Kerwood tosses 3 TDs as Upper Darby beats Conestoga
TREDYFFRIN >> Upper Darby quarterback Kevin Kerwood threw touchdown passes of 40, 24 and 53 yards, which spelled the difference in the Royals’ 19-7 win at Conestoga’s Teamer Field Friday evening.
“Conestoga was concerned about us running the ball, so they put 7, 8 guys on the line of scrimmage,” said Upper Darby head coach Rich Gentile. “We have Kareem [McAdams] to run the ball, but between James Tuayamie and Fahhr Stewart, we have a couple of wideouts who can really get downfield and stretch the defense.”
Kerwood’s 40-yard touchdown strike to Makhi Mayo on the Royals’ first possession gave the visitors a 7-0 lead, and his 24-yard TD pass to Stewart in the second quarter gave Upper Darby a 13-0 lead. By halftime, Kerwood had 144 yards passing, completing nine of 15 passes.
On the first touchdown pass, Kerwood saw Mayo open in the flat, hit the receiver, and the Royal receiver did the rest, breaking a tackle and running down the left sideline into the end zone. Three plays earlier, Kerwood hit Tuayamie with a 25-yard pass to move the Royals into Conestoga territory.
Upper Darby’s second TD, the 24-yard strike to Stewart with 5:03 left before halftime, was a little more improvisational.
“We had a bad fake, so I had to roll out, I’m supposed to stay in the pocket,” said Kerwood. “So I just trusted my receiver and tossed it up to him.”
With 1:21 left in the third quarter, Kerwood hit Tuayamie with a 53-yard touchdown pass. The Royals’ wide receiver had beaten his defender one-on-one down the right sideline, and the touchdown gave Upper Darby a 19-0 lead.
“I know Tuayamie is really fast; he can outrun most any cornerback in the league, so I just tossed it up to him, and he made a great grab,” said Kerwood.
In the second half, Upper Darby began to run the ball frequently, giving the ball to McAdams for solid gains that enabled the Royals to control the ball and the clock.
“That was our [eventual] goal, to run the football, that’s the best part of this game that I like, because I’m an old school football coach,” said Gentile.
Conestoga got a break early in the fourth quarter when Upper Darby fumbled a punt return, giving the Pioneers the ball on the Royals’ 34 yard line. Three plays later, the Pioneers’ Liam Kirk rumbled up the middle for a 26-yard touchdown run to make the score 19-7 with 9:57 left.
Upper Darby then took the ball on a nine-play drive down to the Pioneers’ 21 yard line, turning the ball over to Conestoga on downs. Conestoga quarterback Chris McGovern hit Kirk for a 30-yard completion to keep the Pioneers’ drive alive.
“We’re continually trying to get the ball into Liam’s hands,” said Conestoga head coach Matt Diamond. “He’s dynamic in the run game, he’s a great weapon in the passing game, and is a good kick returner. Our offense runs through No. 5.”
The Pioneers’ drive finally ended on the Upper Darby 34 yard line, where the visitors took over on downs with 4:20 left.
From there, the Royals chewed up the clock with six running plays (and a four-yard pass on fourth-and-one at the Conestoga 34).
Gentile said, “I liked it when we took the ball with about four minutes to go, and we just ran the ball down their throats, to control the ball and not giving the ball back to Conestoga.
“It pleased me that we were able to finish the game at the end. But we have to get better. Our tackling wasn’t the best. Our offense was off-and-on; we got the big plays, but we need consistency on offense. So we’ve got to continue to get better.”
Kerwood said, “We had a rough game last week [a 21-9 loss to Bonner Prendergast] but we came back from it today for our first win. I saw a lot of positives from our win tonight, and some negatives, which we’re going to clean up.”
For Conestoga, Diamond was generally pleased with his defense.
“I thought our guys were flying around on defense, I know that Upper Darby’s a good defensive team,” said Diamond. “There were just a couple of big plays that ultimately put points on the board for them.
“I thought our defense played well in this game and our opening game. They’re communicating well, making checks. Last week, our offense had a handful of turnovers that hurt us. Offensively, today we started to get things going, and you saw flashes of it, but we’ve got to consistently put it together throughout the whole 48 minutes of the game, and I think we can do that. There were little mistakes today like penalties, false starts, that we can control.”
