Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s Jy’Aire Walls with 10:25 play, pulling Pennsylvania to within 35-21.
But that was it for Pennsylvania.
The game was actually over by halftime. Maryland went into intermission with a 28-7 lead, outgaining Pennsylvania by more than double, 252 total yards of offense to 122. Maryland scored on three of its first four possessions, helped by two Pennsylvania turnovers, and had rushed for 219 yards to Pennsylvania’s mere nine yards rushing on 10 attempts.
Marvo’s Davon Smith, Jr. passed for one score and threw for another for Maryland, while the only real bright spot for Pennsylvania in the first half was Reed, who had a team-high four receptions for 48 yards by halftime.
Otherwise, Pennsylvania could not get out of its own way.
On Pennsylvania’s second drive, Maryland’s Anthony Redfern (McDonogh) intercepted a pass, Pennsylvania’s second turnover on as many possessions, but the Pennsylvania defense held, stopping what looked like an early blowout.
Maryland made up for that on the next drive, when Smith scored on a 30-yard run, giving Maryland a 21-0 lead with 6:37 left in the half.
That’s when Pennsylvania finally answered with some help from a costly Maryland penalty. Danville’s Madden Patrick had thrown in interception in the end zone, which was returned beyond the Maryland 20. But a Big 33 rule prohibiting linebackers to drop back into coverage nullified the interception, and in the process wiped out what would have been Pennsylvania’s third turnover of the game.
Instead, it led to Pennsylvania’s first touchdown, when Patrick hit Reed for a 14-yard scoring pass with 4:38 left in the half.
Pennsylvania seemingly looked as it was back in the game, but Maryland’s Tijuan Reed (Forest Park) answered with an 88-yard TD run that gave Maryland a 28-7 lead with 1:35 remaining in the half.
Thanks to a Pennsylvania fumble on its first drive, Maryland bolted out to a 14-0 lead. A botched snap led to Maryland getting the ball at the Pennsylvania 42. Maryland needed just five plays to go up two scores, when King Jones (Patuxent) hauled in a five-yard pass from Smith, Jr. with 2:57 left in the first quarter.
Maryland took the opening kickoff 75 yards over 11 plays, ending in a one-yard TD roll out by Evan Blouir (Patuxent). The drive was helped along by two Pennsylvania penalties that amounted to 25 yards. The more severe of the flags was the pass interference call on a first-and-10 at the Pennsylvania 42. It placed Maryland on the Pennsylvania 19. Four plays later, on a third-and-goal, Blouir rolled right and into the end zone for a 7-0 Maryland lead.
Blouir added another score in the third quarter, and Pennsylvania’s Patrick threw his second touchdown pass, hitting Bishop McDevitt’s Dominic Diaz-Ellis with a 24-yard pass with 4:23 left in what was an interminably long third quarter—in an interminably long game.
Scoring Summary
Maryland 14 14 7 7-42
Pennsylvania 0 7 7 7-21
1st Quarter
MD – Evan Blouir (Patuxent) 1 run (Zaydaan Faridi (Clarksburg) kick), 5:50
MD – King Jones (Patuxent) 5 pass from Davon Smith, Jr. (Mervo) (Faridi kick), 2:57
2nd Quarter
MD – Smith, Jr. 30 run (Faridi kick), 6:37
PA – Braden Reed (Pope John Paul II) 14 pass from Madden Patrick (Danville) (Parker Johnson (Williamsport) kick), 4:38
MD – Tijuan Reed (Forest Park) 88 run (Faridi kick), 1:35
3rd Quarter
MD – Blouir 4 run (Faridi kick), 6:41
PA – Dominic Diaz-Ellis (Bishop McDevitt) 24 pass from Patrick (Johnson kick), 4:23
4th Quarter
PA – Ziyyon Bredell (Abraham Lincoln) 78 pass from Jy’Aire Walls (Pittsburgh Central Catholic) (Johnson kick), 10:25.
MD – Kendall Dorsey (Randallstown) 5 pass from Smith, Jr. (Faridi kick), :59
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.
