Friday night’s Senior Night game against Wissahickon - sponsored as an SOL Featured Game by the Booster Club - was the final home game for 22 Upper Dublin seniors. To view action photos of the game, visit the Photo Gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
They walked off the field without looking back, and as endings go, this was a very good one for Upper Dublin’s seniors.
“I don’t know if you could script it any better,” senior Evan Mao said of the Flying Cardinals’ 17-10 win over Wissahickon. “We’re tied late in the fourth quarter. We almost turned the ball over, and right after that we punch it in.
“I don’t know how much more of a classic high school game you could get.”
For Upper Dublin’s 22 seniors, Friday night’s thriller represented the final home game of their high school careers.
“There’s nothing better, especially Wissahickon being our hometown rival,” senior Matt Reilly said. “It’s Homecoming, it’s Senior Night.
“We knew this would be a huge test going into it, and we wanted it more than anything. We’re kind of on cloud nine right now, kind of on cloud nine.”
Both squads entered Friday’s game with identical 6-2 records. Throw in the fact that a district playoff berth was riding on the line, and the stakes don’t get much higher.
“It’s Homecoming, it’s Senior Night, but I think the biggest thing was – our motivation is ‘Take the next step,’” Mao said. “This game had playoff implications. We were the 16th seed, they were the 17th seed coming in.
“It’s a do or die situation, and we just came out and executed. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of guys. They were driving down the field, and we held them. We got back up and said, ‘We have to win this game,’ and we drove down the field.”
The Flying Cardinals won the game with a 75-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter that culminated with Andrew Derr taking it in from nine yards out.
“We weren’t going to lose,” the Flying Cardinals’ quarterback said. “We weren’t going to lose.”
“It was almost surreal,” added senior Luke Felix, who had a 17-yard reception on the game-winning drive. “Homecoming, Senior Night, our archrivals from down the street. It was amazing how we came out on that last drive. It was just incredible.”
According to coach Bret Stover, it was the perfect ending to the regular season for a special senior class.
“What an exclamation point to this senior class,” the Flying Cardinals’ coach said. “These guys are just so much fun to be around.”
Making the Flying Cardinals’ TD drive even more impressive was the fact that it came one possession after they had seen a Derr touchdown run waved off for a holding call and came up empty on that drive.
“Our captains called us together, and they really focused us in and told us not to get down on ourselves, and we ended up getting a three-and-out right after that,” Felix said.
“More than any other sport, in football, when your back is again the wall, you have to depend on each other,” Reilly added. “It’s a do or die kind of thing. We’re all family out here. That’s what we always say – family, family, family, and that’s really what we are.”
A family that knows it is in the final days and weeks of a very special season.
“Before the game, I think I was tearing up a little bit,” Mao admitted.
The senior captain went on to note that the tone for Friday’s game was set before the Flying Cardinals took the field.
“We had a pep rally today, and coach Stover was saying the entire time, ‘Don’t peak at the pep rally, don’t peak before the game, peak during the game,” Mao said. “I think all of us were able to channel that energy and play a really, really complete game.”
The end result was a big win the seniors will look back on with pride for a lifetime.
“I told them, ‘This is a memory you’re going to have the rest of your life – win or lose,’” Stover said. “It’s a much sweeter memory every time you come back to this stadium knowing you walked off in your last game a winner because, trust me, I walked off here a loser my last home game, and it eats me up every time I have Senior Night.”
This year’s senior class - Mao, Derr, Felix, Reilly, Tymere Davis, Tybree Stallings, Sean McAnaney, Chris Naughton, Brian Carson, Jino Park, Zach Walsh, Joe Conran, Alex Heller, Matt Holmes, Brad Greipp, Jake Gibbons, Drew Betteridge, Eric Boyer, Matt Merritt, Joshua Cosme, John Han and Calvin Dunbar - will have no such regrets.
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