The New York Times recently made a big deal of the high school football team at Smith Center, Kansas -- a team that, at the time of the newspaper's front-page report, had outscored opponents 704 to zero. Impressive, yes. But the Times piece never answered a basic question: Is Smith Center playing comparable opponents? Is it playing in an appropriate competitive class?

It was a glaring ommission.

By contrast, consider the football team at Hereford High School, in The Hereford Zone in Baltimore County. This team moved up a class in Maryland high school divisions -- from 2A-1A last season to 4A-3A this season -- and it has scored 555 points so far in an undefeated campaign to the state finals. That's a remarkable accomplishment, and tonight at 7 at home in The Zone the Bulls play in the state semifinals against a team from Charles County. Here's Pat O'Malley's setup piece. Good luck to the Bulls.