Delco doesn’t get a kick out of storms
RIDLEY TWP. — Ridley kicker Nathan Warwick took his five steps back and two to the side, looked left, looked right and got ready to kick off Friday night, some 50 minutes later than he’d anticipated doing so. Before the senior could let fly his leg, though, lightning tore through the sky over Phil Marion Field, bringing an anticlimactic end to the evening before it had begun.
The ending of Ridley’s home affair with Springfield, thanks to a second weather delay from a line of thunderstorms trampling the area, came before the Central League tilt could begin. In varying degrees, the same story played out across Delaware County.
Ridley and Springfield was postponed to Saturday night at 7.
Over at Great Valley High, Academy Park coach Jason Vosheski had an interesting take on his team’s postponed game against the Patriots.
The Knights had just taken a 10-6 lead 10 seconds into the second quarter when referee Mark Ferris called a halt to play because of lightning in the area of the stadium. The teams waited for more than an hour before the decision was made to suspend play. The game will resume at 2 p.m. Saturday.
“The one positive thing is that when we come back here they will be kicking to us just like they did when we started tonight,” said Vosheski, whose Knights are after their third straight win. “At least (Saturday) we will have points in our favor already on the scoreboard.”
Academy Park needed only five plays, which took up two minutes and 23 seconds, to get its first points after Friday night’s opening kickoff. On the Knights’ first play from scrimmage, Barry Brown took a pitch and rolled out before tossing the ball to Edward Soloku for a 42-yard reception to the Great Valley 23.
Skylor Fillis sprinted the final 16 yards on a fourth-down carry, one play after his fumble was recovered by the Knights. Brown ran over on the conversion play for an 8-0 AP lead.
Great Valley got a big play on its first snap. Amani Christopher burst through the line and wasn’t stopped until he had covered 41 yards to the Academy Park 22. A 14-yard Christopher run put the ball five yards from the goal line, and Josh Burgess got six points with a one-yard plunge with 6:06 left in the first quarter to cut the gap to 8-6.
On the second play of the second quarter, AP’s Utensee Nankay crashed through to smother a Patriots punt. The ball rolled out of the end zone for a safety, putting the Knights up 10-6.
That’s when flashes appeared in the sky, followed by a torrential downpour as the stadium emptied. As it became apparent that the game could not be resumed Friday, the decision was made to make every attempt to finish things Saturday afternoon.
“We better come back here ready to play football Saturday,” Great Valley coach Dan Ellis said.
The game that progressed the farthest Friday night came in the “Media Bowl,” where Strath Haven leads Penncrest 28-0 at the 5:07 mark of the second quarter. Zack Hussein scored on runs of two, one and eight yards, and Ibo Pio added an 86-yard dash on the first play of the second quarter to put Haven in control.
The game will shift to Strath Haven for Saturday’s resumption at 11 a.m.
Two weather delays proved too much for Haverford School, which sandwiched a little football in between. The Fords led Simon Gratz, 6-0, on the strength of Daiyaan Hawkins’ two-yard scoring run with 1:01 left in the first quarter. The game will not be restarted and the result and stats will not count.
Gratz got moving just before the second burst of storms, with sophomore running back Jaquil Robinson breaking several tackles on a 55-yard run to the Fords’ 23-yard line.
“We couldn’t catch a window,” Haverford School coach Mike Murphy said. “Every time we went to get going, lightning would strike and we’re waiting and waiting. You get to a point where it’s not fair to the athletes to keep delaying it, especially when we don’t know what’s going to happen from this point.”
“I was talking to Coach Murphy, (saying), ‘We just want to play,’” said Gratz coach Eric Zipay, whose team has only practiced once in the last two weeks due to heat restrictions in Philadelphia. “We’re a young team, we wanted to go up against a quality opponent. It’s a shame, we were driving and lightning stuck.”
Other games that won’t be made up are Archbishop Carroll’s meeting with Boys’ Latin Charter, which didn’t start Friday. Penn Wood’s visit from Council Rock North, which the Patriots were leading 8-0 at half, also won’t resume.
Glen Mills got underway on time at J. Oskar Dicks Stadium, but it was twice delayed, the last coming at 2:31 of the second quarter with the Battlin’ Bulls leading Henderson, 12-0. Camer Warrington-Curry caught a 15-yard touchdown pass, and Robert Smith returned an interception for a touchdown.
The game will resume Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
Nate Decenzi hit Jamese Lundy-Byrd for a 59-yard touchdown in the first quarter to stake Chichester to a 7-0 lead over Pope John Paul II at the A Field in Conshohocken, but lightning struck soon thereafter. The game will resume Saturday at 1 p.m. with 5:15 left in the first quarter.
Along with Ridley-Springfield, neither Marple Newtown’s trip to Lower Merion nor Cardinal O’Hara’s visit to Sun Valley (and its brand new turf) started. Both games resume at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Interboro’s visit from Archbishop Ryan lasted just two minutes Friday – just enough for an Interboro punt on its first series. That game resumes Saturday at 7 p.m. St. Paul’s visit to Bonner & Prendergast, a 7:30 scheduled start Friday, was postponed to 10 a.m. Saturday.
Correspondents Harry Chaykun and Al Thompson contributed to this report.
