Compare with laurel oak

Forester, I thought about that, but I'm WAY out of their range, and these are wild-growing.

Laurel oak range:

And they're definitely not willow oaks either (out of their range too) -- although those grow here when planted.

To add some info, these trees did hold onto their brown leaves all winter long.

Edit: Hmm, sand laurel oak (Quercus hemisphaerica) comes up a bit closer to west MD.

Only thing that makes sense to me is shingle oak, tho the leaves shown here aren't a perfect match -- ones I'm IDing have quite undulating edges & are darker green. Image from a shingle oak web-search:

I'd say shingle. There's a nice specimen planted at a rest area on I-68 in Western Maryland.