Interboro runs wild behind Forte-Thomas tandem

GLENOLDEN >> As his JV offense took a knee to ice a 41-6 Del Val League shellacking of Chester on Friday night at the South Avenue Athletic Complex, Interboro coach Steve Lennox shook hands with one of his assistant coaches as the two exchanged congratulations.

There wasn’t a whole lot that Lennox, who’s not the easiest of coaches to please, didn’t like. It was a vintage Bucs win, complete with 42 non-kneel running plays and all of two passes — both completions. Interboro asserted its will, completely dominating both lines of scrimmage and keeping the Clippers on their heels from its opening drive.

Chris Thomas was the headliner once again, tallying 161 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries. Fullback Joe Forte helped lead the way for Thomas, but he also recorded his first career 100-yard game to the tune of 114 yards on eight carries.

All told, the Bucs piled up an astounding 371 rushing yards, a number that includes kneeldowns and clock-killing runs up the middle with no serious intent of moving the ball. Connor Adams added a 49-yard touchdown run as part of his efficient three-carry, 71-yard night, and quarterback Nate Murtha also dashed in for a touchdown from eight yards out. Versatile weapon Matt DiSands caught Murtha’s first touchdown pass of the season.

“As we were coming out, we told ourselves that we were going to hit them from the first play,” left guard and defensive end Manny Obaseime said. “That hard hit is what they were going to think about for the rest of the game.”

Chester (2-4, 0-2 Del Val) looked overwhelmed from the start and never recovered. The Clippers’ offensive line couldn’t fend off their Interboro counterparts on the defensive line, leaving quarterback Jamir Green to scramble time after time. The speedster did as good a job as anyone could have asked, frequently evading defenders and finding receivers downfield en route to a 12-for-27, 170-yard performance. It wasn’t nearly enough to slow down the Bucs, though.

“There was a lot of extra blitzing,” Green said. “Blitzing from the middle, blitzing from the end, we’ve got to pick that up. We’ve got to get back to the lab and work on everything. I know (next week’s opponent) Chichester is going to see what (Interboro) did and they’re going to try to do the same thing.”

Interboro (6-1, 2-0) occasionally struggled to keep Green in check and the quarterback has a fan in right guard and defensive tackle Quentin Frangelli. Despite that, the Bucs’ line dominance made sure that the Clippers couldn’t pull off the comeback.

“That QB was nuts,” Frangelli said. “He was insane. He juked out the whole team, but we buckled down, played our hearts out and contained him pretty well. Offensively, pulling (in the run game) usually works really well for us, but so does running straight ahead.”

Left, right, middle, inside, outside, whatever. Friday night was Interboro’s night whenever it decided to run, which, in traditional Lennox fashion, was nearly every play.

All the more reason to be satisfied.