On a humid and foggy night in Ambler, the Wissahickon Trojans hosted the Unionville Longhorns in the first round of the PIAA District One 5A playoffs.
In the regular season, Wissahickon went an impressive 8-2 overall, earning them the 6th seed in the District 1 5A playoffs. The Trojans' only losses were Archbishop Carroll and Upper Moreland. The loss to Archbishop Carroll was decided by only one score.
Unionville finished their regular season 7-3 overall. Their three losses came against tough competition. The Longhorns opened their season with an overtime loss to Great Valley. Later, they dropped another to Bayard Rustin, then, two weeks after, to Downingtown West in a very lopsided blowout. All three of those teams clinched their respective district playoffs.
Wissahickon started the game with possession and immediately put pressure on the Unionville defense. They marched down the field into the red zone, where junior quarterback Evan Dixon handed the ball off to senior Ryan Kim, who ran to the outside for an eight-yard rushing touchdown to open the scoring, putting the Trojans ahead 7-0.
Unionville's first drive was unimpressive, as they couldn't get anything going and went three-and-out. Wissahickon got their run game going on their next drive, with senior running back Quasir Sampson, but ended up punting back to the Longhorns.
Early in the second quarter, the Longhorns got on the scoreboard. Junior Darren Hovington helped the Longhorns get deep into Trojan territory. Then, Hovington himself plowed through the defense and into the end zone for the score, tying the game at 7 apiece.
Wissahickon immediately responded to the score. With big chunk plays, the Trojans found themselves six yards out from another score. Dixon kept it himself and found a gap in the line to put the Trojans back ahead 14-7. Later in the second quarter, the Trojans looked to extend their lead with a 27-yard field goal.
Ben Hinchcliffe, a 4-star according to Kohl’s Professional Camps, prepared to take the kick. The attempt was short and to the left, keeping the score at 14-7. Throughout the second quarter, Unionville contained Wissahickon’s run game, preventing any large pickups on the ground. With less than a minute left in the half, Unionville had the potential to score before halftime. The Trojans came up big, forcing a fumble to stop the Longhorns and bring the game to the half, leading 14-7. Wissahickon kicked off to Unionville to begin the second half. The Longhorns battled their way deep into Trojan territory, where junior quarterback Chase Johnson pushed through the line and fell into the end zone to tie the game again, now at 14 apiece.
The third quarter ended fairly quickly, as both teams elected to keep the ball on the ground, as the humidity and heavy fog made passing extremely risky. Both teams continued trading possession until, with less than two minutes remaining, Unionville finally put themselves ahead. Johnson made a risky move and threw the ball through the dense fog. He found junior Liam Guidotti for a Longhorns touchdown, putting Unionville in front 21-14.
The Trojans were determined to keep their season alive. With about a minute left on the clock, Dixon led the team down the field without fear. He was hitting his receivers on the sideline to keep as much time on the clock as possible. The Wissahickon crowd was erupting with excitement. From 23 yards out, Dixon targeted senior Avery Godoy over the middle. Ethan McCune read the play, jumped in front of Godoy, and picked off Dixon’s pass to give the Longhorns the ball.
Johnson took a knee to run out the remaining seconds, giving the Unionville Longhorns the well-deserved victory.
I talked to Unionville's head coach Tim Murphy after the game.
Me: “You're coming in here on the road as the eleven seed, while Wissahickon is the six seed, what was the mindset coming into this game?”
Coach Murphy: “Our guys don’t mind playing wherever we are, they love to play, and they love to play for each other. It doesn't matter if we gotta get on a bus or we’re playing at home. They’re gonna come out and play our brand of football, and our brand of football was able to win tonight.”
Me: “Wissahickon has Quasir Sampson, a great running back, what was the gameplan against him?”
Coach Murphy: “Well first of all, a lot of credit to him. He’s a really good runner, gets his shoulders downhill, and he’s powerful. It was tough, we knew we had to do something about him. The biggest part was that we had to get bodies to him, don’t let him get out in the open, don’t let him turn down field too fast, make him turn his shoulders. I think we were able to accomplish that for the most part.”
Me: “The weather was obviously less than ideal with the humidity and the fog rolling in and out throughout the game, how did that play a factor?”
Coach Murphy: “It helps when both teams run the ball. I don’t think it was a big deal until the end when (Wissahickon) was trying to throw. You gotta play with whatever is in front of you, weather, clock, whatever it may be. Our guys just continue to grind.”
Me: “That last drive looked like Wissahickon was destined to score, Dixon was hitting all his passes on the sideline making it scary for you guys. How do you train your team to be so locked in during a moment like that?”
Coach Murphy: “That’s 2-minute drill. We do 2-minute drill every week. Our guys are used to it, it's how we end our week and it's one of the most competitive periods of our week. Every single week we do 2-minute drill.”
Unionville will now face the 3 seed Great Valley Patriots at Great Valley in the quarter-finals of the PIAA District One 5A playoffs.
As for Wissahickon, the loss ended their impressive season, as they finished with an 8-3 overall record, while out-scoring their opponents 282-118.