After the clock struck zeros and the postgame handshake line reached its closing stretch, Edgewood football gathered together near their visiting sideline. The Rams, with each win, have a ritual.
Keith Rawlings, in his third season coaching Edgewood, let out a jovial, “Sing it louder!” to his team, which had just beaten North Harford, 20-0, on the road.
After every win — Friday night being Edgewood’s sixth without a loss — the team belts out in unison the chorus to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” How did a country anthem about Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River become Edgewood football’s fight song?
“We went to camp this summer up in the hills of West Virginia and introduced that song to them,” Rawlings said. “I’ve coached a couple championship teams that after every game, they would sing it. So that’s kind of become our motto.”
Rawlings was defensive coordinator at St. Paul’s for back-to-back MIAA B Conference titles. He then coached seven seasons at John Carroll, highlighted by an undefeated 12-0 season and an MIAA B Conference championship in 2015.
In 2021, Rawlings took the job at his alma mater, now lauding the power of bringing his high school football team together to stay on a lake in West Virginia for a week. It’s a tool that has bonded his group through relationship building and group camaraderie.
There, they did chores and learned responsibilities. They had fun and played football, too. But now six games into the season, their post-win anthem has become the connector back to that trip.
“That was such a great experience,” said senior linebacker and running back Mekhi Georges. “I appreciate our coaches for that, taking us down there to build our team bond. It’s become a part of our team singing it after every win.
Georges got to better connect with his teammates and that experience has spilled over into an undefeated season thus far. He also fell on a bees nest while swimming in the lake, taking a flurry of yellow jackets to the back.
He’ll never forget either memory from the formative preseason trip.
“It’s something to hold us all together,” Georges said. “The glue for the team and something we can always fall back on.”
It’s clear when that connectedness translates onto the field for Edgewood. On Friday night it was most evident with the defense, holding North Harford (4-3) to six first downs — two came in the first half and three came on a single third-quarter possession.
With every crease that opened slightly for senior running backs Kent Holcombe or Harold Davis, Edgewood’s front seven acted swiftly enough to shut the door.
The Rams gang tackled scramblers. They met ball carriers at the line of scrimmage, more often pushing them into the backfield. And the few times Hawks quarterback Preston Miller dropped back, he repeatedly found himself forcibly getting rid of the ball.
Even after North Harford’s 65-yard return from Chase Thomas late in the second quarter — the biggest Hawks pickup of the night — they went three-and-out to set up a field goal attempt. A false start pushed them out of kicking territory, and Miller’s ensuing long ball was intercepted by senior defensive back Michael Lee.
“We were committed to [stopping] the run,” Rawlings said. “They got a great run game. [Davis] is a great runner. [Holcombe] is a hard runner. They’ve got a good run game. They’re good up front. … It was hard for us, they got a good team. … But if you can run the ball and stop the run, you’ll go far.”
Edgewood put points on the board early, first on the ground courtesy of Darius Flemming in the first quarter. That came on the shoulders of a North Harford fumble that set the Rams up just outside the red zone. Later in the waning minutes before halftime, Rams quarterback Caesar Travers found Lee on a short pass turned 30-yard score.
Travers threw his second touchdown of the day in the fourth quarter, finding Lee on a post route with three minutes to go. The Rams failed on a 2-point conversion.
Their offense wasn’t particularly succinct throughout. Rawlings noted particularly that their “pass game is nice but we got to get better at running the ball.”
Keeping North Harford’s run-heavy offense in check while putting up three scores — albeit the Rams’ lowest offensive output all season — proved enough. The dominant defensive showing propelled them to earn a shared rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Road” again.
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