Friday night’s Pennsbury/Bensalem game will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM, and Friday’s Neshaminy/Abington game will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on www.WBCB1490.com. Friday night’s Pennridge/Lansdale Catholic game will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on WNPV 1440 AM, and Friday’s North Penn at Central Bucks South contest will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on www.WNPV1440.com. Check www.SuburbanOneSports.com for all of the SOL scores as well as a game story about this week’s SOL Featured Game pitting Cheltenham at Upper Dublin. Bonus coverage will be provided of the Neshaminy/Abington contest as well.
Andrew Derr laughs when he recalls his middle school years at quarterback.
“I just remember every game – we didn’t pass the ball,” the Upper Dublin senior said. “My uncle was the coach, and we did the quarterback runs every single play.
“All I remember was that after games I could not move.”
Things have changed dramatically since those days. Derr – a three-year starter at QB – is the centerpiece of a Flying Cardinal squad that hopes to defend a title it owns. Last year, Upper Dublin shared the American Conference crown with Cheltenham, Upper Dublin’s opponent in Friday night’s opener.
“It’s always a little harder and more pressure coming off a conference championship because everyone wants to come after us and get payback, but just having that title right now is good,” Derr said. “It makes us work a lot harder to keep being champions.”
“We got on top, and we want to stay on top,” teammate Jino Park said.
Both Derr and Park admit they weren’t exactly used to winning when they joined the high school team.
“Our middle school team was horrible,” Derr said. “During our eighth grade football season, we went 0-6. Our team was not good at all. Sandy Run football – I don’t know what it was, but we never seemed to have winning records.”
“I never won a football game until 10th grade,” Park added.
Winning has become expected at Upper Dublin, and both Derr and Park will play major roles in the success of this year’s squad with Derr serving as the Flying Cardinals’ field general for the third season. He also plays free safety on the defensive side of the ball.
“It seems like he’s been here forever,” coach Bret Stover said. “I guess I liken him to growing up with a son. You teach him all the ropes and then you give him the keys to the car, and you let him go out and use it. That’s what Andrew does with our offense and defense as well.
“Speaking from the offensive side, you can call a play, and I don’t have to sit there and panic like I did when he was a sophomore and I almost had to make every read and throw progression when I gave him a play.
“Now I give him a play, and he’s already in his mind going, ‘If I get this, I’m throwing here. If I get that, I’m throwing there.’ He handles stunts, and if people want to disguise coverages, he’s got it figured out. As a coach, he makes me look good.”
Derr is only the second super frosh in Stover’s 20 years with the program.
“Physically, I just thought he was ready to handle the rigors of a varsity schedule,” Stover said of pulling Derr up as a freshman. “He was behind Derek Giannini, who was an awesome quarterback.
“It was kind of set up for him to take over and have three years to run the system. We thought it was best to get him in and learn under us and learn under Derek, which was huge for him.”
Derr’s middle school days of taking one quarterback run after another and getting beat up and bloodied are a distant memory.
“It’s just nice to have a great line blocking for me,” Derr said. “It’s so much different. (Middle school) was just seeing if we could survive, toughening us up for high school.”
Park is equally happy to have survived his middle school years and a freshman year that saw him sidelined with a broken elbow. He was a special teams contributor as a sophomore and last year became the team’s featured running back. He also plays a key role on the defensive side of the football at linebacker.
“Jino is just a playmaker,” Stover said. “He’s always around the football. He always comes up with the big sack, the big carry, the big INT. Whatever it is, it seems like he’s always there offensively and defensively, and at some point in the game, he makes his presence known.”
Both Derr and Park have assumed leadership roles on this year’s squad.
“Last year, I didn’t play as big a role as this year, so I definitely feel as though I’m more involved,” Park said. “Overall, everyone is in it. You have your teammates to pick you up.”
“You also want to be a leader for the younger kids and help prepare them,” Derr added.
Stover admits that senior leadership is key.
“Especially when you get in some adversity, which we had at Central Bucks West,” the Flying Cardinals’ coach said. “There was no panic.
“Even last week at Truman when we gave up an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game – our guys came off the field and said, ‘Coach, we made a mistake, but let’s go back to work.’
“We kind of went about our business from there, and that’s what’s nice about a veteran team. Five or six years ago, our team might have panicked and folded, but not these guys.”
The Flying Cardinals have won two straight after dropping their season opener to Central Bucks West.
“That game came down to who would make the least amount of mistakes because everybody makes mistakes the first game,” Derr said. “They, unfortunately, made less mistakes than we did, and we didn’t capitalize on multiple scoring opportunities we had.”
“It was our first game of the season, so we had a lot to improve,” Park added. “We did improve over the last two games.
“CB West is a good team. It was disappointing, but we learned a lot from that, and we’ll continue to improve.”
On Friday night, the Flying Cardinals will find out in a hurry just how much they’ve improved when they face a young Cheltenham squad with title aspirations of its own.
Kickoff for the Flying Cardinals’ first American Conference test will be at 7 p.m.
Stay tuned.
CHELTENHAM at UPPER DUBLIN
Friday, Sept. 23, 2011
2011 record: Upper Dublin 2-1 Cheltenham 2-1
2010 record: Upper Dublin 5-1 SOL American Conference co-champs, 7-3 overall; Cheltenham 5-1 SOL American Conference co-champs, 9-3 overall
Last week: Upper Dublin 51, Harry S. Truman 13, Quakertown 24, Cheltenham 7
Last year: Upper Dublin 27, Cheltenham 20
UPPER DUBLIN
Coach Bret Stover says: “We need to control their skill set. Their skill guys are probably better than anything we’ve seen on tape so far and might rival PW with what we’ll see on the field – and I don’t want to discredit Norristown or Wissahickon. We need to control the ball offensively, and we need to keep it out of their hands. We need to move first down to first down, which last year we weren’t able to do. They stymied us when we had the ball on offense. We had a lot of three-and-outs last year, which is not good. We can’t give them opportunities to score because they can – on any play – literally go the distance, whether it be 99 yards or five yards. We have to limit their opportunities by controlling the football. We need a big game out of both sides of the line. Cheltenham is physical, and we need to play physical with them. I think the game’s going to be won (on both sides of the line), and if we can contain their skill set, I think we have a chance.”
Players to watch:
Andrew Derr – Quarterback/Free Safety
Jino Park – Running Back/Linebacker
Evan Mao – Offensive Line/Defensive Tackle
Matt Reilly – Center/Defensive Tackle
Coach Stover says: “Our conference is going to be fun. I’m really looking forward to getting started. Obviously, we had a great game with them last year. We just happened to get a bounce late because really, neither team deserved to lose that game.
“I’m happy with the way we’ve progressed the last two weeks. We’re going to find out how good we are because we’re playing a very good football team. This is a big game. If you get off 1-0 in the conference, it sets you up, but if you’re 0-1, you need some help. We’ve been working hard all week.”
CHELTENHAM
Coach Joe Gro’s keys to the game: “Let’s not turn the ball over. Turnovers and penalties are devastating, and against a good football team, it’s not something you can do. On Friday night, if we do, it will pretty much doom us.”
Players to watch:
Aquil Reed, RB/DB
Mark Thompson, RB/DB
Dwayne Bowser, OL/DL
Tyreek Woods, OL/LB
Hyneef Dockery, QB/DB
Coach Gro says: “After last week’s game (that saw the Panthers turn the ball over six times), I’m just telling the kids it’s me. We have to make safer things. That’s what we get paid for. We have to do things a little bit differently and make it a littler safer for our kids, and that’s what we’ve been trying to do this week. When you only have two kids (returning) who started varsity, things like last week will happen. We have to be safer and maybe not ask them to do quite as much. That’s a coaching thing.
“The kids are okay, they were fine. They were there Saturday morning and ready to go. They know this week is real important, and I know Upper Dublin does too. It’s the first league game, and I’d like to think we should be considered a team to be competing.”
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