DeMatha vs. Good Counsel: No. 4 Stags confident heading into matchup with top-ranked Falcons Earlier this week, the Stags" second-year coach, Elijah Brooks, nodded in the direction of a poster on his desk billing the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference game as a "Great American Rivalry." He then wondered allowed how that could possibly be, considering DeMatha owns a 41-10-2 all-time advantage over the Falcons. Brooks knows that can come off as arrogant. Good Counsel, after all, is the three-time defending WCAC champion and has won three of the past four meetings between the teams. He understands it's just more fuel for the folks who love to hate his program. He also doesn't care. Self-assurance bordering on conceit is how DeMatha survived its recent stretch of relative turmoil. And it is partly why Brooks feels the Stags are so dangerous now. "In a down year [in 2011], we were one play away from getting back to the [WCAC] championship game," Brooks said. In a down year. So for me coming into this year, there is no other option. That's how we are attacking it. There are no other options. We must compete at a high level to get back to where we were. This is where the Stags were at the end of the 2010 season: Winners of 278 games and 17 WCAC titles during the 29-year head coaching tenure of Bill McGregor. And then, in March 2011, McGregor retired, and Brooks was named McGregor's replacement in May. Several players, including wide receiver Paul Harris - who orally committed to Tennessee in July - consequently departed the program. During the 2011 season, Brooks's first at the helm of his alma mater, DeMatha went 6-4 - its fewest wins in at least 20 years - and finished the season unranked in the Post's Top 20 for the first time since at least 1991. The Stags fell to Gonzaga, 28-27, in overtime in the WCAC semifinals, breaking a streak of 14 consecutive title game appearances. "I think people kind of wanted to see us fall," junior wide receiver Chris Jones said. Coach Brooks being a new coach and us being a young team, people probably thought we were going to have a worse year than we actually had. Out of necessity, DeMatha relied on a number of young players with little experience at the varsity level last season. Indeed, Brooks said he has 43 juniors on the team's current roster and 25 of them played significant minutes in 2011 as sophomores. In February, senior offensive lineman Rico Webb died after blood clots formed in his lungs. Brooks called it "by far the worst experience I've ever had." But the coach said he believed the incident strengthened his players" collective resolve.