Feature Photo: Joseph Mercurio
On a Friday night in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, the Upper Dublin Cardinals welcomed the Hatboro-Horsham Hatters into Cardinal Stadium.
The Cardinals started their season with a rough patch, losing three straight and carrying a losing streak of five games. You have to go back to October 17 of last year to find the Cardinals’ most recent win. Upper Dublin was the victim of a 35-0 blowout last week against North Penn.
The Hatters have also yet to win a game this season, and on top of that, they haven't won a game since October 10 of last year. Last week, the Hatters kept it close with Penn Wood but couldn't get the job done in the 14-7 loss.
The Hatters started the game with possession but couldn't get anything going and went three-and-out. Upper Dublin gained possession on Hatboro-Horsham’s half of the field. A facemask penalty against the Hatters helped the Cardinals into the red zone.
The Cardinals found themselves facing fourth down. Upper Dublin head coach Bret Stover chose to go for it, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Upper Dublin’s unsuccessful fourth-down tries will become a theme in the first half.
Hatboro-Horsham started their drive on their side of the field. On a third-and-five, Hatters senior Joey Biermaas broke free for a 20-yard rush to keep the drive alive. When Hatboro-Horsham was facing another third down, Hatters junior Thomas Gartland ran up the middle but couldn't hang on to the ball. Upper Dublin immediately jumped on the ball and gained possession inside the Hatters’ 30-yard line. Upper Dublin senior quarterback Lawson Tyler led the offense back onto the field, hoping to take advantage of their field position.
On a designed quarterback keeper, Tyler capped off an 11-yard run by stiff-arming a Hatters defender into the turf. With the goal of re-creating that success, Tyler ran the ball three more times in a row. This proved ineffective, as the Hatters’ defense forced another fourth down with the ball on their own one-yard line. Despite the quarterback keepers being shut down three times in a row, Tyler kept the ball again, rushing up the middle, but being stopped at the line of scrimmage.
The Hatters regained possession inside their own one-yard line. Hatboro-Horsham senior quarterback Brendan Heaphy rushed to his left side to pick up 15 yards, giving the Hatters some breathing room. A few plays later, the Hatters lined up with four receivers to the right. Heaphy targeted sophomore Caden Edwards, but Jabriel Epps came flying in and picked the ball right out of Edwards’ hands.
The second quarter began, and the Cardinals found themselves in the red zone for the third time so far, but they faced yet another fourth down. Tyler tried to use his legs again, but was brought down behind the line of scrimmage. The ball went back to the Hatters, but they couldn’t get anything going on offense and punted back to the Cardinals.
Upper Dublin’s offense was able to create a nice sequence of plays, including a 25-yard pass from Tyler to junior Braeden Skahan, who “mossed” his defender. The Cardinals found themselves facing a fourth down for the fourth time this game. Finally, the field goal unit trotted onto the field, and senior Duncan Boyd converted on his first-ever field goal attempt to open the scoring.
The Hatters started their drive on their own 38-yard line. After a couple of incompletions and a large run being called back due to a penalty, Biermaas broke off for another big pickup of 15 yards. On the next play, Heaphy found Gartland for what would have been a 38-yard touchdown, but a holding call against the Hatters erased the score. Just after the miscue for Hatboro-Horsham, Upper Dublin junior Ty Greenberg jumped up and picked off Heaphy. Greenberg almost ran it back for a touchdown, but was brought down inside the one-yard line. A penalty pushed the Cardinals back a few yards, but it didn't become an issue. After a couple of short passes, Tyler ran the ball into the end zone to make the score 10-0 to end the half.
Upper Dublin started the second half with the ball, but ended up punting. Both teams ended up punting back and forth for the entirety of the third quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals got something going when Skahan placed a punt inside the two-yard line to put the Hatters in an uncomfortable spot. Coincidentally, it was Skahan who tackled Quinn Fullmer inside Hatboro-Horsham’s own end zone for a safety, making the score 12-0.
On the Cardinals’ next drive, Tyler found Epps for another Upper Dublin touchdown. Hatboro-Horsham quickly went three-and-out and punted from their own 20-yard line. Heaphy, who is also the Hatters’ punter, seemed to have punted the ball into the back of his own teammate as the line collapsed. This led to the ball rolling out of bounds at Hatboro-Horsham’s 17-yard line, setting up Upper Dublin with fantastic field position.
After a few rushes from senior Tyler O’Sullivan, Lawson Tyler connected with Skahan for a short touchdown pass to make the score 25-0.
With less than two minutes remaining in regulation, Fullmer ran for a 16-yard Hatters touchdown, but it was a little too late.
Upper Dublin finally snapped their losing streak and earned their first win, beating Hatboro-Horsham 25-7.
Upper Dublin will look to carry the momentum into next week as they prepare to head out to Bensalem to take on the Owls, who are also 1-3 on the season. As for Hatboro-Horsham, they are still in the hunt for their first win. Next week, they will play the Lower Merion Aces on their home turf.