Germantown High football team advances to Public League semifinals

Before Friday night, the last time the Germantown Bears won a public-league playoff game, none of its current players were on the roster. By Saturday morning, they had all won one, that being a 32-27 win over the visiting Lincoln High Rail Splitters at Benjamin L. Johnston Memorial Stadium.

Fans braved the increasingly cold weather and saw Lincoln take an early lead over the Bears. While a mix of young and veteran players enabled the Bears to battle back, senior cornerback and wide receiver Will Parks pointed out something that he thought helped.

“After the first quarter, we rallied. Me and the other seniors stepped up and said, ‘This is our last year. We can’t go out like this. We gotta go 3-0, and win the championship,'” he recounted after the game. “It was game time after that.”

The game was tied 20-20 at halftime, but Parks gave the Bears a third-quarter lead by catching a 59-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Cedric Wright.

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Senior running back Aaron Boyd ran for nearly 150 yards in the game including a long fourth-quarter run that set up the game-winning touchdown pass from Wright to receiver Myles Brooker with fewer than three minutes left. The defense then held onto the lead.

On Saturday, the public league Class AAAA semifinals will be held at Northeast High, 1601 Cottman Ave. In the 3:30 p.m. game, Frankford will play Central, with the Bears facing No. 2 seed George Washington High Eagles afterward. Tentative kickoff time is slated for 6:30 p.m.

It’s the second time they’ll face one another this season. GW beat the Bears 41-34 on Oct. 1, a game that Parks remembers well as the time they blew a 26-13 lead.

“We have an idea what they’re going to do,” he said of their upcoming opponent. Asked if he’s worried, Parks responded, “Oh no. I’m not worried. If we play to the best of our abilities, we can beat anybody.”

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