Record-breaker Poles strings late TD catches to bring Penn Wood back

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YEADON — Five weeks ago Interboro came to Kerr Field and was overmatched by host Penn Wood. So Saturday’s rematch in the District 1 Class 5A quarterfinal round, the Patriots assumed, would be an uneventful sequel.

At first, they were wrong.

Penn Wood, however, had a second half to correct its mistake. When it ended, it was 44-28 in favor of the hosts, with all 44 of those points coming unanswered after Interboro jumped out to a stunning 21-0 lead.

The top-seeded Patriots, now 11-1, continue their historic season and advance to the district semifinals next week to face No. 5 West Chester Rustin.

“We did kind of underestimate them a little bit because the first time we blew them out,” said wideout Kennedy Poles, who broke Delaware County’s single-season receiving yards record in this contest. “We came in slacking. That’s why they gave us their best (in the) first half. We had to make changes … we rock ‘n’ rolled.”

Ninth-seeded Interboro (6-6), 50-29 losers to the Patriots back on Oct. 5, jumped out to a surprising three-touchdown lead in the first half behind the stout legs of tailback Mike Moore and a brilliant defensive scheme. Penn Wood was beyond frustrated.

After Moore’s third touchdown, the Patriots finally had a breakthrough via, what else, the Desman Johnson Jr.-to-Poles connection. Their 20-yard touchdown late in the first half gave the Patriots life. They went into halftime with momentum. Words were shared in the locker room. 

“Lot of arguing in the first half,” Johnson said. “We were just arguing, weren’t on the same page. Had a big talk at halftime, stepped up our game.”

It started, luckily enough, with lineman Keivon Stevens recovering Johnson’s fumble in the end zone. The Patriots QB followed that near gaffe in short order by hitting Anauri Hankey down the sideline for a 55-yard score. Penn Wood was down by a mere point.

The defense was shutting down Interboro’s tricky Power-I and the offense was revving up. In the fourth quarter, it became the Poles show. He caught three touchdowns then from 57, 55 and eight yards to flip the game.

The first was a bomb down the middle of the field. The second, he displayed his wheels by catching a short pass and racing diagonally to the opposite pylon. The third was a simple jump ball the 6-foot-2 receiver high-pointed. In all, Poles had nine receptions and 207 yards and vaulted past Josh Hannum’s 1,266-yard mark, set in 2000 for Strath Haven. He now has 1,307 yards this season.

“If I’m full and I know my teammates are going to back me up, we got the best receiving core in the state, best quarterback in the state,” Poles said. “That’s how it should go every game, everybody eating.”

Johnson threw for 349 yards (he’s now 14 yards shy of Marple Newtwon’s Anthony Paoletti’s single-season record of 2,793 yards in 2016), added 59 on the ground, and had six total touchdowns. Elijah Gleplay had 152 rushing yards. Penn Wood totaled 561 yards. Most of it came after halftime.

“It just shows the kind of character they have,” coach Ako Troop said. “Contrary to belief, I don’t go in and yell at them at halftime. We talked, I calmed them down, we coached them up and we played football.”

So now Penn Wood will ready for Rustin, the only team to beat them this season. The 43-28 setback was in September. This one will be at home. A lot has changed since then and a lot has changed overall at Penn Wood. The program is 26-8 the past three seasons. It was 5-48 the previous five.

Now, the Patriots have playoffs wins, league titles and are hosting a district semifinal. This was thought to be impossible, but expectations have changed in 2018.

“I can’t describe in words what it means, just what it means, just for the players here, for the alumni that come and watch us, so proud,” Troop said. “People in the community, the pride it brings. Even when the little league kids come and watch, now they (say) ‘I can’t wait to come to Penn Wood.’ It just fills that pride and is going to continue to grow. It’s uncharted territory.”

Interboro, which will now ready for its traditional Thanksgiving game with Ridley, got 152 rushing yards from Moore before he succumbed to injury. He had touchdowns of 22, five and five yards in that first half.

“They’re explosive, we know they’re explosive,” Interboro coach Steve Lennox said. “The second half we couldn’t keep it going there, unfortunately. They made some plays and obviously we didn’t make the plays in the second half.”

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Todd Orodenker

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