Upper Dublin rallies by Quakertown behind Roselli, defense

UPPER DUBLIN >> The Upper Dublin defense knew its back was up against the wall.

The Cardinals clung to a one-point lead and a dramatic fourth-down conversion had put Quakertown’s offense knocking at the door of a potential go-ahead score. To that point, the UD defense had done more than its share of work but it needed one more stop.

Upper Dublin got that last stop, handed the ball to Lucas Roselli six times and finally closed out a come-from-behind 14-13 win over visiting Quakertown to stay unbeaten in the SOL American Friday night.

“Our defense seriously kept us in the game,” UD coach Bret Stover said. “The two field goals you hold them to, you stop them on a fourth down. I’m very proud of my kids, I told them in the pregame huddle if things don’t go your way, you have to hold the rope. Everyone grabbed on and pulled and we came out together in the second half.”

Not much went Upper Dublin’s (5-1, 3-0 SOL American) way in the first half. Quakertown (5-2, 2-2 SOL American) ate up five minutes of clock on its opening drive, although the defense firmed up at the end to hold the Panthers to a field goal, but UD’s second play of the game turned into a tip-drill interception.

On top of that, Quakertown’s Max Russell had a 16-yard sack that killed a drive, the passing and running games didn’t have much time or space and a low snap on a punt resulted in the punter’s knee going down at the Cardinals 19. Quakertown’s Michael Terra capped that drive with a six-yard touchdown and another field goal put the visitors up 13-0 on the last play of the first half.

At the break, UD had two first downs and had run just 15 non-punt plays. Quakertown had 38 plays and had taxed the Cardinals defense for all it had.

“We only had 15 plays, that’s not like us, we’ve had 15-play drives this year,” Stover said. “Hat’s off to them, they stuffed us and gave us some fits.”

The first offensive play Upper Dublin ran turned into a 63-yard screen pass to Lucas Roselli. It got lost in the struggles of the first half, but it was a bit of a precursor for things to come in the second half.

Stover said the locker room was calm at the half, coaches weren’t yelling and while some of the guys were quiet or disappointed in the first half, they knew they were getting the ball to start the third quarter. Plus, the defense wasn’t ready to give up and the unit knew the offense would get itself going.

“We just had to keep doing our thing and keep pushing,” UD linebacker Logan Heim said. “The offense was going to come around, we just had to keep playing our defense.”

“It’s all mental,” linebacker Jacob Rossman said. “In the locker room, we had to shake it off and mentally get back in the game and that’s just what the offense did.”

Much like Quakertown did in the first quarter, Upper Dublin marched its way down the field to start the third, with Roselli adding a key third-down conversion. Mike Slivka, who had a rough first half, gained 18 on the ground, then found Selvin Haynes for 12 in the air before Mason Novak’s three-yard plunge put UD on the board.

Terra, Quakertown’s all-everything running back, was injured during the point-after kick and would not return to the game.

Quakertown missed a 37-yard field goal on the following drive, which turned into a key moment after Upper Dublin went down and scored again on the next series. Roselli was the key man on the drive, catching a 26-yard pass over the middle on 3^rd-and-16 to start the fourth quarter with the chains moving.

“We know our o-line had to buckle down and start moving their legs and us as the running backs had to do the same,” Roselli said. “That was all Coach Stover, he called the best play for that spot, we’ve been working on it all year.”

Upper Dublin’s line got pushed around a lot in the first half but did a lot of the pushing in the second half. Roselli noted his linemen were “just driving them down field” late in the game, which allowed him and Novak to pick up some key yardage again and again.

Roselli finished with 50 yards rushing and 107 receiving yards while Novak rumbled for 37 yards. A versatile, shifty back, Roselli had been hampered by injuries early in the season and saw his role and impact a bit limited.

He’s starting to get healthy and it’s playing right into his smarts for the game. The senior scored on a 10-yard screen pass, with Chris Barbera kicking the go-ahead PAT, with 7:10 left in the game.

“It was a last-second thing, myself and the coaches were looking at it in the locker room probably five minutes before the game and we knew it was going to work,” Roselli said. “It feels good, it’s my last year so I know I have to go all-out.”

Quakertown is as tough a team as there is in the SOL and Stover noted he has a tremendous respect for Panthers coach George Banas and his whole staff. That’s why the veteran UD coach knew there was one last Quakertown drive coming.

A slick gadget play led to a receiver throw with Tyler Merwarth hitting Tim Garlick (104 receiving yards) for 40 yards to flip the field. Thinking they had a stop a few plays later, Upper Dublin’s defense was gutted on a 4^th-and-9 after Panthers QB Brad Bryan kept scrambling then found Merwarth for a spectacular 24-yard catch down to UD’s 11.

This was where the defense found itself against the wall when Quakertown ran the ball up the middle.

“We had to keep fighting, the coaches called a great blitz, I just got back there and stripped the ball,” Heim, who flew into the pile and caused a fumble, said.

“We couldn’t keep our heads down, we had to step right back up,” Rossman, who dove on and recovered the fumble, said. “After that big play, we made one more big play of our own.”

After the recovery, Upper Dublin handed the ball to Roselli six straight times and he picked up two first downs to run out the clock on the win.

“Coach could have given it to any of us honestly, he trusts all of us,” Roselli said. “We know we have to be clutch in the moment.”

UPPER DUBLIN 14, QUAKERTOWN 13
QUAKERTOWN 3 10 0 0 – 13
UPPER DUBLIN 0 0 7 7 – 14

Scoring Plays

1^st Quarter

Q – Gavin Croissette 22 field goal 6:56

2^nd Quarter

Q – Michael Terra 6 run (Croissette kick) 8:03

Q – Croissette 20 field goal 3.3

3^rd Quarter

UD – Mason Novak 3 run (Chris Barbera kick) 6:28

4^th Quarter

UD – Lucas Roselli 10 pass from Mike Slivka (Barbera kick) 7:10

Team Stats

UD Q

First downs 14 16

Rushes-Yards 32-70 36-158

Passing: 9-17-0-1 13-21-0-0

Passing Yards: 149 189

Total Yards: 219 347

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1

Penalties-Yards 4-30 4-41

Punting: 3-39.7 2-35.5

Individual Stats

Rushing: UD – Lucas Roselli 12-50, Mason Novak 11-37, Mike Slivka 8-(-4), Team 1-(-13); Q – Michael Terra 7-53, Christian Patrick 10-40, Brad Bryan 9-30, Tyler Merwarth 6-25, Delbert Ross 4-10

Passing: UD – Mike Slivka 9-17-0-1-149, Q – Brad Bryan 12-20-0-0-149, Tyler Merwarth 1-1-0-0-40

Receiving: UD – Roselli 4-107, Jason Scott 1-9, Selvin Haynes 3-27, Dylan Zlotnikoff 1-6; Q – Ben Schlegel 1-10, Terra 4-52, Merwarth 2-23, Tim Garlick 5-104, Nick Levinski 1-(-1)

Interceptions: Q – Delbert Ross