Dylan Zlotnikoff stepping up for Upper Dublin
It was arguably the most important offensive play of Upper Dublin’s season.
The Cardinals, leading by seven, faced 3rd-and-10 from their own one-yard line with less than two minutes left in the District 1 Class-5A championship game against West Chester Rustin last Friday night.
Junior quarterback Mike Slivka took the snap from the shotgun and looked for senior wide receiver Dylan Zlotnikoff.
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Zlotnikoff put in a lot of work over the past year to be in position to make a championship-sealing play.
He was a regular in the gym all offseason after Upper Dublin’s 2017 season came to an end in the D1-5A semifinals against Springfield (Delco).
“He’s one of the kids I can say was there every day,” head coach Bret Stover said at practice Tuesday as his team prepares for a state semifinal matchup with Manheim Central. “He didn’t take any days off. If he did, there was a good reason why he took the day off, but I can’t even remember him taking a day off. He was the kid that was always in there. Even when spring sports started our numbers go from say 35 we go down to 10. He’s one of the 10 that’s there every day. In the past when we weren’t very good that 10 was four or that 10 was two. Because Dylan Zlotnikoff is there in the weight room he’s keeping six or seven kids in there with him. They’re seeing how hard he’s working and they want to work with him.”
“Just from knowing at a young age how much work it takes to play football and keep getting better and be good at football,” he said of his offseason regimen. “The constant practice and all the hard work and learning the plays — everything really contributed to me playing well this season.”
After nine months of working in the gym and getting ready for his senior season, Zlotnikoff had a tough game in the opener against Norristown. The Upper Dublin native used that game as motivation to go on and have an excellent season. He earned Second Team All-Suburban One League American Conference honors for his play as a defensive end/linebacker hybrid.
“He had a game in the beginning of the year that he’d probably like to forget,” Stover said. “He basically came to (the defensive coaches) and said, ‘I’m going to be better, stick with me.’ And he took off from there defensively. He’s been phenomenal for us. He gets the hard assignment — stand on the end of the line and take on fullbacks and down-blocks and kickout-blocks and does it without batting an eye.”
“That first game I was still going through the motions,” he said. “Maybe I didn’t have my head in that game, but I realized how much it takes to win and be the best I can be. That’s what I did. I did everything I could to be the best and do everything I can to improve each game.”
On the offensive side, Zlotnikoff totaled over 25 catches this season and has become a reliable target on the outside for Slivka.
He caught his first career touchdown in the regular season finale against Upper Moreland, made a sliding 42-yard catch against Unionville in the district semifinals and had five catches for 79 yards — including a 39-yard touchdown — in the championship game.
“In the beginning of the year our main go-to guy was Selvin (Haynes),” Slivka said. “People took that away, so other people had to step up. (Zlotnikoff’s) been big the last couple weeks. He made a couple great catches against Unionville, made a couple great catches Friday night. He’s just stepped up really big for us. He’s doing a really good job.”
“You look at him and he’s not the fastest kid on our team,” Stover added. “He just catches everything. I think I remember one ball that he dropped in the whole season and I think he has about 26 or 27 catches. He always seems to come up with the big catch at the right time.”
That’s what he did in the title game on 3rd-and-10.
Zlotnikoff made a diving grab for a 10-yard gain to pick up the first down. Rustin used its final timeout and — after a couple Slivka kneel downs — the Cardinals were district champs, 35-28.
“We came out to the line in the same formation, but there was another play called,” Zlotnikoff said. “It was the quarterback run. In the corner of my ear I heard Mike check to the slant that I was going to run. I looked and saw there was no safety, so I could pretty much see that the ball was going to come my way. I just prepared myself for the moment and did everything I could to catch the ball because it was one of the biggest plays of the night to get that first down.”
