Featured photo: Joseph Mercurio
The Upper Dublin Cardinals hosted the Council Rock South Golden Hawks on a Friday night for a Suburban One Continental Conference showdown. The Cardinals started their season less than ideal, losing three games consecutively. Fortunately the squad has hit their stride winning their last three. But a constant for Upper Dublin has been poor second-half scoring.
Coming into this matchup the Cardinals have only scored a total of 30 points after the half in all six of their games. The Golden Hawks started off their season strong with two wins over Hatboro-Horsham and Perkiomen Valley, until running into Pennridge which sparked a three game losing streak.
Upper Dublin’s opening drive was highlighted by a 10 yard completion between senior quarterback Lawson Tyler and junior Braeden Skahan, but after a short run from senior Tyler O’Sullivan and two incompletions the Cardinals were forced to punt. Council Rock South’s first drive was also slightly underwhelming.
The Golden Hawks quickly went three-and-out bringing on the special teams unit to punt. Tyler O’Sullivan ran twice for pickups of 4 and 6 yards, but when he carried the ball for the third time junior Jerry Rogers stole the ball from his grasp and ran it back 50 yards to the endzone putting the Golden Hawks ahead of the Cardinals 7-0.
Upper Dublin immediately turned the ball over again when Tyler threw an interception leading to Rogers rushing for his second score of the night, the score now 14-0. The Cardinals continued to struggle with keeping possession as they went three-and-out, punting the ball back to the Golden Hawks.
After senior quarterback Cannon Benzio found sophomore Joey Saracino for a gain of 8 yards, it was Rogers who broke off for a big 36-yard touchdown run while breaking multiple tackles along the way, helping Council Rock South to lead 21-0.
Upper Dublin started to drive on their next possession. Tyler found Skahan down the right sideline for a pick up of 31 yards to put the Cardinals in the red zone. After two plays resulting in no gain, Tyler threw a beautiful pass to the right corner of the endzone where Skahan made a spectacular grab over a defender's head while falling backwards for the Cardinals first score of the game.
Courtesy of Joseph Mercurio
The Golden Hawks looked to respond on their next drive, but Benzio was only able to complete one of three passes leading to a punt and the end of the first quarter. Upper Dublin was having a nice drive, including a fourth-down conversion, but when Tyler was meaning to target Skahan, he threw the ball directly to who else but Jerry Rogers.
On Council Rock South’s attack Rogers had a nice run but it was sophomore Danny McKnight who got the score on the ground from 25 yards out. In the waning minutes of the first half, junior Dylan Moody picked off Benzio, but Tyler fumbled the ball back to the Golden Hawks, leading to the end of the half with the score reading 28-7 in favor of Council Rock South.
The second half of play was very forgettable for Lawson Tyler and his Upper Dublin Cardinals. At about the 10 minute mark in the third quarter, Rogers got his fourth touchdown of the night when he rushed for 1 yard to put the Golden Hawks way ahead 35-7.
With about 6 minutes remaining in the third quarter, Tyler threw his third interception, this time it was ran back for a Golden Hawks touchdown, making the score 42-7 and initiating a running clock due to the score differential.
Jerry Rogers exploded both offensively and defensively. Rogers and the Golden Hawks capitalized on numerous turnovers to achieve a 42-7 victory. The win for Council Rock South is their first in conference play, putting them at 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Suburban One Continental Conference.
Next week, the Golden Hawks will travel to Bensalem to take on the Owls in another conference matchup.
As for the Cardinals, they will drop to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the Suburban One Continental Conference. Next week, Upper Dublin will take on the Plymouth Whitemarsh Colonials in Plymouth Meeting in a game that could potentially have playoff implications.