By Brian Hradsky
Updated Nov. 12, 2026. Reporting reflects results available before the evening’s games.
DeMatha and Our Lady of Good Counsel will represent Maryland in the 2026 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Capital Division football semifinals. DeMatha faces Gonzaga, while Good Counsel meets top-seeded St. John’s in a bracket that turns the division’s regular-season results into immediate rematches. Bishop McNamara finished outside the four-team playoff field after losing the regular-season finale to Good Counsel. For Maryland’s three Capital Division programs, the fall has produced distinctly different records and very different positions entering the championship chase.
The Capital Division is a cross-border competition, so a Maryland season review must include the Washington, D.C., teams that shape its standings. St. John’s enters at a reported 9–1, DeMatha at 8–2, Gonzaga at 6–3, Good Counsel at 4–6 and Bishop McNamara at 5–5. Those overall records include nondivision games. The semifinal seeds reflect the Capital race rather than a simple ordering of every team’s overall winning percentage.
DeMatha earns another home semifinal
DeMatha’s reported late-season results include a 12–0 loss to St. John’s followed by a 30–14 victory over Gonzaga. The Stags now meet Gonzaga again in the semifinals. The game listing places that matchup at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13. It is a chance for DeMatha to turn a strong regular season into a championship-game appearance.
The contrast between those two recent results is important. DeMatha found a productive offensive result against Gonzaga after failing to score against the division’s top seed. That gives the Stags a direct positive reference point for the semifinal without erasing the challenge that could await beyond it. The immediate task is repeating a result against an opponent that has already seen them once.
Running back Terrance Grant Jr. is a central player to watch in current WCAC semifinal coverage. DeMatha’s 2026–27 roster also lists quarterback Kenjai Gatling and receiver Austin Barber. A complete public season-statistics table was not available on the team page during this research. This review therefore identifies documented players without assigning them unverified yardage or touchdown totals.
DeMatha’s wider schedule adds context to the 8–2 record. Published results include wins over Archbishop Spalding and Imhotep Charter as well as a loss to Roman Catholic. The Stags have faced tests outside their own division before reaching this bracket. The value of that schedule now depends on whether the team can produce another successful performance in an elimination game.
Good Counsel’s finale keeps its season moving
Good Counsel defeated Bishop McNamara 28–21 in its regular-season finale and enters the semifinals at a reported 4–6. The Falcons now travel to St. John’s, which won the first meeting 38–7. The finale gave Good Counsel a positive result before that demanding assignment. It also provided the clearest recent contrast between Maryland’s two teams competing for the last Capital playoff position.
A losing overall record does not remove the significance of reaching the semifinal field. Good Counsel’s schedule included opponents from outside Maryland and several of the region’s strongest private-school programs. Those games should not be conflated with its division record. The next result will determine whether the Falcons can extend the season beyond the difficult stretches already reflected in their overall mark.
Linebacker Ashton Chiles is one of the documented players highlighted for the rematch. Good Counsel’s submitted 2026–27 statistics also identify Corey Smith Jr., Paul Alston and Luca Cogliandolo among the offensive contributors. The available table was last updated in October, so its totals are not presented here as final regular-season numbers. The names provide useful players to follow while keeping the distinction between current results and an older statistical snapshot clear.
The first St. John’s matchup creates an obvious benchmark for the Falcons. Good Counsel must improve substantially on both the scoring and defensive sides of a 31-point defeat. A lower-scoring game could offer a different competitive situation, but that is an analytical possibility rather than a confirmed coaching plan. What is established is that the Falcons have earned another opportunity against the team that set the division’s regular-season standard.
St. John’s establishes the strongest position
St. John’s closed with a 44–3 victory over Gonzaga and stands at a reported 9–1. Its documented Capital results also include wins over DeMatha, Good Counsel and Bishop McNamara. The margins against those opponents explain the Cadets’ position more clearly than an isolated computer ranking would. Every remaining Capital contender now has a recent St. John’s result against which to measure its progress.
The Cadets held DeMatha to no points in their meeting and allowed seven against Good Counsel. Those are significant results against the Maryland teams still playing in the bracket. They do not guarantee a repeated outcome in the postseason. They do establish why St. John’s has earned the favorite’s position entering the semifinals.
Quarterback Nyeem Woods and receiver Ethan Bennett appear on the published 2026–27 roster. The same roster includes defensive lineman Josiah Ampofo and defensive back Tyler Butler-Simpson. These are roster identifications rather than claims that a specific player led the division in a statistical category. The Cadets’ strongest verified team-level evidence remains the sequence of results against their Capital opponents.
Gonzaga must reverse a recent result
Gonzaga enters the DeMatha rematch after consecutive losses to the Stags and St. John’s. Before those games, the Eagles defeated Good Counsel 21–3. Their season has therefore included success against one semifinalist and difficult results against the other two. Friday presents a direct opportunity to change that pattern against DeMatha.
Gonzaga’s own report on the Good Counsel victory provides several concrete player highlights. Quarterback Jason Lindsay connected with Lincoln Shelton on a 60-yard touchdown, and Asheton Burton scored both a receiving touchdown and a rushing touchdown. Jackson Waddy recorded an interception. Those documented plays show the Eagles’ capacity to produce meaningful contributions across multiple parts of a game.
The semifinal asks Gonzaga to create that kind of productive sequence against a different opponent. The earlier DeMatha loss ended with a 16-point gap, so the rematch requires a material improvement rather than a minor change in the final minute. The Eagles will also be responding to a much wider loss against St. John’s. Their ability to move forward from those games is one of the bracket’s most interesting questions.
Bishop McNamara finishes outside the bracket
Bishop McNamara ended at a reported 5–5 after the 28–21 loss to Good Counsel. The Mustangs’ fall included wins over Dundalk, St. Mary’s Ryken and Archbishop Carroll. Those results show success against Maryland and regional opposition even though the Capital schedule ultimately left them outside the semifinals. A complete review should retain those wins alongside the difficult finish.
Machari Webb, Xavier Brown and Jaylen Robinson appear among the contributors on the Mustangs’ player page. The available statistical submissions were incomplete for a full-season comparison. Their roles are therefore identified without treating partial totals as final production. For the program, the close finale against Good Counsel supplies a more specific measure of the late season than the overall record alone.
Maryland matchups reveal the division’s separation
The reported regular-season results show DeMatha defeating Good Counsel 35–0 and Bishop McNamara 44–6. St. John’s beat Bishop McNamara 35–0 in addition to its wins over the two Maryland semifinalists. Those scores help explain why DeMatha and St. John’s occupy the higher seeds. The Good Counsel–McNamara finale was much closer, ending with a seven-point margin and another week of football for the Falcons.
Those comparisons also show why overall record alone is a poor guide to this bracket. Bishop McNamara finished with a better overall winning percentage than Good Counsel, but the Falcons won the direct late-season meeting. DeMatha’s two overall losses did not prevent it from reaching a favorable semifinal position. The relevant questions are which opponents produced those records and how the teams performed against the competitors that determine the division race.
For Maryland fans, there are now two separate semifinal questions rather than a single general assessment of the WCAC. DeMatha must repeat a win against Gonzaga, while Good Counsel must reverse a decisive defeat against St. John’s. A successful result in either game would extend a Maryland program’s season; success in both would produce an all-Maryland Capital final. Those are possible outcomes of the bracket, not predictions or results that have already occurred.
MSB Take
St. John’s has the strongest recent evidence, while DeMatha’s win over Gonzaga gives Maryland’s highest-seeded Capital team a clear reference point for its semifinal. Good Counsel’s challenge is larger, but the Falcons reached this stage by winning a competitive finale rather than ending the fall on another defeat. Maryland Sports Blog follows this race alongside the separate MIAA championship competition. Our public-school schedules and standings guide covers another postseason system, which should remain separate from the WCAC’s Capital and Metro divisions.
