Abington, PA - Abington has been hunting down a winning record since 2022, and on Thursday night they finally captured their prey. The Ghosts night started off slightly rocky after a stalled first drive, but a North fumble gave Abington just the opportunity they needed to score their first touchdown of the game, a 67 yard rush from QB Caleb Smith. He wouldn’t have to wait much longer for number two either, as the Ghosts defense clamped down and forced a punt, shortly followed by Smith’s second touchdown to put the Ghosts up 13-0.
After the Ghosts defense provided another three and out, Abington’s offense got into scoring position after a long pass to Blair Williams, which set up Smith to complete the hat trick just moments into the second quarter. The extra point attempt would have to be redone three times due to penalties, which didn’t seem to affect kicker Kaleb Adams who drilled all three and ultimately put Abington up 20-0. The Ghosts defense had been great all game, but the unit really shined in the second quarter, forcing a fumble to shut down an Indians drive around midfield. The defensive line continued the pressure, stuffing North and forcing a punt before they had the opportunity to threaten a Ghosts lead. The offense would capitalize off the momentum with a 8 yard touchdown to Lucas Jordan just before halftime to extend the Abington lead to 26-0.
As the second half began, Abington continued to dominate. Less than two minutes into the third, Caleb Smith took an option nearly 60 yards to the endzone for his 5th touchdown of the game to put Abington up 32-0. The defense continued to hold firm, and the dagger would come with 5 minutes to go in the third at the hands of EJ Dickinson, who took a handoff 32 yards to the house, that would all but end the game. The Ghosts captured their second win of the season for the first time since 2022 with a final score of 38-0. The Ghosts looked like a complete package tonight. The running game looked excellent, accounting for five touchdowns.
The passing game looked improved. Abington’s offensive line can’t be given enough credit for their dominance, while the same can be said for the Ghosts defense who’ve recorded back to back shutouts after some week 0 struggles.
I spoke with this week’s player of the game Caleb Smith about his performance.
Me:You had 5 total touchdowns tonight, 4 on the ground. How does it feel to have a performance like that at home?
Caleb: I mean, it feels great, you know, practice it all week. So it's just like, when it comes to game time, it's just time to show that practice. I feel like it should be second nature and I feel like it was tonight.Shout out to my O-line though, couldn't do anything without them.
I then spoke with Coach Fleming on the win.
Me:How does it feel to get a big win like that?
Coach Fleming: This week it was a short week to prepare for this game being the holiday and coming off another short week. So we really had to lock in on our one day of practice to really fine tune the small things that we messed up on last week. And also to really continue to progress in the right direction.So getting off to a fast start right now in this game was a good confidence booster for everybody on the team and to continue it all game long.
Me:How can you and your team build off this momentum next week?
Coach Fleming:Building off of this, we'll look at the film. We always want to look at the film, define what things we need to continue to work on and improve on. It's always about the process of us getting better each week. We move into league play next week. Our league is very tough, as always, so we're not going to take any game for granted.We'll enjoy this game, look at the things we did well, fix the things we did wrong, and then make sure that we're ready to go next week.
Abington hopes to capture their third straight win when they travel to Warrington to take on CB South next week, while Council Rock North will attempt to break their losing streak at home against Bensalem.