DeMatha’s dominant 17-0 victory over Friendship Collegiate on Friday night at Catholic University was the second-ranked Stags’ fourth straight shutout and their first triumph this season over another team in The Washington Post’s Top 20.



Those feats ended up being mere footnotes because Friday’s victory was for “J.B.”



Friday was the first anniversary of the death of Marquis Jaylen Brown, a redshirt sophomore at Duquesne and former DeMatha starting linebacker. Brown died after falling 16 stories from a college dorm in Pittsburgh, and Thursday would have been his 22nd birthday.





Brown was honored with a moment of silence before the game. After the win, the game ball went to Melinda Simms, a friend of the family who accepted the gift for Brown’s mother, Dannielle.



“Losing a child, regardless of how old or how young he or she is, it is something that you will never, ever accept,” Simms said. “. . . It was a great honor to receive the text message to have me and my son accept the ball in her absence.”




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Brown played for DeMatha from 2012 to 2015, meaning he was present for the first three Washington Catholic Athletic Conference titles in the Stags’ four-peat from 2013 to 2016. For Terrance Davis, an offensive lineman at Maryland who played with Brown at DeMatha, holding up the WCAC trophy was his enduring memory of his friend.



“Jaylen was probably one of the funniest guys on the team,” said Davis, who attended Friday’s contest and spoke to the DeMatha squad after the game. “He worked really hard. He was one of the best linebackers I ever had a chance to play with. He was a winner. He loved the team. He was one of our brothers, and I’m really sad to see him go.”



DeMatha (5-1) exited the locker room stoically Friday evening, walking double-file onto the field in relative silence.



Its offense mimicked the quiet start, turning the ball over with a fumble on its second play.