Check back on Friday night for complete coverage of the North Penn/Central Bucks West game as well.
Plymouth Whitemarsh quarterback Russhon Phillips completed six passes in his team’s 27-7 win over Upper Moreland last week.
That might not sound all that impressive. Until you consider that his receivers turned those six passes into 185 yards and two touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Kenny Williams accounted for 153 of those yards and had touchdown receptions of 70 and 44 yards for PW’s big-play offense.
Putting up those numbers against a very good Golden Bear squad suggests that the Colonials are the real deal.
“We worked hard,” Phillips said. “We got a new offense that we work well with, and we came together as a team.
“The triple option is a fun offense, and the key is just repetition in practice every day. Everybody has to do their part and read their keys.”
Waiting to take on Phillips and PW’s option offense on Friday night will be an Upper Dublin squad that is out of the gate to a 4-1 start. Both teams are 2-0 in American Conference play, and suddenly, with the resurgence of PW’s program under first-year coach Dan Chang, a game that might not have been especially significant in the past could very well have title implications.
“This game is huge in our conference,” Upper Dublin senior captain Bill Kim said. “We’re 2-0 in the conference, and they’re 2-0 in the conference, so we’re going to battle it out.
“We just have to stop that triple option. Once we stop the triple option, we should be able to take it from there.”
Stopping the triple option is never easy, but the Flying Cardinals’ defense has been solid all season. Coach Bret Stover points to linebackers Kim and Zach Borgman as key.
Both are captains – Kim was named captain at last year’s banquet and Borgman was elected by the players at the end of summer camp.
“Bill has been phenomenal for us, leading offseason workouts and conditioning,” Stover said. “He’s our only returning offensive lineman, so he’s anchoring a group of four young guys also.
“Zach was elected by the players, and that speaks volumes about the kind of player he is and the offseason he had. The two of them play sideline to sideline for us. Our defense is predicated on the middle linebackers making the plays and making the tackles, and they have done that for us.”
Kim is the Flying Cardinals’ leading tackler with close to 50 tackles through five games.
“In our loss to CB West, he was a little hobbled with an ankle injury,” Stover said of his team’s season-opening loss to the Bucks. “He’s been getting healthier as we go and just been playing better, and he can get to more places and finish more things.”
The Flying Cardinals haven’t lost since their season opener against CB West, and the players know they can make a huge statement if they can contain a dangerous PW offense and come away with a win.
In addition to Phillips, who also had a rushing touchdown in the win over Upper Moreland, the Flying Cardinals’ defense will have to contain running backs Zavier Ellington and Phil Bucci. The duo combined for 129 yards on Friday night with Ellington accounting for 79 of those yards.
“Our coaches put us in a spot to make plays, and we make them,” Kim said. “The coaches can’t make the plays for us. All they can do is rep it, rep it, rep it at practice. We have to execute out there.”
“We’re both very good teams, and it’s going to be a fight on Friday night,” Borgman added. “We just have to know our assignments and stay and fill our gaps.
“As the middle linebacker, I have to stay on the fullback all game and make sure he doesn’t get any big plays. Our ‘D’ has to play big, especially with Ryan Hopkins out with a shoulder injury. Whoever is in there has to step up and keep their quarterback from running loose on us.”
The Golden Bears showed they could play some defense as well, holding a Golden Bear squad that brought a 4-0 record into Friday’s game to just seven points.
“We worked hard in practice – we were forcing them inside, keeping them inside and containing the run,” senior defensive end Garnell Sanders said. “The key against Upper Dublin is being aggressive.
“They’re contending for the league championship too. We have to fight harder than them.”
According to Chang, the Colonials boast plenty of experience on the defensive side of the ball.
“We have seven or eight starters returning from last year, and the leadership up front is a huge part,” PW’s first-year coach said. “I also have to give a lot of credit to my brother (defensive coordinator Phil Chang). He definitely has those guys well prepared for what they’re going to see on Friday night.”
Williams – in addition to lighting it up on offense – also plays free safety, and he acknowledged that experience has helped the defense.
“We know how the game flows, how fast it goes,” he said.
The Colonials will look to contain running back Anthony Williams, who had 84 yards last week against Upper Merion. Quarterback Andrew Derr can burn teams with his arm, and last week Rich Orth had three touchdowns for the Flying Cardinals.
“The key on Friday night will be stopping the run,” Williams said. “Their quarterback and running back are very good, and we have to stop the passing too.”
There have been a lot of changes at PW since Chang took over the helm. Some are subtle, some are not.
“Our whole attitude towards winning has changed,” Sanders said. “Everyone on our team is committed to winning. It’s a huge difference from last year.”
But the change goes beyond that.
“We got bigger, more aggressive, better and stronger,” Williams said. “We came together more as a team this year. I think we’re closer too.”
Phillips points to discipline as a key to the program’s turnaround.
“We have to come out and practice every practice like we want to win,” the junior quarterback said. “We have to come out as a team and work together to win again and again and again instead of being satisfied with one win and a loss, one win and a loss.
“This seems like it might be one of our bigger games. We have been practicing and working hard every day to prepare for this week.”
On the other side of the field, expectations run high at Upper Dublin every year since Stover has turned the fortunes of that program around.
“We had high expectations, but we wanted to take everything step by step,” Kim said. “We wanted to focus on each week – focus on our scrimmages during two-a-days, and week one- just focus on CB West and week two on Upper Perk.
“We had a lot of skill position players returning, so we just had to rebuild our line. We had high hopes for our team.”
So far, so good for a Flying Cardinal squad that is 4-1 out of the gate.
“I’m very happy with the way my kids are playing,” Stover said. “We lost to a pretty good West team – I think everybody is figuring that out now.
“We were in that game to the end. We’ve been getting healthier, and we’re playing with more confidence. I think our guys are believing in each other, which in high school football I think is huge.”
And just in case there wasn’t enough at stake on Friday night, the Flying Cardinals’ will be celebrating Senior Night.
“We’re going to be out of control, I’m sure,” Borgman said.
It promises to be an interesting night of football when the two American Conference powers meet.
Plymouth Whitemarsh at Upper Dublin
Friday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m.
Record: Upper Dublin 2-0 SOL (4-1 overall), Plymouth Whitemarsh 2-0 SOL (3-2 overall)
Last week: Upper Dublin 35, Upper Merion 6; Plymouth Whitemarsh 27, Upper Moreland 7
Last year: Upper Dublin defeated PW 21-13
Upper Dublin coach Bret Stover’s keys to the game:
1) We have to contain their quarterback. With the triple option they run - all the things that they run, they have been really, really difficult to prepare for this week. We need to eliminate the big play, make them go on long 12-13 play drives.
2) Offensively, we need to control the ball when we have it. We can’t go three-and-out and give them the ball right back.
Coach Stover says: “Last week at Upper Moreland, they had a couple of big plays that kind of turned the game around, and some of the things I’ve seen of them on tape – they’re big-play oriented. Even when you have him defensed, their quarterback (Phillips) makes plays with his legs or his arm. That’s really been our battle cry all week – to eliminate the big play. Everybody has a job to do this week. There are 11 on defense, and we need all 11 to do their job on every play. You can’t take plays off with these guys because they’ll kill you.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Dan Chang’s keys to the game:
1) We’re going to have to hold onto the ball – no turnovers
2) We have to stop the big play and make those guys drive on us 80 yards if they’re going to score on us.
3) We have to be solid on special teams. That’s part of the game that’s been hurting us lately.
Coach Chang says: “Upper Moreland was a huge game for us. That was one of the big tests we knew we were going to face in our league. Going in and playing like we did, especially defensively, was a big confidence boost for us. We feel we can play with anyone out there on any given night if we play our game. It got us off to the start we wanted to considering our next couple of games and who’s coming up.”
Friday night’s Neshaminy/Council Rock North game will be broadcast live on WBCB 1490 AM at 7 p.m., preceded by a pre-game show at 6:45 p.m. Saturday’s Pennsbury/William Tennent game will be broadcast live on WBCB 1490 AM at 7 p.m., preceded by the pre-game show at 6 p.m. The Pennridge/Central Bucks East game will be broadcast live on WNPV 1440 AM on Friday at 7 p.m. The North Penn/CB West game will be broadcast live on the www.wnvp1440.com at 7 p.m.
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