For about three hours a year, Adrian Coxson and Antoine Goodson have to think of each other as rivals, not friends.
As the quarterbacks for the City and Poly football teams, they line up on opposite sides of the area’s longest-running rivalry, an intense annual encounter that draws thousands of raucous, partisan fans to M&T Bank Stadium. When they square off at noon Saturday in the 121st meeting of their programs, the seniors won’t let friendship get in the way of the game. They won’t let the game get in the way of their friendship either.
Fittingly, City's Coxson met Poly's Goodson met at a football camp at Poly. Friends since the ninth grade, they have never had a problem keeping the big game in perspective.
“I don’t know how to explain how it works,” Goodson said. “We’re friends and we understand that while we’re on the field. We both try to win the game because it’s a big game. We understand that we both want to win, but even when you lose, after the game, you congratulate each other, say, ‘Good game,” and say, ‘I’ll see you later at the Victory Dance.’”
That doesn’t mean they haven’t been working each other via cell phone this week.
“He was just telling me the other day about how he might go for 200 yards,” Goodson said, “and I said the same thing, ‘I might just go for 200 yards.’ It makes it kind of fun, though.”
Coxson's perspective is about the same: “I was just talking to him and we laugh about how we’re going to beat each other, stuff like that -- how much we’re going to score. I play corner too, so me and him talk about me hitting him, me tackling him. We just laugh about it.”
The two have had a lot in common this season with Coxson taking over as City’s quarterback although he has committed to Penn State as a wide receiver. Goodson, who is being recruited by Georgia Tech, runs No. 11 Poly’s triple-option offense. They are the guys in charge on the field.
“Both are like the air traffic controller of their team,” said Poly coach Roger Wrenn. “They keep all the planes flying and make it all work. They’re both veteran players, they’re terrific guys and they’re terrific leaders.”
Earlier this season they shared an unfortunate coincidence, each suffering a shoulder injury in a game on the same day, Sept. 25. Goodson separated his right shoulder and Coxson sustained a small ligament tear in his left shoulder. Each missed only one game and both are now 100-percent recovered.
That’s good, because a lot more is riding on Saturday's game than bragging rights and the adulation of their devoted classmates and alumni.
Poly, which won last year ending a three-year string of Knights’ victories, is favored, but City almost certainly needs a win to clinch a berth in the Class 2A North region playoffs. Poly is already in the Class 3A North region playoffs, but the Engineers can sew up at least a share of the Baltimore City Division I championship, which will be decided by Friday and Saturday’s final regular-season games.
That’s more than a little added incentive to a rivalry that has been very close historically. Poly leads the series, but only 59-55-6.
Coxson and Goodson are ready for Saturday, which for them, as for all seniors, will be a bittersweet day. It’s their final City-Poly game, so they want to make the most of a day they will never forget.
“I just enjoy the feeling you get playing in front of all those people,” Coxson said, “how important the game is to you and how important it is to them. It’s historic and it’s just a fun game. At the same time, you have to be serious because both teams need this win, but it's still fun. Even after we get out of high school, me and Antoine are going to be friends. We both know how important this game is.”
Even though Coxson and Goodson play on opposite sides of the rivalry, they agree that being part of such a storied tradition bonds guys across the line of scrimmage. Theirs isn’t the first friendship that grew out of the City-Poly rivalry and it won’t be the last.
“As intense as the rivalry is,” Wrenn said, “it makes for enduring friendships, too.”
