The drive to Mechanicsburg is a beautiful ride of scenery as you cross the Mason-Dixon in to the beautiful fields of the north country Pennsylvania. Then, you turn in to a humongous high school, Cumberland Valley High, to later walk on to the glorious Chapman football field. At this field, a battle between state football stars of Pennsylvania and Maryland ensues. This event is called the PSFCA Big33 Football Classic.

The Big33 is meant to foster a sense of unity and respect amongst football teams and coaches while giving back to the Special Needs community, who love and support the sport of football. Also a sense of rivalry lives; as Pennsylvania seeks to dominate the event (not negatively) because they are the hosting state. I truly respect that, and love PA football. However, we will represent Maryland football to the fullest. This makes for an enjoyable experience while capturing football highlights. The stage had been played out for us.

2025 Maryland Victory

Last year’s meeting, Maryland took home the trophy led by Coach Steve Crounse of the king slayers, Patuxent Panthers out in Lusby, Md. Team Md literally pounced on Team PA from the beginning, beating them 42-21. It was a most shocking victory. It was well known over the years that Pennsylvania usually wins over Maryland. But Crounse, and his team of coaches formulated a defensive scheme that was literally unstoppable. Interestingly, Coach Donald Davis (Head Coach of Mount Saint Joseph HS, Baltimore Md & the 2026 coach for Team Maryland), was apart of the staff last year and definitely received the blue print for winning vs the PA Team

The Pressure to WIN

Tremendous presurre existed upon both sides of the football. Pennsylvania had to re-claim its dominance of this event. No way could they lose again, and suffer being defeated back to back years.

However, Pa losing was the exact thing MFV hoped for, along with Davis dealing with the pressure of having to win too. Could he match the energy and tenacity like victory of his predecessor? I think so, even so it was a tall task!!!

THE GAME

In the beginning, both teams were able to establish a good pace. Team MD received the kickoff and made an excellent stride down the field on their first drive. Costly penalties barred them from allowing Team Maryland to take the lead.

Team Pa was able to add a touchdown by a short pass where the receiver gained advantage heading towards the edge of the end zone ultimately tricking Md’s defense.

Now let me just sum up the next three quarters, the score remained 7-0. IT WAS BATTLE OF THE DEFENSES. Donald Davis was able to rally his guys to apply pressure on the Pa QB, causing turnovers or him just chucking the ball away. For Pennsylvania, their team made critical tackles on 4th down the disabled Team Md from marching down field and scoring. Coach Davis finally scored in the fourth, tying the game up, even though Pa challenged the touchdown ruling. It stood, we headed to overtime

Overtime

This portion of the game followed college overtime rules They would flip a coin and being the Maryland squad won the toss, elected to defend 1st. PA kicked a field goal on the drive putting them up, 10-7.

Md Team answered right back tying the game with a field goal. So with that, the second go-round, according the college rules, states if a team scores a touchdown, they must go for a 2 point conversion. Team PA elected to play defense first. Maryland ended up scoring on 4th down by running a jet sweep, and having good blocking which set up WR Jonathan Coleman (Arundel HS) for the TD. Two point conversion was also successful.

To end it, the Maryland defense stood tall and your 2026 BIG33 CLASSIC CHAMPS are Team Md.

Congratulations fellas, you showed the world our state is not to be played with.

You can view the highlights of the Big33 Classic here