In the fall of 2004 Tuscarora high school fielded its first varsity football team (in 2003 we had only a JV squad). Since that time, for eleven seasons, we never beat the Linganore Lancers; never, not even once. We had some close games, we had half time leads and we even had a few leads late into the third. But, the story always ended the same; when the clock ran out, the Titans were not in the win column; never, not even once. And then September 2nd 2016 happened. Behind a relentless front seven on defense and clutch plays on offense, this years’ varsity football squad did the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the unfathomable, and broke an eleven year losing streak to one of our most bitter rivals in the county. In other words, last Friday, our Titans made history.

It had become almost automatic, a foregone conclusion, that, no matter how well we played, no matter how much better this year’s team or that year’s team was, that somehow, the Titans would end up in the L column after a meeting with the Lancers. But in sports, as in life, nothing lasts forever and the curse of the Linganore Lancers is officially over.

How does such a thing feel? If you were there, cheering in the student section, you know firsthand how it felt to be a part of this history making evening. But how did it feel to the players? We asked a few members of the team to reflect on the game and here’s what they had to say:

“It was fun to play with my brothers and finally beat Linganore” Rodney Dorsey

“We were confident, we felt like nothing could stop us” Steven Cook

“I believe [the win] will give us momentum but we can’t get too confident and we need to focus on the rest of our season” Mason Brown

“Feels great! We worked hard to prepare and it was nice to see it pay off” Kyle Lepkowski

“…I knew we had the talent to win” Zafir Drain

And of course, a huge thanks goes out to the THS Student Section for being there, being loud and being proud! Many of the athletes complimented the enthusiasm and energy of our amazing THS student section.

When we spoke to Coach Ahearn, he had this to say:

“This year is really uncharted territory for us. We’ve never been top dog before and so every opponent we face is looking to take us down. There’s no more flying under the radar and every team is doing a lot of prep for this Titan team. But, with all of the work we’ve been doing, if we maintain our focus and don’t get ahead of ourselves, success is a part of our logical progression. I’m really proud of my boys but I also know that we have a lot of hard football ahead of us.”

So Titan nation, we’ve made history once this season, let’s go out there: athletes, coaches, and student section alike, and make some more history together. WE BELIEVE!!!