DeMatha Football Looks to Bounce Back
Ater suffering heartbreak at the hands of in-conference rival St. John’s in the 2022 WCAC Championship Game, the DeMatha Stags will no doubt be hungry to finish the job in 2023. The team was held to a season-low 3 points in the title game, making the loss sting a little extra. The Stags will certainly need to have this added motivation to have a successful season, as they will be tasked with taking down some out-of-state heavy-hitters in addition to their usual opponents. Their four out-of-state games are analyzed here.
DeMatha will open the 2023 season on the road against Springfield High School based in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. The Wildcats are coming off an outstanding 2022 campaign in which they finished 13-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play. Their regular season success carried deep into the playoffs. It wasn’t until the Division I OHSAA Championship Game that Springfield finally ran out of gas, suffering a 28-14 loss vs Lakewood St Edward. Nevertheless, facing the second-best team in a state over 4x as large as Maryland will be no walk in the park for the Stags.
The Stags will not have to travel far for their second out-of-state game of the year. On September 8, they will travel to Northern Virginia to take on the defending Class 6 State Champion Freedom-Woodbridge. Their 2022 championship resume also sported an 15-0 record, and they were the first high school in Prince William County, VA to win a state championship since 2010. The Eagle’s high-powered offense averaged an unbelievable 54.2 ppg in 2022, including a preposterous 112-16 win over Colgan. DeMatha must be ready for a team who refuses to take their foot of the gas.
On September 15, the Stags will welcome the Roman Catholic Cahillite to town. Based in Philadelphia, PA, the team competes in the Philadelphia Catholic-Red Conference. They are coming off a 9-3 season in which they finished second in the conference behind the eventual PIAA State Champions St Joseph’s Prep.
Finally, the last out-of-state game for DeMatha will take place against a familiar opponent from an unfamiliar place: Clarkson North High School out of Canada. This will be the second year in a row that these two teams will face off. Last year, DeMatha’s offense was no match for the Stags, with DeMatha surging to a 23-3 victory. Clarkson North finished the season with a 3-6 record, including four consecutive losses to end the year. They only scored more than 20 points in two games during the season. While DeMatha will be playing plenty of tough opponents this season, they should have no problem with Clarkson North.
DeMatha Football: 2023 Schedule
