West Chester Henderson football squad falls to undefeated Upper Moreland
By Bruce CHESTER – Just one week after rolling to a shutout victory against Upper Merion, the West Chester Henderson football squad faced undefeated Upper Moreland and suffered a 48-7 defeat Friday at J. Oscar Dicks Stadium.
"I think that we beat ourselves in the beginning tonight, we gave them 14 points early in the game and didn't recover," said Henderson head coach Bob Brice. "We didn't play our best football tonight. We need to learn from our mistakes and clean it up."
The Warriors (2-3) fell behind 7-0 midway through the first quarter. A 31-yard punt return by Upper Moreland senior Aiden Tuffy gave the visitors the ball on the Henderson 7 yard line, and two plays later UM senior quarterback Alex Foley hit junior wide receiver Larry Hughes for a 9-yard touchdown pass in the front left corner of the end zone.
Late in the first quarter, an Upper Moreland punt to the Henderson 17-yard line was fumbled by the Warriors, and the visitors recovered. Five running plays later – all by Tuffy – the Golden Bears had a 14-0 lead.
On the fifth play of the second quarter, a Henderson pass was picked off by Hughes and returned to the Warriors 30 yard line. Eight plays later, on 3rd-and-16 and the Henderson 17 yard line, Foley hit senior wide receiver Braden Moore, who was open in the middle, for a touchdown to make it 21-0 with 7:50 to go in the second quarter.
Upper Moreland head coach Adam Beach said, "As a team I think this was our most complete game of the year so far. Offense, defense, special teams, we were really clicking on all cylinders. We were very opportunistic on defense, got some turnovers. Our special teams had a great punt return, our kickoffs were getting into the end zone."
With seven minutes to go before halftime, Henderson energized the crowd when senior running back Brady Collins broke free down the left sideline for a 52-yard touchdown run. Collins, who scored four touchdowns in the Warriors 41-0 win over Upper Merion last week, had several sizable gains Friday. Gensy Cifuentes' extra point cut the visitors' lead to 21-7.
Upper Moreland (5-0) then put together the first long drive of the night, a 12-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a one-yard plunge into the end zone by junior Justin Valentin. On the drive, the Golden Bears elected to go for the first down facing a 4th-and-1 from their own 44 yard line. Tuffy's six-yard run gave Upper Moreland the first down and kept the long drive alive. With 58.3 seconds left before halftime, Upper Moreland took a 28-7 lead.
Beach said, "We're going to take what the defense gives us. Tonight, we thought we had some (big) passes early; and then when they started taking that away, we hit them with a couple of runs, and that helped us score some points."
On this night of explosive plays, the Warriors put together a couple of big gains in the final minute of the first half. Junior quarterback Jackson Lewis hit Collins for a 25-yard pass completion down the left sideline, then two plays later hit junior wide receiver Tyler Lewis for a 38-yard completion to the Upper Moreland 16 yard line. The Warriors moved the ball all the way down to the Golden Bears' 2 yard line but could move the ball no further as time ran out in the first half.
The Golden Bears' 28-7 lead held through most of the third quarter, then late in the period Foley hit several solid pass completions to move the ball deep into Henderson territory. UM junior running back Elijah Davis ran up the middle for a 13-yard touchdown just before the quarter ended to give the visitors a 35-7 lead.
Four plays later, a fumbled snap by Henderson gave Upper Moreland the ball at the Warriors' 15 yard line. On the very next play, Foley hit Tuffy for a 15-yard touchdown pass, and Luke Sword booted his sixth extra point (in six attempts) to give the visitors a 42-7 lead.
Henderson then put together a sustained drive, using a variety of running backs to move the ball into Upper Moreland territory. But another fumbled Warrior snap was recovered by the Golden Bears, this time by junior John Allen, and he ran it back 58 yards for a touchdown to complete the scoring at 48-7.
Beach said, "It was a great moment for John, he's a hard-working kid, and to see him get out there and make a play like that I'm so happy for him."
The Golden Bears, with their 5-0 start, have already improved over last year's 4-7 record.
Beach said, "We were young last year, it was a growing year for us and a lot of those kids are back with us this year. To their credit, they took advantage of the (past) off-season, bought into the work ethic and did what they needed to do to prepare for the season, and they're now seeing the results of their hard work."
For West Chester Henderson, the next item of business is to prepare for Bishop Shanahan next Friday.
Brice said, "The encouraging thing is that we're still a family, and through thick and thin we figure it out together; so regardless of the outcome (tonight) we're going to keep going full steam ahead and keep making sure we play to the (Henderson) standard."
