Guilford Park, Sherwood make their Maryland Media Top 25 debuts while St. Mary's returns to the rankings

Sherwood pulled off a rare feat -- losing, but climbing from the honorable mentions into the Top 25.

Sherwood's 35–28 loss to No. 4 Quince Orchard — a game it led in the fourth quarter — combined with losses by several lower-ranked teams, opened the door for the Warriors (5-1) to slip into the No. 25 spot.

Just ahead of Sherwood, at No. 24, is Guilford Park, a second-year varsity program making its first-ever appearance in the State Poll. Guilford Park (6-0) knocked off former Top 25-ranked Oakland Mills, 25-20, last week to earn the ranking.

It was relatively quiet at the top of the rankings with St. Frances Academy, DeMatha, Archbishop Spalding, and Quince Orchard continuing to hold down the top four spots. Flowers moved up to No. 5 this week, but that might be short-lived as the state poll voting closed before a breaking story Tuesday that Flowers will have to forfeit some of its wins, and its head coach has been suspended for the season. Any fallout from that situation will be realized in next week's rankings.

There was a bit of a shuffle among MIAA teams following wins by Calvert Hall (over McDonogh) and St. Mary's-Annapolis (over Loyola Blakefield). Calvert Hall moved up to No. 9, just ahead of McDonogh at No. 10. St. Mary's returned to the Top 25 at No. 21. The MIAA playoff race is likely to require several tiebreaking rules this fall as so many of the A Conference league members are taking turns beating each other.

Check out the rest of the rankings: