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Famous Amos Return to TedSilary.com Home Page "Famous" Amos Leak, a former football-baseball
player at Dobbins Tech ('05), has earned his degree at Indiana
(Pa.) and is enrolled in grad school with hopes of working in sports
marketing and continuing to help young people reach their goals. He has
worked for several summers as an intern for the Sonny Hill League. |
OCT. 2
PUBLIC AAA
Dobbins 15, Roxborough 6
Rivalries are always good. I think that’s why this game was played on
a Saturday at Gratz' field and had some hardware on the line. Picture this…Great
crowd, 2 undefeated teams and another undefeated team in the stands watching (GRATZ).
Seems as though this division might become like Class AA division (referring to
Bok, Del Valley, & Imhotep). This game started off with a kickoff return
touchdown by Daquan “Day-Day” Brown being called back on a penalty for an
unnecessary hit. So Dobbins starts their first possession and boy did
Roxborough’s Bernard Avery come with a big hit on Brown for a 3 yard TFL.
Dobbins would still have their way on the first drive as Terrance Stafford
would capitalize on his only good drive of the game with 11-yard TD after a
23-yard run on the first possession. The best, exciting moments were
Roxborough’s ability to make the best out of turnovers. They recovered a fumble
on the 20 going in and they would capitalize in the 3rd quarter with a TD pass
from Nick Butts to Rasheed Bailey. But Roxborough went for a
2-point conversion that was stopped on the 1 yard line after Stafford made the
biggest hit of the game to make sure that wouldn’t happen. With a slow second
half for Dobbins running the ball, Aaron Walker seemed to carry a great
load leading to a 16 yard TD run, late in the third quarter to extend the lead
13-6. The only other score was a blocked punt by Derrick Gregory, who blocked
a punt in the end zone where Roxborough would recover and give Dobbins 2 points
to end the game at 15-6.
Side Note: Every time Roxborough got something going, such as
their long pass from Dre’von Williams to Bailey or the 2 fumble
recoveries by #51 Jeremiah Kendrick (who had a tremendous game with 11
tackles), they seemed to be matched by interceptions by guys (Kevin Gransby,
Justin Smallwood, & Jamil Williams) who seemed to have other ideas
on their mind. I really love both of these football teams and they should
definitely compete for the top. But listening to the crowd for a little bit, it
seems as though these two teams got Gratz in their minds. Gratz-Dobbins is in 2
weeks, which will be interesting. As Terrell Owens says…”Get your popcorn
ready."
SEPT. 10
NON-LEAGUE
Gratz 34, Gtn. Academy 15
Football is a sport of WILL…& whoever imposes that WILL, will win.
Tonight that will was imposed by Gratz and was hugely lifted by not just by a
one-sided game but lifted high by the entire team. This game started out with
hundreds of fans coming to the game supporting the two teams in an evening
football game. I’m not sure how often a Pub team has beaten an Inter-Ac school,
but Gratz definitely wanted to join that club tonight. Germantown Academy came
out strong in the beginning with a huge power drive with a kick off return of
more than 40 yards, getting to midfield. Then it was all power game in the
beginning with Lamont Jackson bringing the right attitude and power to
the football field. Jackson seemed to take everything in his own hands as GA ran
down Gratz' defense in the first drive to a leading score of 8-0. Not thrilled
about the drive, Gratz returned their kickoff to the 50. You could feel the
momentum change up tremendously. With that position, Khalil Brown (3 TDs,
2 passing, 1 rushing), would make all the necessary plays to help Gratz get back
at Germantown Academy and tie the game up, 8-8. On the kickoff this time, Gratz
does a short kick and a big hit was put on a Germantown Academy player to let
the football loose and Gratz recovered. On this drive, Brown would work more of
his magic and find later find a wide open Kurt “West” Hunt in the end
zone for a touchdown to go ahead. After a stronger stint on defense by Gratz,
Gratz would get further ahead by scoring on an ol’ school Mike Vick move
by Brown on the right side of the field to find an open Spencer Moses,
who caught the pass and ran around 35 yards to another touchdown. In this first
half, Brown would be invincible. Seemed like every time he was in a situation of
a sack, he would escape and find an open person or gain some important yards as
Gratz went into the half up 22-8. The other exciting part about tonight was the
fans' favorite, Moses, who made sure ever yard would be gained properly and with
the right attitude. With the formation that Gratz ran, they seem to get
everything on one accord and found ways of using a two-headed monster to confuse
the defense and put pressure on GA's linebackers to make decisions. It seemed as
though in the beginning of the second half Germantown Academy was going to make
some good plays for the second half lead by FB/LB Keith Corliss, who
seemed to help the offense to get moving by making tough & strong moves on any
player that would get in his way. He seemed as though, he would do the same on
defense also, with the help of RB/LB Ryan Crane, who caught a couple eyes
making some strong defensive plays. As the game continued, nobody seemed to
score but that was with the help of a team effort by the GA and Gratz defenses,
but Gratz would capitalize big with 3 interceptions by some tough secondary
players during the second half that would help keep QB Keith Braccia from
continuing to connect with WR Aaron Novak, who had about 6 catches for
the night and made the best of what he had for the team, even though they
couldn’t find the end zone. Later in the game Brown was a little tweaked but
wanted to continue to the game but after some thought by Coach Erik "Zip"
Zipay, they decided to keep him on the bench and finish strong with two
pretty good replacements backup QB Davone “Fresh” Cornish (who almost
forgot that they were going for another play after he scored and ran off the
field with his hands up…LoL!) and back up RB Jamir Anderson, who both
found the end zone to keep Germantown Academy’s last score by Jackson from being
anything more than a slight comeback.