Selvin Haynes, Upper Dublin shut down Upper Moreland

UPPER DUBLIN >> Most weeks Upper Dublin senior Selvin Haynes steps on the football field with one main objective — shut down the opponent’s top wide receiver.

He faced one of his toughest challenges in Friday night’s 43-6 Suburban One League American Conference win over Upper Moreland.

The Golden Bears feature sophomore wide receiver Jahaire Johnson, who has a few 100-yard games on his resume this season.

“I noticed his size,” Haynes said of his preparation for the 6-foot 160-pound sophomore. “I noticed how good he is off the ball, how good he is in and out of his cuts, but I know that if I play physical — which I didn’t do last week, so that’s what I worked on this week, playing physical, trying to disrupt the timing of the routes and all that — that I could have my way and have success guarding him.”

Just about every play Haynes watched the Upper Moreland offense break their huddle, found Johnson and lined up across from him.

Johnson finished the game with three catches for 30 yards and a touchdown.

Johnson’s first catch was a seven-yard screen play on 3rd-and-22. His second catch was the team’s first first down of the game in the beginning of the second quarter on 2nd-and-9. The third was a 13-yard touchdown in the final minute of the first half to make it 34-6.

He was targeted plenty of other times. On the first play of the game, Johnson went in motion and Haynes passed him off to a teammate. Johnson ran a wheel route and quarterback Jon Knight looked for him deep. Upper Dublin’s Micah Bootman was there for the interception.

“(Defensive coordinator) Dave (Sowers) calls out the first play and Micah picks it off,” Upper Dublin coach Bret Stover said. “That just set the tone. We win the game Monday through Thursday. The kids go out and they play. We work hard to prepare our kids in the film room and on the field and our kids are smart. We’re not the biggest, but our kids are smart and prepared and that’s a tribute to Dave and the defensive side and the rest of the offensive staff as well.”

In the second quarter, Johnson ran a slant. Haynes stayed in his zone and linebacker Ryan Jamison stepped in front of Johnson for another interception.

Just before halftime, Knight threw a jumpball to Johnson in the right corner of the endzone. Haynes came down with an interception, but was called for defensive holding. After offensive holding and defensive pass interference on the two ensuing plays, Johnson caught his touchdown on a slant where Haynes appeared to expect help on the inside.

“I think I did pretty well except for the one holding call,” Haynes said. “I only let up two catches.”

“Selvin did a great job,” Stover said. “Cool thing about Selvin was the first time his mom ever got to see him play football was tonight — Senior Night. He didn’t tell me until before the game when we were out here waiting for the toss, the captains — he told all of us. It was nice that he was able to do that when she was here.”

The other Upper Moreland player the Cardinals defense was intent on stopping was running back Caleb Mead.

Upper Dublin held the explosive offensive weapon to 47 yards on 12 attempts — less than four yards per carry.

“That was a big focus of this week,” Haynes said. “He’s a very good running back. He’s very fast. He’s a big-play running back, so we just want to contain him, stop him and get hats to the ball.”

Both sides

The Haynes-Johnson matchup played out when the Cardinals had the ball, too. Haynes plays receiver on offense while Johnson lines up as a safety.

Haynes caught one pass for 27 yards and Johnson grabbed an interception in his own end zone.

First-year impact

Upper Dublin senior Lucas Nina-Boesler never played football before this season.

You wouldn’t think that after watching Friday night’s game.

The 6-foot 170-pound upperclassman stopped Knight for a loss of two yards on an option and brought down Knight for a sack on back-to-back plays in the second quarter when the Cardinals led 20-0. Two plays later, The ball was snapped over Upper Moreland’s punter’s head and Upper Dublin took over with great field position.

Later in the first half, Nina-Boesler caught a seven-yard touchdown from quarterback Mike Slivka.