They call it the ‘River War,’ and by any name, Friday night’s SOL American Conference contest between Norristown and Upper Merion promises to be an interesting one.
“Upper Merion and Norristown – that’s a long-time rivalry that started years ago on Thanksgiving Day,” Norristown coach E.J. Smith said. “Records don’t mean anything. It’s just two local teams playing each other.”
That being said, there is the little matter that the neighboring schools are two of five schools – along with Upper Moreland, Cheltenham and Wissahickon – deadlocked at the top of the conference standings with identical 2-1 records.
Norristown and Upper Merion have not met on the football field for three years, and when the players line up, they will –in many cases – be looking across the line of scrimmage at neighbors and friends.
Throw in the fact that Norristown will be celebrating Homecoming, and it’s a safe bet emotions will be running very high.
“It’s real exciting,” Norristown senior quarterback James Ramsey said. “Since my freshman year, we’ve always wanted to play Upper Merion because we know people from there, so just to play them Homecoming Week is very exciting.”
The Eagles are coming off a 41-13 rout of Plymouth Whitemarsh while Upper Merion was on the short end of a 35-14 score to Upper Moreland.
“That really doesn’t matter,” Smith said. “When Norristown plays Upper Merion, you don’t look at whether you’re coming off a loss or coming off a win. It’s going to be a very good football game.”
The Vikings know they can ill afford the kind of mistakes that cost them a chance for a win against Upper Moreland.
“That hurt us a lot because we knew it was a winnable game, but we didn’t play our best,” Viking senior quarterback Alex Phanthavong said of last week’s loss. “We got caught up with homecoming. We didn’t practice 100 percent, and it showed up on game day.
“Now, it’s their homecoming. This is a big game, it’s a big rivalry. Everyone’s talking about it. We’ve got to come through strong now. We’ve been practicing really hard.”
According to Phanthavong, the Vikings practiced for three-and-a-half hours on Wednesday
“This is huge game for us,” the senior QB said. “We’ve been practicing so hard this week. We know we can’t make big mistakes – that’s why we gave up so many points last week.
“Big plays are killing us. We have to come through and stop those big plays, and we have to play hard every play.”
Upper Merion coach Joe Powel admitted that his team may have felt the pressure of performing in a big game against Upper Moreland.
“I thought we beat ourselves in some spots, and really, that was a big football game for us, probably the first big football game we have been in in quite awhile,” Powel said. “Quite frankly, we didn’t react too well to it. Our players got a little unnerved.
“I told them – we tried not to lose it instead of trying to win it. Hopefully, we learned from that. Our focus this week is to go out there and not worry about anything else but winning the football game and playing as a team. Good football teams know how to bounce back and don’t let the loss get carried over into the following week.”
The Vikings know they will have to contain the dangerous Sheldon Mayer, who already has 934 yards on 84 carries this season.
“Their speed around the perimeter is probably the best we’re going to see all year,” Powel said. “We have to slow them down a little bit.
“I’ve been preaching to my players that the best defense is going to be a good offense this week. Let’s keep the weapons off the field and take up some clock, and when we need to play defense, we have to focus in on controlling the line of scrimmage and playing a sound football game.
“Upper Moreland threw the play action at us a little bit, and they hurt us with their passing off of it. I’m sure Norristown is going to do the same.”
On the other side of the field, the Eagles will try to keep the Vikings from going on one of those grind-it-out drives that have been a trademark of this Upper Merion squad, which is led by running back Pete Panichi.
“They’re a well-rounded, well-coached football team,” Smith said. “We have to play up to our capabilities. We have to execute and play disciplined football.”
Beyond the Xs and Os, there is the ever-important mental aspect of the game that promises to come into play as well.
“Basically, we just have to stay focused – don’t get all caught up in the homecoming but focus, execute, stay disciplined, and hopefully we can get the ‘W,’” Norristown senior wide receiver Mike Goode said. “It’s a great situation. We just have to do our best and try to capitalize and get W.
“It should be a fun game. Most of the guys know each other. It should be very interesting.”
“We’re just going to have to come out and execute,” Ramsey said. “We all know they’re going to key in on Sheldon, so everybody has to step up and make big plays, play Norristown football and execute and make sure things are favored in our way.”
As for those who might suggest that life should be easier for the Eagles in the American Conference – the players aren’t buying into that theory.
“The American Conference is very, very tough,” Ramsey said. “Some people think, ‘Oh, they’re going to a different league. They should dominate,’ but the talent is equal. It makes it harder, but at the same time, we know if we play up to the way we can play, we’ll be fine.”
For both sides, Friday’s 7 p.m. game at Roosevelt Field is the welcome renewal of a rivalry.
“It feels good bringing back the old days and the tradition because for a couple of years we didn’t play Norristown,” Phanthavong said. “My brother (Brian) is bringing out his stories about how he played against Norristown, and now I’ll get a feel for that tradition.”
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