Upper Merion leans on Leach, ground game to top MLK

UPPER MERION >> Upper Merion was staring at an 0-2 record Friday night. It was down to Martin Luther King by two points with 6:25 on the clock at its own 15 yard line. The offense hadn’t put together a drive like this all game.

The Vikings committed to the ground attack and nine plays later — all runs — they scored a touchdown to take a 16-12 lead that would hold to be the final score and even their record at 1-1.

“We told the offensive line it’s on them,” Upper Merion coach Hal Smith said. “We just talked about putting the weight on somebody on the team and we told the o-line you guys have to get it done. No excuses, you have to get it done. We have to run the ball and you have to get it done. And they did. Kudos to those guys up front. And Will (Fisher) — a backup tackle — came in and did a heck of a job for us tonight.”

“The team mindset was — we have to get this,” running back Tyrese Leach said. “We have to work hard. We know we want it — we want to win. We have to win. So we just kept pushing, kept working. We went hard all week just for this.”

Leach carried the ball six times on the game-winning drive for 55 yards. Zach DeSanto rushed twice for 26 yards and Marc Picariello finished off the drive with a four-yard score.

Overall, Leach rushed for a career-best 177 yards on 28 carries.

“We had a lot of good blocking up front,” Leach said. “We had a lot of good reads up front. A lot of good blocking up front.

“We’ve got a lot of games, I think I can grab some more,” the junior said of his career best performance.

DeSanto totaled 63 yards on 10 carries and Picariello ran the ball four times for 17 yards.

In all, the Vikings rushed for 235 yards on 47 carries.

That’s a big improvement over the 29 rushing yards Upper Merion totaled in its season opener against Radnor.

“Last week was a little bit embarrassing for the kids,” Smith said. “We just told them come in and work … We just went back to work, tried to clean things up and the kids did well.”

The rush defense was also much better than it was against Radnor. In that loss, the Vikings surrendered more than 330 yards on the ground. Against the Cougars Friday night, Upper Merion held its opponent to 127 yards on 28 carries.

“We worked on tackling all summer,” Smith said. “And we looked horrible tackling (against Radnor). We didn’t do anything different than we did this week except for we did it for a longer period of time. The kids just had an attitude — they wanted to tackle and stick their nose in there instead of using their hands and grabbing.”

Laundry day

Friday night’s game was a long one and it’s pretty clear why. The two teams combined for 37 penalties.

Upper Merion committed 19 penalties for 149 yards and MLK committed 18 penalties for 131 yards.

“We have to clean that up,” Smith said. “Didn’t have a perfect win, but it’s a win and we’ll try to get better and cleaner next week.”

Wild two minutes

The game took a turn during the final two minutes of the first half.

Upper Merion couldn’t convert a third-and-one and lined up to punt from its own 40 yard line with a 7-0 lead. The snap was high and Anthony Littlewood was fortunate to get the punt off without getting it blocked. The punt, however, only went one yard.

Two plays later, King scored to cut its deficit to 7-6. The extra point was blocked and the Cougars kicker was slow to get up and needed help off the field. Since play was stopped, he was not permitted to kick off.

Enter freshman Henzloy McFarland. He squibbed the ball to the left — between three Vikings — and the Cougars recovered.

King drove down the field and scored a go-ahead touchdown with 12 second left in the half. They went for two to make it a seven-point lead, but failed.