Unbeaten Patriots dismantle Eagles, 40-0

But not a single Douglass player held his head down.

‘‘I don’t care if we’re down, let’s still score,” Eagles’ senior lineman Aaron Rivera blurted out to his teammates.

Despite Rivera’s attempts to will his team into the end zone, the Eagles lost, 40-0. The statistics and margin of defeat made the contest easily the worst performance by a Douglass team since sixth-year coach J.C. Pinkney took over at the Upper Marlboro school.

Douglass finished the game with just 66 total yards of offense and six turnovers, while the Patriots racked up 245 yards of offense.

But in the midst of an embarrassing defeat and trailing, 34-0, Eagles junior linebacker and leading tackler Devon Bridges carried on as if the game were still close.

‘‘We can stop their run, they have no run game whatsoever,” Bridges said to the Douglass front six, who all listened intently.

Three plays later, Friendly star senior tailback Josh Haden broke tackles on his way to a 44-yard touchdown run, which capped the scoring for the night.

Although Pinkney had nothing to say to his team aside from ‘‘let’s get on the bus and get out of here” after the game, he talked about the resolve his team showed despite the outcome.

‘‘The thing is we know we‘re young and we haven‘t faced a team quite that physically imposing,” Pinkney said. ‘‘We were overwhelmed. We kind of laid down early and made the game easy and tried to fight at the end. We‘ll be fine. We‘re not a team that‘s going to lay down. We don‘t win as consistently as we do by chance. We work hard. We‘re in the playoffs at 8-2 last year and I think we may have a better team than that.”

The position by position comparison is, no doubt, difficult to stomach for Douglass fans. Eagles’ sophomore quarterback Richard Barber was 5 of 17 for 35 yards, three interceptions and a fumble. Meanwhile, Patriots’ senior quarterback Thomas Jenkins was 6 of 7 for 79 yards and three touchdowns.

Eagles’ leading rusher Trey Massey ran five times for 17 yards with a fumble, while Christian Clark had four carries for 12 yards and four receptions for 15 yards and a fumble. The pair had combined for 12 touchdowns in the Eagles’ first four games of the season.

On the other end, Haden had 16 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown while Friendly senior split back Lamaar Thomas had 25 yards rushing and two receptions that both went for touchdowns. The Friendly senior even had a 30-yard completion for a touchdown on an option pass, while receivers James Flowers (two TDs) and Carlos Davis (TD) combined for three scores.

The Patriots have been much more run-oriented this season than they were last year, when quarterback Joe Haden repeatedly hooked up with receiver Vincent Hill and Friendly rolled to the state Class 3A title. But this year’s Patriots are still a threat through the air.

‘‘Everyone in the papers was talking about since Joe [Haden] left, all we could do is run,” Jenkins said. ‘‘When Joe was here last year, in practice, I was working just as hard as he was on my passing. In practice this year we’re working on passing a lot, and the more we come out passing, the more we don’t have to piggy-back on the run.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the game was not the result, but the way the Patriots’ defense handled a potent Douglass offense that had outscored opponents, 115-6, in the three games preceding last week’s debacle.

‘‘This defense definitely has a point to prove to everybody,” said Patriots’ senior defensive lineman DeAnthony Cloyd. ‘‘Although it didn’t happen that way, we set out this season with the thinking that we’re not going to be scored on.”

Friendly knows how to force turnovers, as evidenced by Patriots’ sophomore linebacker Jordan Haden’s acrobatic interception in the third quarter. The Douglass receiver caught a pass on the play before being sandwiched between two Patriots. And by time all three landed, Haden had the ball.

E-mail Terron Hampton at thampton@gazette.net.