Concord vs. Thomas McKean Review

For the second straight week Scout.com traveled to Delaware, this time to watch four-star wide receiver prospect Justin Brown. His Concord High School team had to go up against a gritty Thomas McKean squad that knocked off Hodgson Vo-Tech in our featured game last week and when it came down to it, Brown was the difference in this contest.

Justin Brown did it all for Concord High on Friday night lining up at cornerback, safety, defensive end, linebacker, wide receiver, kick returner, punt returner and even punter. The 6-foot-3.5, 210-pound wideout had a solid game on both sides of the ball, registering nine tackles, two pass breakups and a forced fumble on defense and catching four passes for 72 yards and a touchdown on offense. Here is a recap of what we saw on Friday night.

McKean started off with the ball, however Brown came up from his safety position and ripped the pigskin loose, setting his team up with great field position. Concord marched downfield from there, eventually watching their quarterback scramble on a broken play and slam through two McKean linebackers on his way to pay dirt. On the ensuing drive McKean had a high snap go through their quarterback’s hands and as one of the offensive linemen had a chance to fall on the fumble, he committed a cardinal sin by trying to pick the ball up and run with it, fumbling again into the end zone where Concord recovered for a quick 14-0 lead.

McKean being the tough team they are drove back down field on the following drive and while it wasn’t pretty, they were able to get themselves in a position to score leading into halftime. With nine seconds left on the clock their quarterback used his feet to put it into the end zone, putting the score at 14-7 after the extra point.

Brown had been somewhat quiet in the first half as he was bracketed constantly, however in the third quarter he got himself open and received a beautifully threaded pass from his signal caller for a 32-yard score. With Concord out to a 20-7 lead things were looking down, but as usual McKean had something else in mind, driving right back downfield and scoring on a 1-yard run, putting it to 20-14.

This is where things got…well…interesting. With seven minutes left in the game the McKean coaching staff decided to use some trickery with an onside kick which was easily recovered by Concord. After an absolutely ridiculous one-handed catch for 16 yards by Justin Brown, Concord marched downfield and made it 28-14 which would end up being the final score.

McKean had been successful on an onside kick earlier in the game, however with a tenacious defense and a six-point deficit, the second onside kick seemed like a poor decision. As things turned out, it gave Concord excellent field position and essentially sealed the fate of the home team.