Wakefield runs Souderton past CB East

BUCKINGHAM >> As DeAndre Wakefield went, so did the rest of the Souderton football team on Saturday afternoon.

The Indians junior tailback didn’t get much going on the ground in the first half, but he made his presence felt in the third quarter. In a game that Souderton and host Central Bucks East both really needed to have, Wakefield ripped off a pair of long touchdown runs on back-to-back carries to rally his team up.

From there, Souderton’s defense and a textbook clock-killing drive handed the Indians a 21-14 win for their third victory in a row on Saturday at 1^st Lt. Colby Umbrell Field.

“We had to warm up a little,” Wakefield said. “In the first half, we didn’t get stuff going but in the second half, we needed that time to wake up and realize that team wasn’t meant to hang around with us.”

The first half was pretty stagnant until the final few minutes. A scoreless first quarter bled into the second as neither team could break off any kind of big play. The Patriots had a goal-line stand, stopping Souderton at the one, which gave the defense some life.

Finally, Souderton (3-3, 3-0 SOL Continental) cracked the scoreboard when Andrew Vince found Wakefield for a 19-yard touchdown pass with 1:43 left in the half. CB East (2-4, 0-2) came right back down the field and tied the game up when Evan O’Donnell (15-18, 163 yards passing) found Will Silverman for a 15-yard score with 27 seconds remaining in the period.

A few weeks prior at Hatboro-Horsham, Souderton found itself in a tie game at half and went on to lose the game, so the Indians were determined to not let it happen again.

“We came out and said we had to have that dog mentality,” Souderton wideout/linebacker Tre Samuels said. “We knew this team couldn’t hang with us, they’re weren’t built like us. We’re a family and that’s what kept us going.”

Souderton went down a score when O’Donnell and Silverman connected again, this time on a terrific throw and a great grab for a 28-yard TD with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

The Indians were methodical all game, but still needed that big play on the ground to capitalize on all the work the linemen up front were doing to wear down the Patriots. They got it when Wakefield took a handoff on a 2^nd-and-7, breaking through the line and outrunning everybody for a 49-yard touchdown.

“We practice a lot with using our depth, it’s really not about ones, twos and threes, we’re all a family and need everybody to step up at the same position,” Wakefield said.

“It’s almost like that Eagles mentality of next man up,” Samuels added. “It doesn’t matter where you are on the depth chart, you never know when you’re going to get in so everybody works harder at practice because when you get in, you have to shine.”

After the Indians defense stopped CB East on a three-and-out, Wakefield took the second play of the following drive on a similar call and ran it 78 yards for the go-ahead score with 45 seconds left in the third. In just two carries, he had picked up 127 yards and went from 11 total yards rushing to 138 before finishing the game with 178 yards on 11 totes.

“The second time around, we pressured right into it based off the motion and he forced it back inside, made some cuts, we didn’t have people there and off he went,” Patriots coach John Donnelly said. “I thought the defense did some good things at time and so did the offense, but we have to find a way to do more good things than they do.”

Wakefield, who also added a key 16-yard pickup late in the fourth that allowed Souderton to kneel out the third straight SOL Continental win, had jolted his team.

“He runs possessed,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said. “He was in a weird funk early in the game, but once he gets a little taste of success, he becomes that man possessed and runs with purpose and runs with a great body lean. He’s a strong, physical kid and if you get him in space, he’s fast and will run away from you.”

Gallagher was proud of his team’s execution on both ends in the second half. The defense came up with a big stop following the second Wakefield run, with Samuels providing an exclamation point sack of O’Donnell off a blitz on a third down that helped make it a scoreless drive.

“That’s a good East team, record aside, we’re fighting for our playoff lives,” Gallagher said. “Someone has to get in, so why can’t it be us? We’re getting better, which is all I care about.”