Click here to view a slideshow of Patterson High School’s victory over Lake Clifton.
A good team occasionally lets its guard down when facing inferior opponents, but Patterson High School stayed on their game as they made light work of a struggling Lake Clifton on Oct. 14.
Fresh off a big win against City College the week before, Patterson added another impressive win with a 46-8 rout of Lake Clifton.
Not even rainy conditions could slow Patterson as they ripped their Baltimore City Division I foe for six touchdowns, four of them thrown by senior quarterback Aaron Overton. The 5-foot-11-inch, 225-pound quarterback threw the first touchdown of the game, a jump-ball toss to tight end Donta Dewitt.
Patterson then switched to its running game, with their next two touchdowns scored by Sherman Smith and Deonta Winston. Smith scored on a 45-yard end-around reverse, while Winston raced for a 35-yard touchdown run.
But as the rain started to clear up, so did the passing lanes for Overton, who threw three more touchdowns to close out the second half. Fresh from halftime, Overton found Winston on a 50-yard bomb for a touchdown. He also hooked up with junior star receiver Pete Carter for two touchdowns.
“Coach came to me at halftime and told me he was going to let me throw it because he was noticing that I still had a good grip on the ball even with it raining,” Overton told the AFRO. “I was kind of on my Kurt Warner mode because I had the gloves on. They worked for Kurt, so I figured they would work for me too. I was right.”
Overton said he was proud of his teammates for staying focused and playing hard against an easier opponent. Even Patterson’s backups had a chance to play late in the fourth quarter and came close to scoring a seventh touchdown. Frustrated with the lopsided loss, Lake Clifton’s coach refused to shake hands with Patterson head coach Corey Johnson.
“He thought we were trying to run the score up on them, so he didn’t shake my hand,” Johnson said. “But we just wanted to get our reserves a chance to play and stay ready just in case their number is called. It’s a long season, you never know when you’re going to need to step up and we want our guys mentally ready to play a full football game.”
Patterson advanced to a 6-1 overall record and will face Digital Harbor (1-6) on Oct. 22. Lake Clifton (0-6 overall) will take on Mervo (1-6 overall) the same day.
In other Baltimore City high school football action:
– City College defeated Mervo, 32-0
– Dunbar blasted the Institute of Business, 68-0
– Poly shut out Digital Harbor, 40-0
