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Every fall weekend, Haswell Franklin and Tim Almany prepare to fervently support their favorite football teams. While Sundays are spent with the Ravens for Franklin, a Baltimore native, and the Washington Commanders for Almany, a Montgomery County resident, Saturdays are equally contradictory.
Franklin roots for Johns Hopkins, while Almany cheers on Salisbury. And their moods can depend on those teams’ outcomes.
“When the team wins, I always say it’s like a weekly vitamin,” Almany said. “It makes the week so much better when the teams that you’re loyal to find a way to get the W.”
When asked if the result of a Blue Jays game affects him, Franklin replied, “When I went to the [NCAA first round] playoff game against Grove City [on Nov. 30] and we won that one [17-14], the rest of the day was beautiful.”
Franklin and Almany are representative of small yet passionate fan bases that back football programs dwarfed by the NFL (Ravens and Commanders) and NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (Maryland and Navy) and Football Championship Subdivision (Towson). Those audiences will get an opportunity to take centerstage this Saturday at noon.
Johns Hopkins (11-1) will host Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-3) in a Division III quarterfinal at Homewood Field in Baltimore. At the same time, Salisbury (12-0) will welcome Mount Union (12-0) to Sea Gull Stadium.
If the Blue Jays and Sea Gulls advance, they would meet in a semifinal Saturday, Dec. 21 in Salisbury — a rematch of a game on Sept. 21 in Baltimore that the Sea Gulls won convincingly, 41-13. That scenario — and the possibility of a team from the East Coast participating in the title game known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Houston, Texas — is potentially huge, according to Greg Thomas, managing editor for D3football.com.
“If you were to get a Salisbury-Hopkins…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/division-iii-playoff-games-johns-131500831.html
Author : Baltimore Sun
Publish date : 2024-12-12 13:15:00
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