CHESAPEAKE CITY — Kent County (2-7) is headed to Bo Manor (6-3) tonight for the opening round of the Class 1A East Region high school football tournament.
This is a rematch of the season opener at Bo Manor that the host won, 35-12, after building a 28-0 lead.
It stands to reason that after nine weeks, neither team is the same as they were back on Sept. 6.
But it would seem that the toll has been greater for the Trojans, whose roster is probably half the size it was on opening day because of injuries and other reasons.
Kent County traveled with only 17 players last week in the regular-season finale at Snow Hill.
According to head coach Harold Somerville, two players suffered season-ending injuries in that game; another player was ejected and is not eligible for tonight’s playoff.
That’s the salt rubbed into the wound of the 42-22 loss.
Coach Somerville said there was a lot of back-and-forth between players on both teams at the Saturday morning, Nov. 2 game — what he described as an emotional spillover from last year’s playoff at Snow Hill where the Trojans pulled off a 34-18 upset.
“It was a mess as soon as we stepped on the field,” Somerville said in an interview.
Snow Hill (5-4) avoided another upset by scoring 28 of the final 36 points after the game was tied at 14.
Sophomore quarterback Dwan Harris had a hand in all three Kent County touchdowns, throwing scoring strikes to RJ Peterson and Jonah Somerville while also rushing for a TD.
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Bo Manor, which is coming off a 48-21 loss to Fallston in their regular-season finale last week, is the No. 3 seed in the 1A East.
In other first-round action, Snow Hill will travel to Colonel Richardson (5-4) and winless Washington will travel to No. 2 seed Perryville (7-2).
No. 1 seed Cambridge (9-0) has a bye.
Moving forward, the winner of tonight’s Kent at Bo Manor clash will meet the winner of Washington at Perryville, while Cambridge will host the winner of Snow Hill at Colonel Richardson.