Archbishop Wood runs past Simon Gratz in District 12-5A final

PHILADELPHIA >> By the fourth quarter, everyone and everything was running — including the clock — as Archbishop Wood finished off a convincing 36-6 victory over Simon Gratz in the District 12-5A Final.

Nine different players carried the football for the Vikings, who piled up over 300 yards of rushing on the Northest High turf. Most prolific of all was Nasir Peoples, whose 186 yards and four scores kept Wood moving swiftly through the postseason and into the state quarterfinals.

“It feels great to take the place of Raheem (Blackshear) and Shawn Thompson and just try to do what they did,” Peoples said of continuing a proud rushing legacy at Wood, “and lead our team to a state championship.”

With the victory, Wood (9-2) charges further into the 5A bracket, next up taking on Wyoming Valley West 1 p.m. Saturday at Northern Lehigh High School.

The Vikings deployed a bunch of run-heavy packages from the start, advancing 47 yards in seven plays on their opening series.

With Gratz packing nine men in the box, quarterback Jack Colyar connected with a wide open Kyle Pitts on 3rd-and-10 from the 47, sending Wood on its way.

Four plays later, Peoples took the toss and bolted into the end zone for an eight-yard score, making it 7-0 in favor of the defending state champs.

Peoples gained 37 yards in the first quarter and then 103 in the second.

“I started off slow, didn’t stay on my feet enough,” said the Virginia Tech commit. “I just gotta keep running hard, keep my balance.”

Twisting and turning and breaking tackles to extend plays, Peoples had runs of 14, 23, 18 and 24 in the second quarter. He scored twice in that span, TD’s of two and three yards lifting the Wood lead to 20-0 at the break.

While the Viking offense was finding running room, the Viking defense was closing in on Bulldog quarterback Amir Gillis. Gillis, who is headed to Temple next year, did show his running ability in spots and also hit Rich Brown down the right sideline in stride for a 42-yard gainer, but for the most part he was hemmed in and hurried all day.

“He’s a very good athlete,” Vikings coach Steve Devlin said. “You watch their games and he’s what steers the ship for them. So if you can take him out of the game and kind of neutralize him, they have to go to something else.”

With the Bulldogs (7-4-1) limited to 76 yards through the air, they tried to go to the ground game but linebacker Tyler Smith (6-foot-2, 235) often got in the way.

Tight coverage by the Viking secondary led to a pair of interceptions by Ryan Loughlin and Colin Murt.

“We contained the quarterback on defense and executed on offense,” Devlin said.

The Vikings scored on their first two possessions of the second half to put the game out of reach. Peoples scored on an eight-yard run and Chris Blackstone added a seven-yarder, as the Wood advantage ballooned to 33-0.

A 29-yard field goal by Bob Hennessey widened the margin to 36-0 in the fourth, enforcing the mercy rule. Gratz broke the shutout with an 11-yard run by Desmen Murphy.

Adrian Lambert had 46 yards rushing for Wood, Colin Murt added 29 and Blackstone contributed 24.

“We have great backs who we have confidence in and Nasir is an awesome player, but it’s football, and it all starts up front with the offensive line,” Devlin said of a unit that includes seniors Albert Glasgow (6-2, 265) and Tom Walsh (6-4, 265) as well as an additional blocker in senior tight end Kyle Pitts (6-6, 240). “Those guys do a good job and have a lot of pride.”