Mike Slivka shines in debut as Upper Dublin handles Norristown

WEST NORRITON >> Mike Slivka made his first varsity start for Upper Dublin Friday night and led the Cardinals to a comfortable 28-7 season-opening win over Norristown at the Norristown Area High School Athletic Complex.

“I woke up this morning with a couple butterflies,” Slivka said. “They were gone when I got in the locker room. I was ready to go.”

The junior completed seven of 12 passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown was an eight-yard strike to Brody Balasa on the fourth play from scrimmage and the second a 65-yard deep pass to Selvin Haynes to give Upper Dublin a 14-0 lead in the final minute of the first quarter.

“I thought he was impressive,” Upper Dublin head coach Bret Stover said. “He made some good decisions. He made some bad throws, but it’s his first varsity start. He’s doing a lot. He’s telling people where to go and checking at the line of scrimmage. He’s got a lot on his plate right now and he’s only going to get better. He’s his hardest critic. He isn’t going to let himself be complacent.”

Slivka took the field a little sooner than expected. The Cardinals, ranked No. 18 in PA Prep Live’s Top 20, won the toss and deferred to the second half, but recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff to bring the offense onto the field at Norristown’s 23-yard line.

“You can’t really script that,” Stover said. “That’s what you want. And then to capitalize on it was really what we needed to do. You don’t want to not get some points there.”

Slivka also made a big play with his legs. On third-and-7 at his own 27-yard line late in the first quarter he dropped back and, with no open receivers, found some running room and picked up eight yards for the first down. On the next play he hit Haynes deep for the score.

“They brought (a safety) down so there was one high,” Slivka said of his long touchdown pass. “We practiced that all week, so I called all verts and just hit the seam.”

Slivka benefitted from a dominant running game. Lucas Roselli finished with 120 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. Mason Novak had eight carries for 45 yards.

Roselli’s first touchdown came early in the second quarter. On the second play of the drive he raced up the middle for a 60-yard score to give the Cardinals a 21-0 advantage.

“We had two linemen pulling,” Roselli said of his long run, “and the hole was there. I just had to be patient and the blocks were down field. I just had to make one cut and it was easy.”

His second trip to the end zone was the final touchdown of the day. After Norristown scored to cut its deficit to 21-7 early in the fourth quarter, Roselli carried the ball four times for 43 yards, including a four-yard score, on a six-play drive to extend the lead back to three touchdowns, 28-7.

“We had to start passing (early) to spread the defense out a little,” Roselli said. “They had eight people in the box so we had to spread them out. Once we did that they only had about five and we could run the ball easy.”

Norristown never really got back into the game after fumbling the opening kickoff. After falling behind 7-0, the Eagles next two drives resulted in a punt and a turnover on downs before the deficit grew to 14-0. That was followed by another punt and Roselli’s 60-yard score essentially put the game away with 8:42 left before halftime.

“I’m thinking pregame jitters,” Norristown coach Joe Milligan said. “A couple of our guys were shocked. Usually no one kicks deep to our deep guys because they think we have a bunch of speed back there. I think they were a little shocked, ‘Hey I got the ball.’ Then they coming flying down the way they did. It was a little wake-up call.”

Despite the tough start, the Eagles never gave up. They didn’t let their deficit surpass 21 points and were able to get some offense going in the fourth quarter.

Senior quarterback Daniel Watson entered the game midway through the third and threw for 113 yards in the fourth quarter alone. Watson connected on back-to-back deep passes early in the fourth to wide receiver Christian Thomas — totaling 68 yards — before sneaking in a one-yard touchdown.

“We’ll go back and fine tune some things,” Milligan said. “Sit them down and get them to build and understand what’s going on. With Watson being a senior and Thomas being a junior — get them to actually trust each other and get them running different route combinations.”

Later in the fourth Watson hit tight end Gabe Randall for a 40-yard gain.