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FRANCONIA TWP – Tim Sorber was applauding his players as they ran off the field at halftime of Friday night’s showdown against Souderton when the Abington coach was approached by Ray Schreiner.
“They can’t stop us,” the Ghosts’ senior running back told Sorber.
Shreiner wasn’t being cocky. He was simply stating the obvious.
The Ghosts took a 24-7 lead into the intermission, and it would have been worse had it not been for a huge runback by Souderton’s Anthony Williams that set up a late Big Red touchdown.
It was the only thing that went right in the half for the Indians, whose offense sputtered while the Ghosts were operating on all cylinders. Things didn’t improve a whole lot in the second half when the Ghosts scored on their opening drive to go on top 31-7 on their way to an impressive 38-17 win.
For a team that doesn’t believe it always gets the respect it deserves, Friday night’s road win was quite a statement.
“It’s actually better this way because we’re the underdogs, and we have to prove everyone wrong,” senior linebacker Colin Emrich said of the lack of respect shown the Ghosts “We’re the underdogs, and that makes it 10 times easier for us to play well and go out and get the hard ‘W.’”
In truth, the Ghosts made this win look easy. Schreiner was unstoppable, amassing close to 200 yards of total offense with half of those yards coming through the air from quarterback Ken Cropper, who had himself a career day.
Cropper threw for 313 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a breakout performance.
“I was having a lot of fun,” the senior QB said. “I haven’t passed that much in a while. I’m glad my coach has confidence that I can throw that much in a game. He expects me to make plays for the team, and luckily tonight I was able to get a lot of passing yards.
“I have great receivers, and they came up with the ball.”
All but lost in the shuffle of the Ghosts’ explosive offensive performance – they accumulated 401 yards - was the superb effort of their defense, which limited the Indians to just 171 yards of total offense.
“And that was against a very good wing-T football team,” Sorber said. “We preach causing turnovers and things like that.
“The one thing that’s really good about our defense is we’re solid at a lot of different positions. We’re solid in the defensive backfield, we have great linebackers, and we have some great D-linemen. Against a wing-T team, you need a consistent effort from everyone, which we had. Offensively, we capitalized on the turnovers and made some big plays.”
The fun began early for the Ghosts, who capitalized on a short field after an 11-yard Souderton punt. Abington took over with the ball on their own 49 and needed just three plays to punch it in. First it was Cropper connecting with Schreiner for 36 yards, and after Schreiner was held to just two yards on the ensuing play, he followed that with a 13-yard burst up the middle, dashing into the end zone untouched for a TD at the 9:39 mark. Adrian Leatherman’s extra point put the Ghosts on top 7-0.
On Souderton’s first possession of its next drive, Myles Grasty forced a fumble and Rob Phillips pounced on the football at the Indians’ 43.
The Ghosts came up empty, but another three-and-out for the Indians set the stage for another touchdown drive by the quick-strike Ghosts, who took over on the Indians’ 38-yard line.
Five plays later, Cropper found wide receiver Josh Lee in the end zone for a touchdown. Leatherman’s extra point put the Ghosts on top 14-0.
“Offensively, you always want to get off to a quick start,” Cropper said. “It just gives the whole team an energy boost that you need in these types of football games.”
Souderton didn’t manage a first down until early in the second quarter and immediately fumbled the ball away on the very next play. This time Abington’s Phil Gore recovered, and the Ghosts were in business yet again.
This drive featured a whole lot of Schreiner, who carried the ball on six of the seven plays on the 38-yard scoring drive. He powered in from one-yard out, and – after Leatherman’s extra point – the Ghosts led 21-0.
The Indians proceeded to cough up the football for the third time in the half, and this time sophomore Jake Clark fell on the ball. A dazzling diving reception by Lee – who was fully extended – at the Indians’ 10-yard line set up a 28-yard Leatherman field goal that gave the Ghosts a 24-0 lead.
The Indians got on the scoreboard when Jarrett Reinhard capped the 29-yard drive with an 11-yard TD run, making it a 24-7 game at the half.
“Defensively, we shut them down,” junior linebacker James Heiler said. “They couldn’t do anything. There was no up side – they were all down.
“They couldn’t handle adversity, and they just stayed down.”
On the Ghosts’ opening drive of the second half, they marched 64 yards for a touchdown that put them on top 31-7. Highlights of the drive included a 27-yard screen pass to senior Chris Ruhl and Cropper finding Schreiner with a 26-yard TD strike.
“(Cropper) didn’t throw as much in the first two games, but based on what Souderton was running defensively – they did a nice job stopping Neshaminy in the run game,” Sorber said. “We watched film and saw that they’re very aggressive up front and they stop the run.
“We kind of knew if we were going to be successful we were going to need to throw the football and create matchups, and I think that’s what we did.”
Cropper pointed to that scoring drive to open the second half as significant.
“I think one of the keys to the game was when they scored that touchdown at the end of the half – us coming back and getting that quick score on them put them back down and gave the momentum shift right back to us,” the senior quarterback said.
The Indians answered with a touchdown when Tyler Allem found Williams with a 28-yard touchdown pass. Jeff Wolf’s extra point made it a 31-14 game, and after a Jon Horton interception, Wolf connected on a 19-yard field goal that trimmed the Ghosts’ lead to 31-17 with 3:35 remaining in the third quarter.
The Indians’ defense appeared to have come up with a huge stop - setting up a fourth-and-long – only to watch the Ghosts execute the fake punt to perfection when back-up quarterback Dylan Collins took the short snap and found Chris Duffy for a 26-yard completion. Even though a 38-yard field goal attempt sailed wide, the heart had all been cut out of the Indians.
“Actually, we ran it before, but this time – and I don’t like to do it – I literally yelled it to the punt team, and they executed,” Sorber said of the fake punt. “Souderton was coming after the blocked punt. We looked at that all week, and we thought we could sting them with that.
“I thought momentum had switched to Souderton. It’s a simple, simple coaching type philosophy – hey, you have to do something to swing momentum back, and you have to gamble sometimes. Fortunately, it worked out for us.”
The Ghosts tacked on a late touchdown when Schreiner took it in from two yards out.
While Souderton fell to 1-2, the Ghosts improved to 3-0.
“Going 3-0 into the Neshaminy game – it’s the biggest game of the year, but we’re just taking them one at a time right now,” Cropper said.
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