Huck's Corner Football 2006 Return to TedSilary.com Home Page   Ed "Huck" Palmer is a headliner among our trusty statmen/observers. He is not to be confused with Tom "Puck" McKenna. (Huck is normal. Puck is not even close). He will make reports on games he sees. You may contact him at TEDDYCAT10@aol.com.

OCT. 13
CL BLUE
Neumann-Goretti 44, Conwell-Egan 26
     Strap yourselves in and come along for the ride all you Corner supporters, as this baby packed a WALLOP in the action department. The Saints and Eagles raced up-and-down the field tonight like there was no tomorrow, as well as no defense. Still, for an old-school statman, this game was thoroughly enjoyable. These teams combined for 1,069 all-purpose yards, phew!! No, double-phew! Where to begin? How about with some famous twosomes? You heard of Ruth-and-Gehrig, Bird-and McHale, Montana-and Rice, but tonight let me introduce McPherson-and-Sample, as in the Saints’ sr. RB’s Mark McPherson and Anthony Sample. Don’t know if these two will ever reach the proportions of those already mentioned, but on this night, in this game, they were as good as it gets. This duo accounted for all six N-G touchdowns (three apiece), an eye-popping 380 yards of rushing, and for good measure a conversion run. Need I say more? Of course I can, and I will. McPherson (22-235) had scoring runs of four, sixteen, and ninety-one. Sample (15-145) supplied three second half scoring runs of seven, thirty-five, and nine. In describing their running styles you could definitely say there are similarities, especially in the characteristic of passion. Boy, did they bring it! The Saints trailed at half (14-10) and after the third quarter (24-22), but kept after the Eagles and eventually won after outscoring them 22-to-2 in the final stanza. Aside from their last possession of the game, which featured one run by a sub and two kneel downs, the Saints had six other possessions in the second half. They scored on five of them! Sample gave the Saints a lead they would never relinquish on the first play of the fourth quarter with his 35-yard run and subsequent conversion trot. This made the score 30-24. On C-E’s next possession they drove down to the N-G eight, but McPherson made a pick in the end zone and returned it to the 5-yard line. You feel a momentum change, right? Not exactly, as two plays later C-E’s sr. DT Joe Snydman slammed Sample to the ground on a speed-sweep play to produce the game’s second safety, making the score 30-26. So, here’s a clear-cut momentum swing, right? Not so fast, because on the ensuing free quick jr. DB Hakeem Johnson smashed sr. DB Shane Nolte during the return and dislodged the ball that found the waiting arms of sr. LB Chris Ficchi. A short time later, Sample pushed the Saint lead out to 37-26. Then, any hopes that the Eagles had for another fourth quarter comeback were snatched away by jr. DB Darrell Dulany’s end zone pick. Three plays later, McPherson went slightly to the left and after a tremendous block by his backfield partner Sample, he was off to the races with his 91-yard romp. What impressed me the most about the Saints, aside from the running game, was how they kept after it despite getting the short-end of some calls by the officials. No need to get into specifics because they won the game, but in my opinion they had at least a little reason to gripe. The N-G O-line was TREMENDOUS throughout! This unit had good size and a few of their members can really move for big kids. They include; sr. C Kenyade Peterson, G’s jr. Chris Palmer (6’4”, 292 lbs) and Jim Niven (6’2”, 260 lbs), T’s sr. Louis Mobley (6’2”, 280 lbs) and soph. Kadeem Custis (6’4”, 270 lbs), and TE jr. Mike Weaver. All mentioned were instrumental in allowing the Saints to pile up 432 yards in offense. Sr. QB Mark Hatty, who has had his share of good statistical outings, took a backseat tonight. Not asked to throw much he completed just 3-of-9 passes, for 58 yards. Still, he made a couple of big plays late with a thread of a 10-yard toss to sr. Joe Gionfriddo (2-33) to set-up a fourth-and-inches opportunity. Then, he rushed for ten yards on that fourth down play. Earlier in the game he made a nice recovery on a bobbled PAT attempt and threw to Johnson for the conversion. Very heady! The N-G defense forced five turnovers. Aside from those already mentioned sr. LB Vinny Burgese and Johnson made fumble recoveries. Jr. DE Brandon Terrance a sack that lost ten yards. Dulany led with nine tackles. Jr. LB Adam Malantino was next with seven. McPherson (forced fumble) added six, as did Johnson. Dulany also had two kickoff returns for 58 yards. The Eagles were just as fearsome on offense as the Saints were, but they had a little more difficulty hanging onto the ball. Hard to imagine that a team can roll up 425 yards in total offense and not only lose, but lose by eighteen points. Sr. QB Kevin Schafer threw for two scores, ran for one, and for large part of the evening was brilliant on both sides of the ball. If he had one play he would probably like back it had to be his pick to McPherson. It came on a first down play from eight, and after rolling out he should have probably just thrown the ball out of the end zone. Instead, he forced a throw that McPherson grabbed. Still, this kid is a gamer! He came within one yard of tying a C-E passing record. He finished 12-for-23, for 239 yards. Bob Zupzic ’87 (later a major league outfielder) holds the record with 240 yards. Schafer also added 30 yards on the ground. On defense, he had a game-high 11 tackles (8 solos), forced a fumble, and blocked a PAT. Holy save some stats for others! His touchdown passes went to sr. RB Jim Domzalski for 42 yards and soph. WR Ryan Golin (4-52) for 23 yards. His favorite target was sr. TE David Kuebler who made 5 grabs for 91 yards. Domzalski produced 98 yards on 12 carries, while sr. FB Ray O’Hara added 58 yards on 10 totes. Sr. K Bryan Hanratty was 3-for-3 on PATs and blasted a 29-yard field goal. On defense, O’Hara and sr. DT Justin Bainbridge registered sacks. Sr. DB Steve McCleon recovered a fumble. Nolte was active with eight tackles, while sr. LB Tom McCue and Snydman (2- TFL’s) evenly split ten stops. After a couple of tough seasons the Saints seemed poise to be a tough out for their CL Blue opponents. I like what I see of them at this point. One loss shouldn’t discourage the Eagles too much either. They too, have a balanced offense and I see no reason why they shouldn’t be able to light up the scoreboard as the year continues.

OCT. 13
PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE
Southern 14, West Philly 0
   Well, there was a time when yours truly would be a weekly fixture on the sidelines of Public League clashes. However, over the past few seasons my appearances have been scarce to say the least. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good Pub tilt every now and then; because I most certainly do. It’s just that my work schedule makes it extremely difficult to attend these games now. Today, I was called into service by my fearless leader Mr. Ted Silary, who was shorthanded in the coverage area. So, after getting permission to leave work a tad early I raced on over to 49th & Spruce for a Friday afternoon tussle. I knew the Speedboys and Rams probably wouldn’t provide flawless play or up-and-down action, but I was still excited to catch a glimpse nonetheless. Ironically, the last Pub game I caught was just over two years ago today, and featured these same two teams. As for the game, overall there wasn’t a ton of difference between these teams, but the Rams did possess a couple of players that were a few notches above the rest. One of them was bruising jr. RB Tyrell Cooper (5’11”, 210 lbs), who scored both touchdowns for the Rams. The first one came with 2:12 left in the half and covered five yards. It was set-up by a 28-yard rumble by Cooper just one play earlier. His second and game-sealing score came late in the fourth quarter and covered 51 yards. On the run, he unleashed a down-right paralyzing cutback about 25 yards into the run that just tore up a Speedboy defensive back. At game’s end he had 191 yards on 23 totes. Boy, did this kid bring the thunder when he got loose and into the secondary. As a more than few West Philly defenders can attest. Other than Cooper’s running the Rams didn’t do much offensively and only mustered another 18 yards in offense. Those in the trenches that let Cooper get loose were; sr. C Jamar Byers, G’s Tyleek Ross and jr. Bryan Lee, T’s soph. Aliek Carr and jr. John Spuriel (6’3”, 280 lbs), and sr. TE Jahmel Bashir (6’4”, 235 lbs). Defensively, the Rams had a few headliners. The impressive Bashir (5 stops) registered three sacks (Total of 4 TFL’s). I have a feeling that this kid could help one of the state schools down the line. Ross forced a fumble and made three TFL’s (2 sacks) that accumulated 15 yards. Cooper was active with five tackles, while jr. Seth Gordan notched a sack. In the secondary, soph. Dante Winn was marvelous, as he recorded the hat trick with three picks. He returned his first snatch 30 yards. Later, he ripped a ball out of a receiver’s hands along the sideline. Very nice! In terms of preventing the shutout, his best play may have come after Cooper’s second touchdown, when he made a touchdown-saving tackle at the end of jr. RB Kevin Weaver’s 71-yard kickoff return. Byers helped out the defense with a fumble recovery. Leading just 6-0 early in the fourth quarter, jr. RB/LB Michael Russo uncorked a 47-yard punt off a third-down quick-kick with the shadows of his own end zone lurking. Even though all five of their second possessions found Southern’s side of the field, the Speedboys couldn’t do much offensively. They only managed 49 yards on 40 plays. Their lone bright spot was jr. RB/DB Jabril Brown’s 46 rushing yards on 9 carries. Defensively, they played hard for the most part. I was really impressed with the play of jr. LB Alfred Carney. He was very active and finished with a game-high 9 tackles, including two sacks. In total, he had four TFL’s that racked up 14 yards. Jr. Joshua Rich and Brown each recovered fumbles. Sr. DB James Bestman made four stops and had three pass defends. Soph. DB William Smallwood added a pick. Sr. LB Donte Brown also had four tackles and forced a fumble, while soph DE Keith West had five stops. Yes, it was Friday the 13th! So, I’m thinking that all those who attempted a pass must have thought that actually completing one was bad luck. Six players combined to go just 1-for-22 in the passing category. Ouch!!! Overstatement of the day came from West Philly’s sideline. With the game scoreless, the ball just past midfield, and 3:23 remaining on the first quarter clock someone bellowed, “Let’s go, it’s a sense of urgency.” Another catchy line that got my attention also came from a player on the Speedboy sideline. Prior to the opening kickoff, someone yelled to a return man, “Take it to the crib! Take it to the crib!” It was good to see Southern headman Bill Edger experience some success. He is without a doubt one of the good guys in this business and routinely does all he can to make sure his kids are doing the right things.

OCT. 7
CL BLUE
McDevitt 19, Dougherty 7
     Yes, these teams were only two weeks deep into league play entering today’s game. And yes, six teams qualify for a playoff spot in the CL Blue. However, with both the Lancers and the Cardinals sitting at (0-2), each had to realize that a win today would definitely help their cause in possibly getting one of those six spots. So, when the halftime scoreboard read 7-7, one may have thought that the game was as close on the field as it was on the scoreboard. Sorry, but not exactly the case. Not saying each team wasn’t giving maximum effort, but one team was thoroughly dominating the other statistically. That team was McDevitt, and they had to be kicking themselves for letting the Cardinals hang around to this point. Let me run down some numbers. At the break, McDevitt had an overwhelming advantage in just about statistical category except for where it counted the most, the scoreboard. They had a 37-to-18 edge in offensive plays, a 15-to-3 advantage in first downs, and lead 240-to-123 in total yards. The total yards would have been even more of disparity, but 70 of Dougherty’s yards came on one play, a TD pass to sr. WR/DB Roberto Townsend from jr. QB Phil Baxter. Oh, yeah, there was one category that wasn’t favorable for McDevitt, and that was the turnover column. The Lancers committed four miscues in that initial half and this undoubtedly caused problems. Ironically, it was a Dougherty turnover that led to McDevitt’s first score. Jr. DB Pat Doyle nicely stripped the ball from CD’s sr. RB Bryan Williams and sr. LB Steve Parrish recovered. Three plays later jr. RB Jason Golderer trotted home from three yards out for 7-0 Lancer lead. Townsend’s big play came midway through the second quarter. Throwing against a stiff wind Baxter barely lofted a wobbly pass over two Lancer defenders. The ball found Townsend it is was off to the races. No one is catching this lad from behind! McDevitt had six first half possessions. They scored once, turned the ball over four times, and the sixth and final series ended with a nice goal line stand by the Cardinals. On a fourth-and-goal from the two, sr. QB Frank Doyle used play-action and rolled left. He had the option to run or throw and with his tight end closely covered he decided to run. Dougherty’s jr. LB’s Quinten White and Braheem Carroll, who were extremely active all day, made the stop at the line of scrimmage. Just 13 seconds remained in the half. A kneel down by Baxter closed out the half. To start the second half McDevitt opted to kick with the wind with hopes of pinning the Cardinals. And they did just that, as a penalty during the run started CD at the six-yard line. After a three-and-out and punt, the Lancers began their first possession of the second half at the Dougherty thirty-eight. Five plays later they took a 13-7 lead on a one-yard plunge by F. Doyle. The big play on the drive took place a play early as Doyle hit P.Doyle for 33 yards on a fourth-and-six play. Two possessions later the Lancers would get much-needed breathing room and bumped their lead to 19-7. This time F. Doyle threw a strike to jr. WR/DB Marc Newton (3-76) for a 58-yard easy-as-pie touchdown on a well-constructed wheel play. To the Cardinals credit they kept battling and kept the Lancers off the board from this point on. Offensively, they got into Lancer territory on a couple of instances, but failed to sustain the drives. Early on, McDevitt’s big offensive line just battered the Dougherty front seven. This allowed Golderer to run freely and with passion. However, he let go of the rock twice and for most of the second half you could tell that he wasn’t running with the same type of fury. It was obvious that protecting the ball was on his mind. He did manage a workmanlike 31 totes, for 155 yards (129 yards in 1st half). He also picked up 27 yards on a beautifully executed screen-pass. This was his first varsity start, as he replaced injured jr. RB Kyle Epps out with a knee injury. F. Doyle was extremely efficient, finishing 8-for-11, with 179 yards. The Lancers are big on the O-line which features; sr. C Brandon Gullotti, G’s jr. Ryan Johnson (6’1”, 265 lbs) and sr. Nick Griffiths, and T’s sr. Isaih Smith (6’3”, 295 lbs) and sr. Dan Widmeirer (6’1”, 280 lbs). Smith and Gullotti left with injuries; and their replacements jr. Robert Sommerville and sr. Jim Surdykowski performed well. Sr. TE James Scharle and sr. FB Dante Oliver also chipped in with quality paving. This group help the Lancers roll to 279 yards in offense. Defensively, Griffiths had 1.5 sacks, while Surdykowski added a half. Golderer (4 tackles) had a pick. P. Doyle led with six tackles, a force and recovery of a fumble. Newton had five stops and forced fumble, while Sommerville had four tackles. For Dougherty, B. Williams had 90 yards on 14 carries, including jaunts of 20 and 32 yards. Baxter finished the game 6-for-17, with 118 yards, but was in-and-out of the game during the fourth quarter with a leg injury. I have to think that there few players more exciting in this city than Townsend (2-81). He didn’t really have tremendous numbers, but you just get that sense every time he touches the ball something special could happen. He had one of the more exciting 4-yard punt returns that you’ll ever see. He later added a 17-yard return, but injured his Achilles on the play. At game’s end he was being taken to a nearby hospital for X-rays. Let’s hope that it’s just a strain or bruise. Defensively, Carroll (12) and White (10) were active in the tackling department. Carroll also blocked a PAT, while White had a pick, forced a fumble (Blasted Golderer), and recovered one. Great day’s work! I was really impressed with sr. DT Steve Hart (6’0”, 275 lbs), who caused all kinds of havoc in the middle of the line from the second quarter on. He finished with 10 tackles, which is a great number for a kid playing tackle. Jr. LB Sean Kidd had 8 stops and a pick. Sr. DE Thaddeus Desmond recovered a fumble. Jr. DB Keith Dockery, who saw time at QB in Baxter’s absence, also recovered a fumble. Sr. RB/LB Sean Williams (5-26) chipped in with five stops. Sr. DE Colin Fequa nailed F. Doyle, all the while getting a piece of the ball that led to White’s pick. I love the energy that CD’s Head Coach Chris Riley brings! Very few seconds ever go by that something isn’t flowing out of his mouth. My favorite today was the statement he made after a WR failed to hold his block. He quipped, “Every play you're out there can change the course of a game.” This was directed at the entire team, and for this TS.Com reporter it made PERFECT sense. Whether you’re a player who plays a little or significantly never take anything for granted and do your job to the best of your ability. My fearless leader, Ted Silary made an appearance after covering the Frankford/Gratz game. With yours truly tallying the stats it allowed Ted to snap some photos for the site. I told him, you have the best pictures on the site. He said, “I’m the only one taking them. That’s not hard to do.” Ha ha ha….Dougherty honored the football the team from ’59 at halftime during their homecoming celebrations.

OCT. 6
CL BLUE
Conwell-Egan 26, West Catholic 12
   Last season the Burrs pasted the Eagles to the tone of 53-0, so heading into this contest you had to think that that experience was on the minds of just about every Eagle holdover. If it wasn’t, then you could hardly tell, because the Eagles beat-up on the Burrs for long periods of play. It took them just two snaps to let the possibly over-confident Burrs know that they had come to play. On the second play from scrimmage, sr. RB Jim Domzalski took a ball off right-tackle and sped 55 yards to the West 11-yard line. Two plays later, sr. FB Ray O’Hara easily rumbled in from the five to give the Eagles an early 6-0 advantage. However, the Burrs would bounce right back with a nice drive of their own that covered 55 yards on 8 plays. Jr. QB Eric Brennan capped the drive with a 1-yard plunge and this knotted them game at 6-6. Fueling the series was sr. RB Dennis Shaw (16-67) who carried four times for 34 yards. At this point, 8:28 remained on the first quarter clock and I said to myself, looks like the scoreboard is going to be active tonight. Not to be! At least for the rest of the first half, as the teams sputtered to develop some offensive consistency. When they did move the ball, a turnover or penalty usually halted a scoring opportunity. So, the teams headed into the locker rooms locked-up on the scoreboard. After receiving the second half kickoff the Burrs went meekly on a three-and-out. Punting into a wind that wasn’t nasty, but definitely a factor all night the Burr punt traveled just 17 yards. This gave the Eagles the ball at the West 40-yard line. It took them just two plays to capitalize and take a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the night. On a lovely out-and-up, impressive soph. WR Ryan Golin easily beat his Burr defender and sr. QB Kevin Schafer perfectly hit him in stride for a 35-yard touchdown. Next, the Burrs received a jolt in the form of a 55-yard kickoff return by soph. RB Rob Holloman. Then, after a couple of ten yard plays they found themselves poised to possibly tie the score, as they had a first down at the C-E 14-yard line. A two-yard loss on a run by Shaw and procedure call had them going backwards. Eventually, they had a fourth down opportunity from the eighteen, but Brennan’s pass was intercepted three yards deep in the endzone and then returned 29 yards by sr. DB Steve McCleon. On C-E’s next possession a 16-yard run by O’Hara, personal foul penalty on West, and 12-yard hook-up between Schafer and Golin led to their third touchdown. Again, the Schafer-to-Golin combination proved to be terrific. This time it was a stop-and-go that baited a West defender. With the wind at his back, Schafer beautifully lofted a ball that found Golin in stride for a 27-yard touchdown. This pass was really a thing of beauty as it had major hang-time and peacefully found the wide open Golin. The Burrs would should some life early in the fourth quarter and got to within 20-12 on 1-yard sneak by soph. QB Curtis Drake. The touchdown was set-up by two Drake completions to jr. WR Rodney Blango that went for 27 and 19 yards respectively. Then, on C-E’s subsequent possession jr. LB Aaron Maggio picked-off a Schafer pass and returned 15 yards to the Eagle forty. However, Schafer atoned for his pick by recovering a fumble by Shaw on the very next play. Talk about the ball bouncing one team’s way and not the others. After this recovery the Eagles put the ball down on the carpet twice during their next drive, but both times another teammate was there to jump on the loose rock. Domzalski lost the second fumble on the drive near the line of scrimmage, but the ball scooted downfield and to the right some, and found the lone eagle in the area sr. WR David Kuebler. On the play, Domzalski actually gained 12 yards. Then, on the next play he put the icing on the cake with a 24-yard game-clinching jaunt. I left very impressed with the Eagles as they had a game plan, stuck to it, and then eventually wore down a beleaguered West team. O’Hara was magnificent all night, simply terrific! The Eagles used a shotgun formation, with a split backfield, and three wide-outs just about all night. O’Hara routinely took inside handoffs and chewed up large chunks of yardage all evening. He finished with 154 yards on 21 carries. Demonstrating quick feet and hard running, he had seven carries that went for 10+ yards. Nice job! He received help from Domzalski who managed 92 yards on 12 lugs. This kid compliments O’Hara nicely, as he is a little shiftier. When healthy, this kid has been quite effective over the past two seasons. Continued health should bode well for the Eagles. Schafer had a sluggish first half (1-for-10, 4 yards), but once again showed what kind of leader he can be with a bounce-back second half performance. Aside from his two scoring passes he went 5-for-6, for 102 yards in that second half. There is much to like about this kid in the intangible area, but there is no lack of talent here either. Golin (6’1”, 185 lbs) hauled in five passes for 86 yards. This kid has good speed to go along with nice size for a sophomore. Longtime C-E statman Mike Tos believes that he can be one of the best Eagles to play that position in a long time. He just might be right in this respect, as there is much to like about this kid too. Hey, nothing ever gets done alone, so let’s give some credit to the boys up front who played with cohesiveness all night. This unit included; jr. C Rick Horn, G’s sr. Joe Syndman and Justin Bainbridge, and T’s jr. Chris Bolton and sr. Tom McCue. Speaking of McCue he was brilliant on the defensive side of the ball too. He was a major reason why Shaw never really got loose after that first drive. He finished with 8 tackles, including a sack and three other TFL’s. For one stretch he seemed like he just had free reign to shoot a gap and find his way into the Burr backfield. He’s was not alone though, as the C-E defense held the Burrs potent running game to just 13 second half yards. McCleon added his second pick late in the game and he also registered an active 6 tackles. O’Hara and Nolte each made a pack. Bainbridge had four stops, including two for losses. Boy, did the Burrs look like a Mash unit at game’s end. Multiple players left with assorted injuries including; sr. LB Anthony Rhoades (concussion), sr. DE Isiah Edmond (groin), Shaw (illness), and soph. DB Raymond Maples (ankle). Offensively, they never really got into the flow. They turned the ball over five times, as the QB’s combined to throw four picks. Blango did make four catches for 63 yards. Brennan had two early throws dropped that probably would have gone for considerable gains, if not scores, but after this he was erratic. Defensively, sr. LB Marc Holloway led the Burrs with 13 tackles. Sr. LB Chris Booker played well and contributed a sack (6 total stops), blocked a PAT, and made 3 TFL’s (18 yards). Jr. LB Marquese Sanders and sr. DB Khiry Carter each made seven tackles. Rhoades finished with six before leaving with the concussion. Soph. DB Haleem Hayward made an early pick. Holloman was a special team’s demon. Aside from a 55-yard kickoff return he also had a 48-yard punt return. Before this he forced a muff punt when he hit Domzalski as he fielded the ball. Jr. DB Carl Beaty made the recovery. My buddy, Matt “Cauls” McCauley, a loyal West supporter supplied the line of the night. As we waited nearby as O’Hara talked to Ted for an interview on my cell phone he overheard O’Hara say, “I guess you could label me a fullback in our offense.” Cauls responded, “You can label him Alstott after tonight.” He was referring to former Tampa Bay bruising fullback Mike Alstott. Truer words weren’t spoken all night! In the clipboard-cover department I came up small again. Last week, I left my cover in the car not thinking it would rain. It did! This week I brought my cover and Family Dollar poncho to the field. It didn’t rain, so I didn’t use it, but I left both behind and didn’t realize it until I was a good ways down I-95. Back to the drawing board!

SEPT. 30
CL BLUE
West Catholic 51, Dougherty 14
   This baby began with all kinds of interesting possibilities for the improving Cardinals, as they had the Burrs on their heals for a good part of the first half. Dougherty’s sr. WR/DB Roberto Townsend, after momentarily bobbling the opening kickoff, took it the distance for an 84-yard score. So we thought! As it turns out, he was ruled out-of-bounds at the West 20-yard line and had to settle for a 64-yard return. Still, the Cardinals were in prime position to get the game’s first score, but after a short run and two botched snaps (A problem all day), Townsend was stopped nicely by sr. DB/RB Dennis Shaw at the 12-yard line on a fourth down catch. And with this Dougherty let a golden opportunity slip through their hands. This would pretty much sum up Dougherty’s afternoon. Mistakes at critical junctures pretty much did them in and the Burrs to their credit took advantage of these miscues to win going away. Again, like in most weeks this season it was the talents of the shifty Shaw that got the Burrs going offensively. For the second time this season he eclipsed the 300+ multi-purpose yards barrier. Today, he went for 309 total yards and four touchdowns. He now has 14 scores in five games and the average distance has been 34.1 yards. In this outing, he was simply tremendous in the open field and provided not one, but two highlight reel runs. His first touchdown started the scoring as he took the rock 55 yards pretty much untouched through the right-side of the line. Later on, he fielded a punt at the CD’s 49-yard line and after making a couple of defenders miss early, he went down the left-sideline for another score. His third touchdown only traveled nine yards, but it ended with some serious aerodynamics. After taking a pitch from soph. QB/DB Curtis Drake (4-24) on an option play, Shaw met some resistance at roughly the 2 yard-line. Run out-of-bounds? Bull my way in? Neither to both! How about soar over the oncoming defenders? Yep! Trust me on this one, he was UP THERE! Easily the highest I’ve ever saw a kid at this level leave the ground. After the play he was shaken up briefly and on his way back the sidelines WC assistant Eric Rutherford blurted, “Hey, that’s what happens when you’re hang gliding.” His final touchdown went for 34 yards, but I’m guessing he ended up running probably closer to 80 or 90 yards on the play. Again, he took a pitch from Drake on an option play to the short side of the field. Almost immediately he saw sidelines and at least four Dougherty defenders. No problem! Let’s reverse fields and boogie on over to the other side. That’s exactly what he did and after a nice cutback around the 15 he easily scored. For the game, he rushed 19 times for 171 yards, made three grabs for another 38 yards, and had five returns for an even 100 yards. Definitely not a bad day’s work! Also, Shaw is quietly approaching the 3,000 career yard mark. His total now stands at 2,709. Despite his accomplishments it was far from a one-man show for the Burrs. For the second straight week jr. QB Eric Brennan played pretty well in my estimation. He finished 8-for-17, for 118 yards. Again, a couple of balls were overthrown or dropped, but he did take care of the ball and didn’t turn it over. Two of his completions went for touchdowns and both went jr. WR Rodney Blango (4-77). The first erased a 7-6 deficit and traveled ten yards on a fourth-and-goal play. The score was set-up by an earlier 41-yard hook-up between both players. Then, after Dougherty pulled within 20-14 on a lovely 77-yard quarterback keeper by jr. Phil Baxter, Brennan nicely orchestrated the drive that ultimately did the Cardinals in. Two completions, a 28-yarder to Shaw and a 23-yarder to Blango help set-up a 3-yard pass to Blango with just nine seconds left in the half. This made the score 26-14 and Dougherty never recovered. Blango has proved to be sure-handed and extremely tough in the early part of the season. He routinely makes his grabs over the middle. In the second half West dominated and would receive additional scores by sr. FB/LB Marc Holloway and soph. FB Juan Rozier, both came from a yard out. In the second half West out-gained CD 182-to-42, and had ten first downs to just one by their counterparts. All total, the Burr offense rolled up 421 yards, including 303 on the ground. Soph. RB Rob Holloman chipped in with 51 yards on 7 totes in spelling Shaw. Doing the dirty work up front was; sr. C David Walker, G’ soph. Paul Murtagh and sr. Isiah Edmond, T’s soph. Victor McNair and jr. Earl Griffiths, and sr. TE/LB Anthony Rhoades. Sr. FB Jack Mason was instrumental as a lead-blocker. Defensively, the Burrs did give up some big plays in the first half, but showed considerable improvement after intermission. Though they are giving up yards they continue to force turnovers (11-to-1) in the last two games. Today, INT’s were had by jr. DB Herman Hinton, sr. DB Khiry Carter, and Drake. Edmond recovered a fumble that led to Shaw’s 9-yard run. He also batted two balls down at the line and made a thundering hit that had Rutherford at it again. This time he yelled, “That was a Tylenol hit baby!” Jr. DB Carl Beaty recovered a loose ball on a kickoff. Leading the way in tackles was sr. LB Chris Booker with six. Shaw and Holloway each made five, while Rhoades chipped in with four. The turnovers by CD allowed them to run just 14 offensive plays in the second half. West played without soph. RB/DB Raymond Maples and lost jr. LB Marquese Sanders very early because of ankle woes. Though West put 51 points on the board and Shaw was magnificent, the play of the day might have been Baxter’s 77-yard jaunt. What a fake! Few, if any saw this transpire. I didn’t notice it until I saw him sprinting down the left-sideline with his hand in the air. The entire West defense pounded the fullback, who they thought had taken the ball. It was really neat and for a short while I thought it would change the complexion of the game. Baxter (6-91) had trouble all afternoon with getting the ball from center. The first five mishandles he recovered, but after the nice defensive stop by the defense inside their ten, he had a bad exchange with Williams and West recovered. He finished 11-for-23, with 120 yards. All but nine of those passing yards came in the first half. Four different receivers caught between two and three balls and had between 22 and 33 yards. I like Townsend, who is also gifted and flashy on the hardwood. It’s obvious to me that he can make plays. He finished with 133 all-purpose yards. On defense he had seven tackles, with a couple preventing touchdowns. Aside from Baxter’s long run the Cardinal ground attack never got going. Running backs Williams and sr. FB Sean Williams only managed 20 yards on 19 carries. Defensively, jr. LB Braheem Carroll was active with seven stops. Jr. LB Quinten White had five (2 TFL’s) and S. Williams had six. Jr. DE John Wydner had two tackles that totaled 17 yards in losses. The Cardinals played without one of their best playmakers and performers in sr. WR/DB Corey Key (ankle).  Major props to CD AD Larry “L.T.” Teal! L.T. and I worked at a kids camp years back. Being two of three city kids to work here we instantly built a friendship. My boy, Matt “Cauls” McCauley was the other. Today, he let me follow him from the school to Charlie Martin Stadium after watching the freshman game. Thus, this made things much easier for yours truly. Also, after I ran to my car to retrieve a cover when it started to rain I left my car door open. No problem though, L.T. was right there to close it for me while he worked the gate. Big-time save here!!

SEPT. 29
CL RED
Roman 29, Bonner 6
     After winning their first three contests of the season the Cahillites had some serious wind taken from their sails last week. In their league opener against perennial power St. Joe’s Prep, the Cahillites found themselves on the short end of a 40-0 defeat. So, with this in mind you just knew they would want to come out tonight and get themselves back on track. How did they do, you might ask? Let’s say convincing, if not borderline dominant.  Roman raced to 26-0 halftime lead while scoring on its first four possessions of the game. Jr. RB Balial Lewis found himself handing the ball to the back judge on all four of those scoring drives. With hard running, great balance, and very quick feet Lewis did a ton of damage in between the tackles. He didn’t break any real long runs, but he continually spanked the Bonner defense with gains in the seven-to-ten yard range. His first TD went for 12-yards and capped a nine play, 44-yard opening drive. Sr. WR/DB Troy Richardson gave his team excellent field position to start the game with a nice 38-yard kickoff return. On Roman’s next possession they traveled 67 yards on 11 plays. Lewis finished that drive with a 10-yard jaunt. A short time later he made the score 19-0 with a 9-yard rumble. This completed a 10-play, 50-yard drive. After sr. DB John Clark made a pick and returned it 23 yards, Lewis immediately scored his fourth TD on consecutive possessions with a 15-yard run. I like the way this kid runs and competes. He finished the half with 119 yards on 17 totes. The halftime whistle would actually end his night, as the Cahillites held him out in the second half, but he did more than his share of damage. When Lewis wasn’t running inside, jr. QB Chris Johnson was sprinting around the end. The impressive and very athletic signal-caller ripped off runs of 20, 16, and 10 yards in the initial half. He accumulated 70 of his 75 rushing yards (9 carries) in the first half.  He wasn’t asked to throw much, so he only mustered a total of 31 yards on 3-for-7 passing. This kid is strong and has above average speed. Grabbing Lewis’ carries in the second half was swift soph. RB Kasseim Everett who showed plenty of promise with 84 yards on 12 lugs. Included in this was a nifty 45-yard run. A nice cutback inside the ten allowed him to get tackled from behind at the two. Overall, the Cahillites rushed for 299 yards on 48 carries. Let’s give some shout-outs to the boys in the trenches who certainly did their parts to make it all happen. This unit included; sr. C Mike Long, G’s sr. Victor Jaramillo (6’2”, 305 lbs), soph. John Matthews, and sr. Nick Milburn, T’s jr. John Mazzola and jr. Jewhan Edwards (6’1”, 310 lbs), and sr. TE Mike Penna. Fullbacks sr. Buddy Buonviso and jr. Reggie Irby did an admirable job of lead-blocking. The Cahillites would push their lead to 29-0 on their first series of the second half with a booming 27-yard field goal by jr. K/P Chris Fioravanti. Richardson showed jack-of-all-trades ability by turning his six touches into 77 all-purpose yards. Defensively, Roman was downright stingy. They ended up allowing 130 yards, but 91 of these yards came in the final four minutes of the game and with many Cahillite starters retired for the evening. Prominent members were; Edwards (5 stops), jr Ed Krimmel, soph. John Marcinek (6’2”, 340 lbs), and Mazzola on the D-line, LB’s sr. Matt Marcinek (6’3”, 232 lbs), jr. Sean Clift, and sr. Chuck Cohen, and DB’s Richardson (4 tackles), sr. Dom Joseph (Virginia-recruit), Clark (4 tackles), and impressive jr. Nick Moody (6’2”, 215 lbs). J. Marcinek and Moody split a sack. Moody also had another tackle that resulted in a 6-yard loss. This group held the Friar running attack to a mere 35 yards on 17 carries. In total, twenty-two Roman defensive players made at least one tackle. If there was a negative aspect to the game for the Cahillites it had to be that they committed 10 penalties for 60 yards. Many were of the lack of concentration variety that will definitely not make Head Coach Jim Murphy happy. In Roman’s early-in-the-game frolicking, they used what I dubbed a "not-in-a-hurry, hurry-up." They never actually got into a huddle, but getting the play off wasn’t exactly in quick fashion either. Nonetheless it was effective! Believe it or not though, they were actually called for a delay penalty, despite not ever forming a huddle. Don’t think I ever saw that one before. The Friars under first-year Head Coach Jim Burner continue to struggle. Though their overall numbers are ok, they are seriously lacking in the size and team speed departments. Their lone score came on a 10-yard pass to jr. TE Martin Spellman from jr. QB Ignatius “Iggy” Schmitt. The touchdown was set-up by a 40-yard pass from Schmitt to jr. WR Chris Hooper (5-59). Schmitt, a lefty with good size, completed 6-of-11, for 72 yards in the latter stages. He was also Bonner’s leading rusher with 19 yards on two carries. Bonner’s first team offense never could get anything going. Their first seven drives ended with six punts and an interception. Sr. RB/DB Mike Dougherty chipped in with 86 yards on five kickoff returns. He also hustled for 5 tackles. Jr. LB Donal Ferry led the Friar defense with 8 stops. Jr. DB Matt McGillian chipped in with six. Sr. DT Chris Rucier (4 stops) showed energy on the line of scrimmage. The Bonner PA announcer repeatedly gave Phillies’ updates, and in doing so sounded very similar to current Phillies’ PA announcer Dan Baker.

SEPT. 23
CL BLUE
Neumann-Goretti 28, Kennedy-Kenrick 7
   The Saints’ offense wasted little time getting started and on their third play from scrimmage found the end zone. Sr. QB Mark Hatty (6’4”, 180 lbs) perfectly lofted a pass down the right sideline that hit sr. WR Joe Gionfriddo in stride for an easy 55-yard touchdown. On their third series of the game brassy sr. FB/LB Mark McPherson raced 35 yards for yet another score. During the run he broke a minimum of three tackles. Early in the second quarter, after a fumble by the Wolverines, McPherson would score again, this time from nine yards. This gave the Saints a commanding 21-0 lead and for all intents and purposes this baby was over. They took this lead into the intermission and had to be happy, right? Not exactly! If you asked the Saints to a man they would probably all say that they should have been up by more than the three touchdowns. I know if you asked the N-G coaching staff they would definitely had said it. I’m fairly confident that Head Coach Steve Smith had to be at least somewhat disappointed. The Saints squandered additional scoring opportunities throughout the initial half. Thrice they fumbled inside the red zone. Still, they were comfortably ahead and the defense smothered the K-K offense to the tone of 37 total yards and only one first down. The Wolverines did show some life to start the second half and drove 60 yards on 11 plays to draw within 21-7. Jr. FB/LB Matt Ganley (4-23) scored the touchdown on a 4-yard scoot. Earlier in the drive he picked up 12 yards on a fake punt after taking a direct snap. Jr. RB Nick Ciccone (10-46) chipped in with 25 yards on the drive. After the K-K defense held there were some brief hopes that they could possibly cut into the Saints’ advantage. Brief may be too strong of a word because three plays into that ensuing possession they fumbled and the ball was recovered by N-G’s sr. DT Drew Byrne (6’2”, 280 lbs). On the very next play, Gionfriddo (2-90) flew by a K-K defensive back and gathered in a 35-yard pass from Hatty to make it 28-7, with 1:33 left in the third quarter. This would close out the scoring, but N-G did get close on two more occasions. In the fourth quarter they again fumbled inside the red zone, this time at 10-yard line. Later, with second-team guys in the game they were stuffed at the one-yard line on fourth down. Despite the miscues the Saints did manage to rack-up 335 yards in offense. Hatty wasn’t asked to throw much, but did connect for 129 yards, on 4-for-9 passing. Aside from Gionfriddo’s receptions he also delivered a nice ball downfield to sr. RB Anthony Sample for a 33-yard gain. Hatty is rather polished and has a knack of avoiding trouble in the pocket. He needs to get stronger, but is lanky and has a frame that should be able to add weight. So, he should be able to draw some college interest at some level. N-G's best all-around player is McPherson. In the backfield he displays quick feet and runs extremely hard. Today, he finished with 110 yards on 12 totes. Defensively, the Saints like to move him around and will often bring him off the edge to get at the quarterback. He only managed three tackles, but did force a fumble and have three pass defends. Sample rushed 6 times for a productive 42 yards. Jr. RB/LB Adam Malantino rushed for another 42 yards on four carries, mostly on wing-back counters. On defense, he contributed six tackles. The Saints have pretty good size in the trenches. This unit includes: sr. C Kenyade Peterson, G’s sr. Jimmy Nevin (6’2”, 260 lbs), jr. John Gambone, and jr. Chris Palmer (6’4”, 292 lbs), and T’s soph. Kadeem Custis (6’4”, 270 lbs) and sr. Louis Mobley (6’2”, 280 lbs). Defensively, the Saints held K-K to just 13 yards passing and 152 yards in total offense. I really like the potential of jr. OLB Preandre Watson (6’3”, 225 lbs) who just oozes athleticism. Today, he made a pick and returned it 23 yards. He also forced a fumble and had five tackles (2 TFL’s). He strikes me as the type of kid who probably doesn’t realize his potential yet. It’s possible that he doesn’t realize how good he could be either. We’ll see what happens, but he is definitely one to keep an eye on. Sr. LB Vinny Burgese also had a pick and a nice 20-yard return to go with it. Soph. DB Ira Davis perfectly blocked a punt. It wasn’t the sloppy kind either, but the layout block with the thud of the ball at the end of it. Nice! He also recovered a fumble. Jr. DE Kadeem Singleton had five stops and forced a fumble. Jr. DB Hakeem Johnson nicely pounced on a loose ball after a short kickoff. Man, I’ve been seeing more and more of this! Jr. WR/DB Darrell Dulany had 50 yards on two kickoff returns. This N-G squad does have some players and if they play smart they should be able to make some noise in the CL Blue. However, they’ll need to clean it up some too, for they won’t be able to get away with seven fumbles (4 loss) and 12 penalties for 92 yards against the better teams in the league. After some shoddy play in the first half Smith bellowed out, “These guys who coach 'til they're 70, how do they do it? I’m not going to be able to. No way!” To say this is a transition year for the Wolverines would be a serious understatement. The currently only have 12 seniors on their roster. On top of that, Head Coach Mike Santillo didn’t get the job until a week before camps started in August. So, the off-season workouts that  many teams rely on to build cohesiveness may not have been available to the Wolverines. Still, the coaches/players were into the game throughout and many of his kids played with energy. Ganley was sparkling in defeat. On defense, he registered 11 tackles and forced a fumble. Soph LB Gerry Ploskon, jr. DB Nick Tinneny (forced fumble), soph. DT Mike Mastrocola, and sr. LB Keith Andrews all had fumble recoveries. Soph. WR/DB Ronell Fairel had five tackles. The Wolverines played without arguably their best player in jr. RB/DB Greg Santangelo (ankle). This game was played at 10th and Bigler, N-G’s home field for years. However, originally it was scheduled to be played at Kerr Field in Yeadon. The construction has not begun at Southern’s field and the Saints were granted permission to use it. We’ll see what happens for future tilts. The only sign of construction is the missing part of the left-side of the scoreboard. The remaining portion of the scoreboard only shows the visitor’s side. And no, it was not working!

SEPT. 22
CL RED
Father Judge 35, O’Hara 28
   The cool temperatures and slight breeze made it an exquisite night football and the performances put forth by the Crusaders and Lions made it an even more enjoyable and memorable evening for this TS.com reporter. If you’re a fan of precise and crisp offensive play, then Marple-Newtown High School was the place for you last night. Offensively, the teams combined for 736 yards. This game featured exciting moments throughout, but for the more meaningful action-packed occurrences let’s head right for the latter stages of the fourth quarter. From the 2:38 mark down to 1:42 there were a combined twenty-two points scored. That’s right, only 56 seconds of action went off the clock during this intense flurry. Judge held the slimmest of margins, 21-20; when they took over possession at their own 19-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. Behind the tough running of sr. RB Jim Lavelle, who was sensational all evening; the Crusaders marched 81 yards on 8 plays to increase their lead to 28-20. The drive was capped on a 2-yard rumble by sr. RB/LB Chris Dowling. The score came after a timely 9-yard reception by jr. TE Dan Keenan on a third-and-six play that gave Judge a first-and-goal. At this point, Daily Times reporter John Lohn and I discussed that it may be best for the Lions to let Judge find the end zone immediately, instead of allowing them to run precious time off the clock. Can’t say for sure if the Lions did this, but resistance at the line-of-scrimmage appeared to be half-hearted at best. Earlier on the drive, Lavelle ripped off runs of 28 and 32 yards – Clutch! After a short kickoff the Lions set-up shop at their 45 yard-line. On the first play soph. QB Tom Savage (6’4”, 220 lbs) hit sr. WR T.J. Long (2-65) with a laser of a pass that brought the ball down to the Judge five. Two plays later, Savage found jr. TE Mark Wedderburn on a quick-slant for a 4-yard score. To tie the game, they again used Wedderburn’s (6’7”, 225 lbs) tremendous size on a fade to the right-corner. There was just nothing Judge’s smallish defensive backs could do. With momentum seemingly on the side of O’Hara the Crusaders wasted little time answering O’Hara’s statement drive. Jr. DB Andrew McHale took the kickoff a little to the left of the center of the field, waited patiently for a wall to form, and then found an opening to the right and headed up the right sideline for an 87-yard touchdown. At this moment if you looked up the word euphoria in the dictionary, then you would see the Crusader sideline in the margin next to it. All they needed now was one last defensive stop. O’Hara started at their 20-yard line with 1:30 left. Twice they saved themselves with fourth-and-long completions; Savage 31-yards to Wedderburn and 17 yards to jr. WR Chris Smith. After the Smith completion 27 seconds remained and the ball sat at Judge’s 35-yard line. However, with no timeouts left, Judge’s sr. DE Ryan Kreider sacked Savage for the second time in the possession. In O’Hara’s haste to assemble their troops at the line-of-scrimmage they were called for a procedure penalty. By the time the referees set the ball only seven seconds remained and the clock started with the whistle. The Lions did manage one more play; another 15-yard completion to Smith, but time had expired. Ball game! Great win for the Crusaders who have endured more than share of tough defeats over the past few seasons. O’Hara assistant Greg Bernhardt said it best afterwards, “Nobody in this league runs a more organized and balanced offense than Judge does.” I concur!! The Crusaders are always fun to watch on offense, they don’t always have the tremendous athletes to accomplish exactly what they want to, but boy, do they know what they're doing. As I stated earlier Lavelle was tremendous, lugging the rock 25 times for 170 yards and a touchdown (4 yards). This kid runs hard and low to the ground. From the sidelines you wouldn’t think this kid is hard to bring down, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. When Lavelle wasn’t running it, jr. QB Paul Volpe was tossing it. He finished an efficient 9-for-13, with 154 yard and two scores. I like this kid! He demonstrated supreme confidence and great composure. On both ends of his scoring passes was impressive soph. WR Tom Ryan (4-67). The touchdowns covered 14 and 8 yards respectively. Dowling performed well at fullback and linebacker. Aside from doing a yeoman job paving the way for Lavelle he also contributed 67 yards in offense, including a nice 41-yard reception on a screen play. On defense he registered five tackles, including one for a six-yard loss. Much credit needs to go the grunts up front for the Crusaders. O’Hara’s defense isn’t exactly chopped liver, so to generate 374 yards in offense is quite a night. Rotating members of this unit include; jr. C Anthony Marascio, G’s sr. Mike Murphy (6’1”, 276 lbs) and sr. Brendan Kwisz, T’s Kreider, jr. Dave Smith (6’4”, 301 lbs), sr. Kevin Keenan, and sr. Chris Mulherrin, and TE’s D. Keenan and soph. Ryan Langdon. Defensively, jr. DT Josh Carfagno had six stops (1.5 sacks). Soph LB Joe Swallow had a half-of-sack too. Soph. LB Adam Nowak, McHale, and jr. DB Tyree Quiah each had six tackles. McHale stared the game with a nice 38-yard return and finished with a total of 125 yards on two returns. Sr. DB Joe Thompson (4 tackles) ripped the ball out of the hands of a Lion rusher to set-up the Crusader third score. Sr. K Dan Luberski nailed all five PATs, but his most impressive moment probably occurred during the second half kickoff. After an intentional short kick he raced down field and recovered the loose ball at the 33-yard line. Great hustle! The Lions again played without D-1 prospect sr. RB/DB John Dempsey (ankle) and as in other games this year the running game sputtered. So, doing much of the damage on offense was the young and impressive gunslinger Savage. He finished 13-for-23, for 268 yards. Man, does the ball come out of hands effortlessly. I can expect that not just good things, but great things will have happen for this kid over the next three seasons. Early in the game I kept asking to myself, when will they take advantage of Wedderburn’s size and talent? He was being single-covered by Quiah, who was GENEROUSLY listed at 5’10” in the program. Trust me this kid was out on an island. Then, in the second quarter it happened. Three times Savage threw fades to the giant in an O’Hara uniform, and three times he skied to bring in the ball for gains of 28, 22, and 18 yards. All occurred on one possession and the last grab gave the Lions their only lead of the game at 14-7. Wedderburn finished with 103 yards on five catches, and two scores. Savage’s next favorite target was Smith who finished with 90 yards on 5 catches. Amongst his snags was a 47-yard touchdown where he neatly split the seam in the Judge defense. Smith also added 36 yards on 9 totes. Soph. FB Evan Higgins (7-28) scored the Lions’ first TD on a 7-yard scamper. Defensively, I just love the intensity that soph. LB Anthony McCloskey exhibits. Tonight, he finished with a game-high 12 tackles (11 solos) and forced a fumble. This kid is extremely hard-nosed. Sr. DE Joe Goldschmidt contributed with two sacks. Sr. LB’s Sean Lyons (eight) and Joe Colleluori (seven) were active in the tackling department. Jr. Db Pat Daly added six stops, while jr. DE Bill McMonigle added a fumble recovery. O’Hara’s defense could only force one Judge punt and that didn’t come until the early stages of the fourth quarter. If this game is any indication of what to expect in the CL Red this year, then we should be in stored for some quality football. This league is full of quality teams, coaches, and players.

SEPT. 16
NON-LEAGUE
North Catholic 27, McDevitt 13
     After one quarter this game had stinker written all over it. The teams combined for just 30 yards in offense and a single first down, while amassing more yards (45) in penalties. But hey, there are four quarters in a football game and for the Falcons the remaining three were mostly joyous. The Falcon offense rolled up 354 yards in the final three quarters, while the defense was stingy to say the least. North nearly doubled the Lancers play output, holding a 65-to-33 advantage. Check out this stat – In the second and fourth quarters combined, North ran 45 plays to just 9 by McDevitt. Holy ball control! North’s headliner is Temple-recruit sr. RB/DB Daryl Robinson. It was very obvious that Lancers came focused to contain the speedy playmaker and for the most part they did a good job. Robinson had decent moments, but a victory today wouldn’t have occurred if he didn’t get considerable help from teammates. In the end, plenty of Falcons did do more than their share to ensure a Falcon W in as many weeks. Soph. QB Dennis Logue played superbly and tossed two scoring passes. He completed all seven of his pass attempts in the second half and finished the game with 196 yards, on 17-for-25 marksmanship. Many of his hurls were of the quick variety and the Lancers had no answers. Hey, that was kind of snappy, smile! Anyhow, he routinely hit open receivers right at the line of scrimmage and these guys did a great job of rolling of the RAC yardage. His main target was jr. WR/LB Ryan McCullough (6’3”, 185), who for now tied a NC receiver record with 123 yards on seven snags. Falcon statman Mike Ferris had Ryan with just 118 yards and will be checking the tapes this week. Jamie Makowski ’87 also had 123 receiving yards in a game. McCullough had a change of heart after transferring to Cherry Hill West in the second semester last year. He rejoined the Falcons this summer and I’m almost certain the North faithful are happy. Twice he caught passes at the line of scrimmage and powerfully shredded tacklers for additional yardage. It was his touchdown, the first of three fourth quarter scores for the Falcons, that increased a slim 7-6 lead to 13-6. The play occurred on the other side of the field, but it was OBVIOUS to me that Ryan failed to hold onto the ball as he battled with a McDevitt defender. However, both referees that were near the play raised their hands to signal a catch and touchdown. The play went for 25-yards. When McCullough came back to the sidelines I asked him if he had caught the ball and without hesitating one iota he said no while shaking his head. Gotta love the honesty! The Lancers next two possessions ended with fumbles, and guess who did the causing? That’s right, McCullough! One came on a sack and the recoveries were made by jr. DB Pete Sellecchia and soph. LB Joe Mascino. This led to two more Falcon scores; runs by Robinson (1-yard) and jr. RB Terrell “T.O’” Oglesby (5-yards). In total, the Falcon offense piled up 371 yards. Robinson lugged the rock 25 times for 83 yards. Though he found running room hard to come by for the most part. Sr. WR Stan Waclawski was active throughout. He made five grabs for 47 yards and turned two laterals (running plays) for another 34 yards. Sr. RB/DB Rich Cruz only ran the ball thrice, but notched a productive 33 yards. One of his runs ended with a fumble that prevented what looked like a sure 15-yard touchdown. McDevitt recovered the ball in the end zone. The North O-line battled throughout and was a significant reason for the balanced offensive production. This unit consisted of; jr. C Bobby Mullen, G’s jr. Terelle Paskel and sr. Pat McCullough, T’s sr. Anthony DeLuca (6’3”, 296 lbs), jr. Eric French, and jr. Andrew Jander (6’3”, 352 lbs), and TE jr. Shahid Paulhill (6’4”, 246 lbs). I was impressed with Paulhill on both sides of the ball. He put the Falcons on the board with an easy-as-pie 9-yard scoring catch. On the play, North used a full-house backfield and masterful fake by Logue to catch the Lancers’ defense napping. There wasn’t a McDevitt defender within seven yards of Paulhill. Defensively, Paulhill registered four tackles (2 TFL’s) and batted a ball down at the line. Cruz made two picks in the game, one near his own goal line and the other he returned 25 yards. Sellecchia, R. McCullough, and sr. LB Tom Hannan all had five stops. Jr. LB Chris James blocked a PAT, but then left with a lower leg injury. He didn’t seem to optimistic when I asked him about it. He’s one of the leaders of the Falcon defense and his loss for future games would be felt at some level. Overall, the defense held McDevitt to a mere 53 yards. The Lancers could only muster four first downs for the game. Three of them came on their opening drive of the second half, when they moved the ball from their own 38-yard line down to North’s twenty-three. However, the drive ended with an interception by Cruz. As it turns out, if it wasn’t for kickoff returns McDevitt would have never scored, as both of their touchdowns came via the return. First, jr. DB Jason Golderer neatly caught a ball over his shoulders and zipped his way 93 yards to paydirt. Then, after North made it 27-6, jr. RB Kyle Epps took one 81 yards to make the outcome more respectable. Earlier Epps had a 28 yard return. All together they racked up 202 yards on three returns. Though there really isn’t anything to report about the offense the defense did play decently despite the high yardage. The game was 7-6 going into the fourth quarter before North broke it open. Golderer shined throughout, aside from the KO return he also had a conversion run, seven tackles, a sack, and a fumble recovery. He showed hustle and brass throughout! Sr. DB Joe Mitros led the Lancers with ten stops. Sr. LB Branden Williams was active with eight. Jr. LB Joe Smart and sr. LB Dante Oliver evenly split ten. Jr. DT Stephen Yaun (6’3”, 295 lbs) had four, two for losses. Prior to the game North’s class of ’64 came out onto the field and shook hands with the entire team and coaching staff as they went back into the locker rooms.

SEPT. 15
NON-LEAGUE
La Salle 42, West Catholic 34
   If you were a spectator at Widener’s Quick stadium last night and you made a trip to the restroom or concession stand in the first half, then chances are you missed something juicy. The Explorers and Burrs, a pair of Christian Brother schools, met for the first in a decade.  And all they did was turn a Catholic League football game into something very reminiscent of NASCAR Formula One racing. The teams zoomed and zipped for 649 all-purpose yards – In the first half alone!!! Amazing! At the break, La Salle held a 39-to-19 play and a 14-to-3 first down advantage, but headed towards the locker rooms trailing on the scoreboard 26-21 to the pesky Burrs. Doing nearly all of the damage for West was shifty sr. RB Dennis Shaw. Shaw turned four of his nine first half touches into scores. Including in this were touchdowns on three successive carries. Let’s recap! LaSalle opened the scoring on their second possession when they traveled 48 yards after sr. WR/DB Jack Forster made a pick. They needed just two plays to capitalize; 27-yard hook-up from jr. QB John Harrison to Forster and then a 21-yard strike to impressive jr. WR Joe Migliarese (6’5”, 205 lbs). Immediately Shaw and West answered as he took the Explorer kickoff on a hop and went 87 yards for a score. On the play, he made a nice instinctive cutback near midfield and then tormented the kicker to seal the deal. La Salle would go up 14-6 on their next possession and again wasted little movement on the clock. This time they went 59 yards on three plays; seven and 17-yard (on thrown lateral) runs by sr. RB Chris Ashley, who was magnificent, and a way-to-easy 35-yard strike from Harrison to Migliarese for his second touchdown in as many catches. Early in the second quarter West pulled to within 14-12 on a Shaw 84-yard romp that saw him start the run on the left side of the field and finish it with a leap into the end zone on the right. La Salle’s next possession quickly ended when Harrison committed probably his only mistake of the evening. Burrs soph. DB Curtis Drake picked-off a short Harrison toss and returned it 49 yards to the Explorer three-yard line. Two plays later, Shaw again found himself handing over the rock to a man in stripes with a 3-yard bull. On the conversion, West used some trickery and after soph. RB Rob Holloman took a pitch he neatly threw back to jr. QB Eric Brennan, who used his 6’5” frame to snatch the slightly under thrown pass over an Explorer defender giving West a 20-14 lead. Need a break? Not so fast! LaSalle would grab the lead right back by marching 73 yards on 9 plays. The series was capped by a 1-yard plunge by Ashley. The big play on the drive was a 20-yard hook-up between Harrison and Migliarese on a third-and-eleven play. Then, Shaw would score his fourth touchdown of the half, third in a row on three touches, when he took a handoff 67 yards to the house. Oxygen please! This made the score 26-21 West and would close out the scoring the initial half. However, the Burrs did have a chance to increase their lead after Forster failed to handle a short kickoff following Shaw’s score and soph. WR Ed Colon pounced on the loose pigskin. The Burrs set-up shop at the 24-yard line, and a short time later had a fourth-and-two situation from the sixteen, but Shaw was stuffed by sr. S Sean Saverio and sr. LB JB Campanella and the opportunity for additional scoring was thwarted. The cool and confident Harrison propelled the Explorer offense to roll up 278 yards in the opening half. In Joe Montana-like fashion he picked apart a young West secondary for 189 yards on 12-for-16 passing. West accumulated 177 yards in that first half, with Shaw providing 167 of them. Obviously, I didn’t expect the second half to equal what took place in the first, but I didn’t think the third quarter would turn into a defensive struggle either. In this quarter the teams combined for eight possessions and could only muster 42 total yards and two first downs between them. Only one score took place in this quarter and it was supplied by the Explorers, who only needed to move 13 yards to get it. The big play was actually supplied by defense as a bad exchange between Brennan and Shaw led to a fumble. The recovery was made by Saverio. Then, on a third-and-14 play from the seventeen Harrison beautifully hit Foster on fade pass near the back of the end zone. Very nice! On the play, Forster perfectly sold a slant route, before cutting back for the fade. There were just :53 seconds left in the quarter. This gave the Explorers a 28-26 lead and they never looked back. Spearheaded by an aggressive defense LaSalle kept the Burrs on their heels and put them in situations that were not conducive for success. Of the Burrs first six possessions of the second half they managed to run just sixteen plays. The fumbled caused one to end after just a single play and then the other five ended with punts and all were three-and-outs. Talk about a reversal of fortune! Meanwhile, the Explorers offense kept after it and thanks to their D used comfortable field position to score on their next two possessions. The first one traveled 40 yards and was capped by an 11-yard TD pass from Harrison to Migliarese, their third such meeting for scoreboard illuminating purposes. Then, they moved 37 yards that ended with Harrison throwing his fifth scoring pass of the contest, this time to sr. TE Mike Stahl for two yards on a fourth-and-one play. This play-action pass was beautifully executed. On the respectability front the Burrs would add one more score in the waning moments. After the La Salle long snapper sent a snap over Forster’s head that saw them lose 28 yards and had a local radar gun on I-95 register 63 MPH, smile! Man, this baby had some gusto on it. Anyhow, even though Shaw lost his fifth score, a 20-yard pass, on a block-below-waist penalty the Burrs would eventually score with just fifteen seconds left. After a nifty 25-yard catch by sr. WR Mike Williams, Brennan found jr. WR Rodney Blango for a six-yard touchdown. The aforementioned Harrison was brilliant; finishing 19-for-28, with 256 yards. He’s not the biggest kid and doesn’t appear to be the most athletic, but boy, does he know what to do out there. Having former LaSalle and Villanova all-timer Brett Gordon on the coaching staff certainly isn’t hurting the cause. The good thing about him is that he’ll spread the ball around, witnessed by him finding seven different WR’s tonight. The most active participants were; Migliarese (4-87) and Forster (5-88). I love Migliarese's potential! Not to go unnoticed was the workmanlike performance put forth by Ashley who lugged the rock an incredible 35 times. All total, he had 40 touches (4 catches and 1 KO-return) for 202 all-purpose yards. Much credit needs to go to the O-line who helped the Explorers have a 71-to-43 play and a mind-boggling 22-to-5 first down advantage. I say mind-boggling because of the final score. Anyhow, members of this unit consisted of: sr’s Chris Cabrey, Dan Connors, Bill Castleberg and jr’s Matt Lees (6’2”, 270 lbs), Andrew Galbally and Pat Morrow. Great job fellas! Defensively, sr. DE Scott Waters and DT Dom Baker registered sacks. Saverio and Campanella led the tackling department with five stops apiece. Saverio showed a rock’em-sock’em mentality with two vicious hits. One of them prevented a conversion run by Shaw at the goal line. I like this La Salle team! Few teams will execute as well as they do. They MIGHT BE a tad short in the overall team speed department, but they make up for it in smarts and being a coachable group. This much is definitely apparent! For West, they received a great performance from Shaw who should vie for some Player-of-the Week votes for a great performance in a losing effort. He finished with 177 yards rushing on 14 totes and exactly 300 all-purpose yards in the game (111 returns, 12 receiving). Brennan was just 8-for-21, with 54 yards. He never really got into a rhythm until the last drive where gained 39 of those yards and completed his last three passes. Now, it’s not all his fault, but like Ted said in an earlier report I would like to see a little more poise and command from the three-year starter. He needs to do a better job of reading the defense and knowing when and where to throw the ball. Hopefully, this can happen in the weeks to come. He’s a good kid who is definitely smart enough to make better decisions when there needed. Obviously, when the opposing team runs 73 offensive plays there are going to be some people with big tackle numbers. And this was the case for the Burrs tonight. Sr. LB Chris Booker, sr. LB Anthony Rhoades (sack), soph. DB Haleem Hayward, and jr. LB Marquese Sanders (sack) all finished with nine apiece. Sr. LB Marc Holloway added eight, while sr. DE Isiah Edmond (sack) chipped in with five. Believe it or not, but even with all the scoring the team still combined for 13 punts. At game’s end the teams had combined for 824 all-purpose yards (LS- 414, WC-410).

SEPT. 9
NON-LEAGUE
Carroll 20, Upper Merion 6
     The Pats found themselves in a generous mood in the first half, and this would prevent them from building any kind of a lead as they squandered away first half opportunities. Consequently, they found themselves tied with the visiting Vikings 6-6. Twice, in the opening half the Pats coughed up the ball inside the red zone, with one of them coming at the two-yard line. Then, things seem to spiral out of control a bit more when Viking sr. RB Larry Gaskins (20-62) took the second half kickoff 83 yards for touchdown. Stop! I think I spot some laundry on the field. Indeed, the Vikings were whistled for holding and the long return was negated. From this point the Pats slowly regained control and eased their way to a victory. For scoring purposes let’s head back to the first quarter. After the Carroll defense forced a punt deep in Upper Merion’s territory the offense took over at the twenty-yard line after a personal foul call on the Vikings. The Pats wasted little time and sr. QB Matt Cantafio hit a wide open jr. WR/DB Ellis Rogers near the ten and he calmly scooted in for the score. The Vikings would knot the score on the first play of the second quarter on a 19-yard run by soph RB Pete Panichi (4-41). Upper Merion’s first possession of the second half ended with a fumble caused and recovered by Carroll soph Chris Kennedy. This placed the ball at the Viking 42-yard line. Seven plays later, Cantafio on a designed sneak bulled in from two yards out. The big play on the drive was actually another personal foul call on the Vikings that brought the ball from the twenty-nine down to the fourteen. Carroll perfectly added the two-point conversion as Canatafio nicely found a wide open sr. TE/LB Tom Ciccoli in the corner of the endzone. The score would remain this way until the last play of the game. With just :07 seconds left on the clock the Pats called a timeout to avoid a delay penalty. On the fourth down play, sr. RB Shane McMahon (7-31) took a speed sweep in from the 8-yard line. Offensively, the Pats used a balanced offense in accumulating 263 total yards. Doing much of the rushing damage early was sr. RB Russell Johnson (11-54), while sr. FB Alex Belfi (15-65) produced more in the second half. Cantafio finished 8-for-12, with 102 yards. His favorite target was sr. WR Wiley Flowers (6-79). This kid exhibits nice hands, quick feet, and does a great job of finding open space. He made a great 36-yard snag to prolong a third quarter drive. On the play he actually made the catch prone from his back after he tipped the ball to himself. Really nice!! The Pats may have not dented the scoreboard often in the second half, but they definitely used ball control to keep the Vikings offensive unit off the field. For the half Carroll ran 32 plays to just 13 by the Vikings. In the fourth quarter Upper Merion ran just three plays! Carroll had one drive that started in the third quarter and ended with 5:30 left in the game. All total, they ran 16 plays and took a whopping 9:43 off the clock. They reached the three-yard line, but failed to punch it in. Still, damage to the clock was certainly done. Supplying the grunt work up front was: sr. C George Solometo, T’s soph. Jack Lowney (6’3”, 235 lbs) and sr. Bill O’Brien, and G’s sr. Matt Hallinan and sr. Marco Dedda. I like the youngster Lowney who appears to have a frame to add weight as he progresses. Defensively, Carroll received a fumble recovery and five tackles from jr. DE Rob Sklaroff  (6’3”, 230 lbs) and a pick and five tackles from Ciccoli. Sr. DT Jordan Faust (6’2”, 290 lbs) was impressive throughout and led the Pats with seven tackles. A couple of instances he hustled downfield bring down Viking ball carriers. Great hustle big guy!!! Sr. LB Marcus Mattaway added five stops as well. At game’s end the Carroll defense held Upper Merion to minus-7 yards passing, ouch!! Sr. DB Ryan Downs had 61 yards on two kickoff returns, including a 44-yarder to begin the game. Carroll has now played their first two games without arguably their two best players; sr. RB Brent Christie (hamstring) and sr. OL/DE John Pettine (shoulder). Depending on whom you ask their return is unknown. However, after speaking to one of the players, he seems to think that he can be back for their first league game versus Wood. Stay tuned!! I spent the entire game patrolling the sidelines with Daily Times writer John Lohn. This is always a treat, as John is on top of things, and always has good info and stories. Included in his story telling was a recap of the times Puck called him during the week to examine our weekly picks. To all DT subscribers --- Don’t be surprised if the numbers get changed in the near future, smile!!

SEPT. 8
NON-LEAGUE
O’Hara 14, North Penn 0
     For the fourth consecutive season these Southeastern PA heavyweights banged heads for early season bragging rights. Last year, the Knights outlasted the Lions 35-28 in a track meet that saw each squad chew up chunks of yardage. Tonight, after the Lions first drive it appeared that we might see that type of game yet again. The young, but talented squad from Springfield took the opening kickoff and methodically marched down the field, using 17 plays to move 90 yards. O’Hara took 6:53 off the clock and ignited the scoreboard on a six-yard scamper by soph. RB Billy Morgan. Doing a lion-share of the damage was soph. FB Evan Higgins, who rushed six times for 43 yards on the drive.  This 7-0 advantage would last until the mid-point of the fourth quarter. Then, facing a fourth-and-five situation from the Knights’ 35-yard line, O’Hara headman Danny Algeo opted to keep his offense on the field instead of trying to pin North Penn deep with a punt. The gamble paid off, as jr. WR Chris Smith, a quality transfer from Chichester, easily beat his defender on a quick-slant and took a picture-perfect heave from promising soph. QB Tom Savage to the house. That would be all she wrote for the Knights, and with their offense barely registering a pulse all night, they saw their final two drives end harmlessly. This O’Hara team isn’t there YET, but I suspect they’ll get better and better as the weeks progress. Where to begin? Let’s start with the defense, a unit that has not been scored upon in two games versus quality opposition. A unit that features no less than eight new starters, nine tonight with D-1 prospect sr. RB/DB John Dempsey out with a right ankle injury. Only twice did the Knights enter Lion territory and the furthest they traveled was to the forty-one. Twenty-nine minutes erased off the clock before they actually saw the light beyond midfield. Amazing, for such an inexperienced group! In total, North Penn accumulated just 116 yards (90 rushing, 26 passing) on 45 plays from scrimmage. This group consisted of; DT’s sr. Andrew Newbauer and soph. Dennis Mushrush (6’0”, 290 lbs), DE’s sr. Joe Goldschmidt (6’2”, 240 lbs) and jr. Billy McMonigle, LB’s sr. Joe Colleluori, sr. Sean Lyons, jr. Mike Grunde, and soph. Anthony McCloskey, DB’s jr. Pat Daly, jr. Steve Werner, and jr. Kevin Ward. Algeo raved about Goldschmidt’s (sack) play after the game. Leading tacklers were Colleluori, McCloskey, and Ward (2 pass defends), each finishing with six apiece. Colleluori appears to be one of the inspirational players for the Lions. Late in the game after a hard straight-on tackle he had to be helped to the sidelines with his bell rung. He did appear to be in a coherent state afterwards though. I like McCloskey, he’s an aggressive player and he could be rock for Algeo in the years to come. Grunde added a sack, while Daly added a late pick. Interestingly, he wears #16, made the interception at the sixteen, and returned it sixteen yards. Then again, only I would notice something like that --- Isn’t it great being a weirdo? Lyons and McMonigle evenly split eight tackles. All-and-all this was great TEAM EFFORT for the Lions. Offensively, the Lions didn’t race up and down the field, but they did enough good things to get them over the hump. Hey, what else would you expect when the four primary players that handled the ball were three sophomores and a freshman? Yes, with Dempsey out all of the O’Hara leadership from the skill position was missing. Still, the young guys, Morgan (13-46), Higgins (11-57), and freshman Corey Brown (16-58) all exhibited good running skills. Higgins, who is not overly big, ran hard on some quick-hitters from the fullback position. O’Hara always has a good fullback and with this kid they might just have one with an extra gear. Brown and Morgan are shifty, and they like to slice-and dice. This caused them to probably lose a yard here and there, but overall their futures look bright. Savage didn’t have particularly accurate passing game, just 4-for-16, with 97 yards (At least three drops), but I just love the command he demonstrates in the pocket. I think with a little more seasoning this kid will be special. He even showed some mobility, but didn’t actually run until he had exhausted his options in the passing routes. His stats (5-18) might not turn heads, but he lost 14 yards on a pair sacks and had a 15-yard run called back on a holding call. He did end up completing his last two passes. Aside from Smith’s touchdown he also hit Higgins on a swing pass out of the backfield that went for 29 yards and kept that final scoring-drive alive. The offensive line really flexed their muscles on that opening drive and overall played well against a pretty good and aggressive defense. They consisted of; sr. C Sean Murray (6’3”, 260 lbs), T’s sr. Jerry Penrose (6’1”, 273 lbs) jr. Dave Stenson (6’2”, 250 lbs), and G’s sr. Pete Plousis and soph. Andrew Glace. Glace’s brother Joe was a quality lineman for the Lions a couple of years ago. Jr. TE/WR Mark Wedderburn (2-33) seems to be getting taller and taller every time I see him. He is now listed at 6’7”, 225 lbs. The fourth quarter sputtered along at times because of injuries suffered by the Knights. For the most part it appeared to be lots of cramping, but as I left the stadium I saw not one, but two ambulances enter the field. Hopefully no one was hurt too seriously. North Penn annually has their sights set on the state playoffs and District-1 title aspirations, but for the second consecutive week they fell to a Catholic League team. Last week it was Archbishop Wood, and now Carroll lies ahead. Will there be a three-peat?? As usual, when I travel to an O’Hara game I spent the ENTIRE evening patrolling the sidelines with Will “Big Willy Style” McGonigle. And as always it was quite the experience. I don’t know the exact chain of command within the O’Hara program, but I’m pretty sure that Willie is in charge of the ball boys, or at least he thinks he is. I’ll check on that though. Also, he supplied undoubtedly the line of the night at halftime. He approached me in a sort of hush-hush manner and said, “I have an injury report Huck. A North Penn player has a grade-three MCL tear, possibly a torn ACL.” I said who? He replied, “North Penn”………Ah, Willy, you’re the best and keep up the GREAT work!!!! I know everyone who surrounds the O’Hara team appreciates your devotion and spirit.

SEPT. 1
NON-LEAGUE
George Washington 27, Dougherty 12
     Wow, what an adventure it was getting to this game. I left from Delaware County shortly after 1 o’clock for this 2:30 start, but yet I still managed to get there 15-to-20 minutes late. Nothing bugs me more than showing up for games after they have already begun. Nothing!! First, I had to endure some traffic issues, then later I made a wrong turn and that was all she wrote. I guess you could say that my bearings got caught up in the wind provided by Ernesto and swiftly sailed away. At one point I found myself on Knights Rd., just a stones throw from the Franklin Mills Mall. Oh, well, let’s chalk it up to early season rust. Note: All of the stats I provide for this game will only be from the second quarter on. My trusty assistant Tom “Puck” McKenna will find some time in his busy schedule this week and go up to one of these schools to watch the film of the first quarter. Overall, considering the elements (steady drizzle throughout) these teams competed hard and occasional excitement was provided. Fortunately for me there was no scoring in the initial quarter. The only score in the second stanza came from the Cardinals, as they marched 80 yards on 10 plays. The drive was capped when jr. QB Phil Baxter gently lofted a ball over a pair of Eagle defenders into the waiting arms of jr. WR/DB Corey Key, who caught the ball at the fifteen and easily scampered in for a 28-yard score. An 18-yard completion to sr. RB Bryan Williams and a 32-yard toss to jr. WR Dominique West aided the drive earlier. The Eagles would quickly knot the score when they took the opening possession of the second half 68 yards to paydirt. The touchdown came on a lovely 10-yard strike from jr. QB Clinton Granger (6’2”, 235 lbs) to sr. TE Scott Marano. On the play Marano exhibited nice mitts gathering in a wet ball that had a little bit of steam on it. The Redbirds wasted little time striking back as the elusive Key stormed down the right sideline for an 84-yard kickoff return. On the run he received a nice downfield block from B. Williams that ensured the scoreboard illuminating rumble. The Redbirds would take a 12-6 lead into the fourth quarter only to see to GW strike just a minute or so in with a 63-yard punt return by sr. RB Fateen Brown. Jr. LB/K Brett Sommerer provided the boot and gave the Eagles a slim 13-12 advantage. The play was sweet redemption for Brown (10-66) who coughed up the rock at the end of a 22-yard gallop one drive earlier. Insurance came later in the quarter courtesy of a beautiful 56-yard interception return by sr. DB Brian Carter, who instinctively stepped in front of a Baxter pass and had nothing but open real estate in front of him. With time winding down sr. FB/LB Aaron Hampton (3-39) roared in from 25 yards that closed out the scoring. Today’s conditions didn’t necessarily allow me to get a great look-see at the intriguing Granger (3-for-8, 48 yards), but his physical tools are certainly likeable. Running hard for GW was sr. RB Jay Sloh (9-43), he also added a nice 19-yard reception. Defensively, sr. DB Oliver Wallace was extremely active with 9 tackles (8 solos), three pass defends, and a blocked punt. Jr. LB Damien Wilmer showed sideline-to-sideline ability with seven stops. Three of four tackles by Sommerer went for losses. Sr. DT Aaron Murrey (6’2”, 285 lbs) added a sack for the Eagles. GW’s defense allowed just 8 yards rushing on 23 carries over the final three quarters. This game marked the debut for CD’s Head Coach Chris Riley and despite the loss his team had some encouraging moments. His kids fought hard throughout and if they were able to eliminate a mistake here or there, then the outcome may have been different. One thing is for sure though, and that is the game was much closer than the final score indicates.  Baxter showed lots of brass. His completion percentage (10-for-25) was the greatest, but he hung in there nicely and finished with 123 yards. His main target was B. Williams who made six grabs for 39 yards. Key, who added an interception on the last play of the first quarter, is an exciting player. Defensively, the Cardinals got strong play from jr. DB Braheem Wright (9 tackles, 3 TFLs, and forced fumble) and sr. LB Quinten White (9 tackles). Jr. DE Colin Fequa added a sack. Sr. DB Justin Minter and jr. DT Wrenton Wright each recovered a fumble. Overall, I would venture to say that the Cardinals will be improved this season. How much? Well, that will depend on how quickly they can eliminate the little mistakes that seemed to get in their way today. Still, they do possess a few playmakers and overall good team speed. Finally, for those of you out there who are concerned, I just want to let you know that I made it home safely, smile!!