Justin Goebel has a simple philosophy when it comes to playing defense.
“I tell people all the time – I would rather hit a giant kid than hit a small kid because when you hit a giant kid, it makes you feel so much better,” Abington’s junior defensive lineman said.
Goebel had to be feeling pretty good after Friday night’s 27-13 win over a Pennsbury squad that has its share of ‘giant kids’ in the lineup.
While the junior noseguard delivered three tackles for losses, senior defensive end Jared Claybrook had two.
“That’s almost like five sacks,” Abington coach Tim Sorber said.
Those are mighty impressive numbers by any standard but are especially impressive when you consider their size.
Both are 5-9 with Goebel weighing in at 180 while Claybrook tips the scales at 177.“We have a lot of athletic kids, and our defense is built on speed,” Claybrook said. “We have to use our speed in every game because as you can see, we’re not as big as everyone else.
“Our defensive line coach – coach (Tony) Rudy – pushes us every practice. He knows we’re going against people twice our size, so if you’re not going to be bigger, you need to be faster than everybody.”
“We’re really built on speed and conditioning,” Goebel added. “We spend a lot of the year just making ourselves stronger so when we go up against a big team like Pennsbury we can be ready to play our hardest, play our best the whole four quarters.
“When we get on the line, big kids like Pennsbury don’t expect us to be tough.”
Until the ball is snapped.
That’s when it becomes very apparent just how tough these undersized linemen really are.
“Both of them really made great efforts practicing their technique,” coach Tim Sorber said. “You’re seeing week after week – in that Pennsbury game, both of those kids were a step or two ahead of Pennsbury’s offensive line, and it really made things difficult for Pennsbury’s run game when you have that much penetration, when you have those two kids creating that much havoc.”
Exactly how effective were Claybrook, Goebel and company?
One week after accumulating almost 500 yards of total offense against William Tennent – almost all of it on the ground, the Falcons’ high-powered running game collected only 113 yards, and for the night, their total offense was an uncharacteristic 163 yards. Pennsbury’s offense scored just one touchdown against the Ghosts’ defense – the other TD came on an interception return.
“The way our defense is set up – we all work together,” Goebel said. “I’m working on my stuff with the D-line coach, but I can basically tell you what the corners are going to do, and I know how it’s going to help me.
“Some teams play – the defensive line does their thing, the D-backs do their thing, but we don’t run like that. We know what we have to do so that somebody else can make the play, and a lot of times, somebody else does what they have to do so we can make the play.”
The Ghosts’ defense spent the better part of the season listening as people lauded their offense and pointed to their defense as the team’s Achilles heel.
“That makes us way better,” Claybrook said. “Especially coming into Friday – we heard a lot of crap about our defense not being able to stop the run.
“We knew they were a great team going in. We were fired up. We read a lot about our defense, and we were just ready.”
Ready, apparently, to show everybody that you can’t believe everything you read.
Goebel insists he had a feeling it was going to be the Ghosts’ night when Joe Metz recovered a Falcon fumble on the opening kickoff.
“I’m not going to lie – I went into the game not completely sure what was going to happen, but as soon as Metz recovered the fumble, I was like, ‘Okay, we got this. This is our game. We’re going to dominate,’” the junior lineman said. “The kickoff is the defensive team, and we were good enough to get past their offensive team and get the ball. We knew we could do this.”
There were, however, early signs to suggest otherwise as the Falcons – thanks to an Eric Williams interception return for a TD as well as a 43-yard Dante Devine touchdown run – went on top 13-0 in the first quarter.
“As soon as they went up 13-0, we were like, ‘Okay, this is when Abington football starts,’” Goebel said. “Abington doesn’t roll over and play dead. Abington gets down and dirty. Abington keeps fighting until we win.”
“That’s what we did,” Claybrook added. “We knew that touchdown by Devine was the last six points he was going to score.
“We had to be faster because we know they’re bigger, and we know they’re coming out stronger. It’s technique. We spend hours in the training room, we spend hours in the film room watching film. You have to know what you’re doing, and that’s what we did.
“The way our defense is set up – everybody has to work together. If we’re doing one thing, the linebackers read off of us. It’s not - the defensive line doing one thing because we’re not readers. We’re not big enough to read the plays. We have to get through and do what we have to do.”
By halftime, the Ghosts had turned that 13-0 deficit into a 20-13 lead, and they never looked back.
"What happened with Justin Goebel, especially in the second half, they started doubling him more, which freed up linebackers to make plays, and that really helps tremendously as far as the team defense concept," Sorber said.
Friday’s win over Pennsbury is a testimony to the resiliency of a Ghost squad that – after a monster 28-24 win over defending National Conference champion Neshaminy earlier this season – dropped back-to-back games to Council Rock South (41-38) and Council Rock North (34-3).“After we lost our second game to Rock North, one of our coaches told us, ‘I don’t know if you guys have given up, but the coaches haven’t given up,’” Goebel said. “Most of us – if not all of us – were kind of like, ‘We can’t give up. Our season can still go places. We can still be a great team.’”
The Ghosts followed their back-to-back losses with a 33-7 thrashing of Bensalem.
“We knew we had to get our swagger back,” Claybrook said. “We had to get it back.
“When we played Bensalem, we left everything on the field because we couldn’t lose that game. Coming into Pennsbury, we had to win it, and we did. We wanted one more home game, and that’s going to be our playoff game.”
Making the story of Claybrook and Goebel more impressive is the fact that even Sorber couldn’t have seen it coming.
“If you had told me last year at this time that those two kids would be performing at such a high level on the varsity, I might have been very skeptical,” the Ghosts’ coach said. “That’s the great thing about coaching, and that’s the great thing about kids really buying into what we’re trying to teach.
“Jared and Goebel don’t take anything for granted. When they see how their hard work and their attention to detail paid off in a big game like Pennsbury, I think they become even more appreciative of that effort.”
Interestingly, both Claybrook and Goebel are converted linebackers, and they are joined by another converted linebacker – John Conway – on the defensive line.
“The three kids Tony Rudy has in there are all converted from different positions,” Sorber said. “When you talk to Tony, he’ll say, ‘If a kid’s willing to work hard and listen…’
“He simplifies things, and I think that’s why kids are successful. They have very simple techniques, and they do it with tremendous effort, and it’s really paying off for us.”
The Ghosts will close out their regular season on Friday with an SOL contest against Harry S. Truman and then it’s on to the post-season where defense could be the difference between winning and losing for Abington.
“We feel if we keep teams under 14 points that our offense is going to do the job and win the game,” Sorber said. “The kids have really bought into that.
“The proof was on Friday night. For a defense to hold Pennsbury to seven points is quite an accomplishment.”
And at the heart of that stellar defensive effort were a pair of undersized defensive linemen – Geobel and Claybrook.
“It was wonderful, the best feeling in my life, especially going against kids so big,” Claybrook said. “I loved every moment.
“It goes to show how we play in tough games. It shows we’re good enough to beat or play with anybody in the league.”
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