Westminster hosts three homecoming football games in roughly 18 hours this weekend. Westminster High School and Winters Mill High School both play at home Friday night, Oct. 2, and McDaniel College follows with its game Saturday afternoon, Oct. 3.
Here's who's playing, where each team stands and what to know before you go. High school records and scores are from MaxPreps, the national prep sports site where teams report their own results.
Friday: South Carroll at Westminster, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Westminster High School, 1225 Washington Road
Records: Westminster Owls 2-2; South Carroll Cavaliers 2-2
Westminster has won two straight after an 0-2 start. The Owls opened the season with road losses at Franklin (22-6) and Urbana (31-21), then won 20-6 at Century on Sept. 18 and shut out Liberty 38-0 at home on Sept. 25.
South Carroll, from Sykesville, has alternated wins and losses. The Cavaliers beat Glenelg 17-14 and Liberty 27-25 on the road, but lost both home games, 50-18 to Walkersville and 24-21 to Century last week.
The two teams share two opponents, and both comparisons favor Westminster. The Owls beat Century by 14 points; South Carroll lost to Century by three. Westminster blanked Liberty by 38; South Carroll needed a two-point win to get past the Lions.
Friday: Francis Scott Key at Winters Mill, 7 p.m.
Where: Winters Mill High School, 560 Gorsuch Road
Records: Winters Mill Falcons 4-0; Francis Scott Key Eagles 2-2
Winters Mill brings the best record of the three local teams into homecoming weekend, and the margins have been lopsided. The Falcons have outscored opponents 213-14 through four games: 57-0 at Poolesville, 69-8 over Watkins Mill, 49-6 over Centennial and 38-0 over Manchester Valley last week. Three of the four wins came at home.
Francis Scott Key, from Union Bridge, is 2-2, with three of its four games decided by three points or fewer. The Eagles lost 24-21 to Smithsburg and 13-12 to Manchester Valley, and won 31-13 at South Hagerstown and 12-9 at Tuscarora last week.
The common opponent is Manchester Valley: Winters Mill beat the Mavericks by 38, while FSK lost to them by one.
Looking ahead: Westminster and Winters Mill close the regular season against each other Oct. 30 at Winters Mill.
Tickets: Both schools have ticket pages on GoFan, an online ticketing service: Westminster High · Winters Mill
Saturday: Carnegie Mellon at McDaniel, 1 p.m.
Where: Rembert Field at Kenneth R. Gill Stadium, McDaniel College
Records: McDaniel Green Terror 1-2 (0-0 Centennial Conference); Carnegie Mellon Tartans 1-2
McDaniel, a Division III program that plays in the Centennial Conference, opens conference play coming off a bye week. The Green Terror beat Catholic 13-7 at home in the opener, then lost 31-0 at Salisbury, which McDaniel's schedule listed as No. 17 nationally, and 28-7 at Juniata on Sept. 19.
The Juniata game produced a program milestone. Junior linebacker Taevon LeGrande made 21 tackles, becoming just the sixth McDaniel player to record 20 or more in a game and the first since 2005, according to the college. The same game also showed McDaniel's problems: four turnovers, and three different quarterbacks (Mick Johnston, Caleb Wray and first-year Peter Sherman) saw action.
Carnegie Mellon, from Pittsburgh, joined the Centennial Conference for football in 2025. The Tartans are 1-2 against a tough nonconference slate: a 17-7 home loss to John Carroll, ranked No. 8 at the time according to CMU; a 38-35 win at Catholic; and a 16-10 loss on Sept. 19 at Berry, then No. 15 in the D3football.com poll, which scored the winning touchdown in the final minute. Senior receiver Brendan McCullough caught 11 passes in the Catholic win, tying CMU's single-game record, according to the school, and was named the Centennial Conference's offensive player of the week.
The teams last met in October 2025, when Carnegie Mellon, then ranked No. 17 nationally, beat McDaniel 56-7 in Pittsburgh. The series goes back much further than that: Carnegie Tech, as CMU was then known, beat Western Maryland College, as McDaniel was then known, 27-0 in Pittsburgh on Nov. 1, 1924, according to the college football records site Sports Reference.
Catholic is the common opponent: McDaniel won by six at home, and CMU won by three on the road.
Before kickoff: Pregame festivities start at 12:30 p.m. on the field, including the Homecoming Court, the James Brant Memorial Cup for the top fraternity or sorority, and the Letters on the Hill contest winner. Tom Brown and Sandy Gochar Brown, both members of the Class of 1972, are honorary captains for the coin toss. At halftime, McDaniel will recognize its 2026 Athletics Hall of Fame inductees.
Parking: The stadium lot costs $20 per car and opens three hours before kickoff, at 10 a.m. Cash is preferred, and cards are accepted; payment apps like Venmo and Apple Pay are not. Parking elsewhere on campus is free, according to McDaniel's homecoming page, which also lists the full weekend schedule.
Can't make it? The game streams on the Centennial Conference's digital network.