Hill School handled by Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy
POTTSTOWN >> Both teams head into the league portions of their 2019 schedules next week.
So Saturday’s Hill School/Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy game offered one more chance to work out game plans before the pursuit of league-championship hardware begins. And SCH looked to be in solid form, rolling up a 35-7 victory over the Hill at the Dell Field.
The Blue Devils ran their record to 5-0 while giving nine skill position players touches on the afternoon. That, in the estimation of head coach Rick Knox, is key for what lies ahead.
“Our (Inter-Academic) league is going to be a dogfight,” Knox said, “and you want to be sure you have enough weapons on offense.”
SCH showed how well-armed it is, with a trio comprised of quarterback A.J. Graham, running back Aaron Rascoe and wide receiver Ka’Shawn Williams. They figured in on three of the Devils’ first four scores, fueling an offense that had a combined 289 yards.
Rascoe was a particularly formidable presence. The senior, with a running style reminiscent of a runaway tractor-trailer truck, plowed for 138 yards and a touchdown less than a minute into the second quarter.
“For a high-school runner, he’s a big, thick kid,” Knox noted. “He’s all muscle and hard to bring down.”
Graham had a part in two other Springside scores. The junior ran for the visitors’ first TD in the opening quarter, then closed out the first half with a 13-yard scoring throw to Williams (four catches, 63 yards).
In and around those plays, the Blue Devils’ Ivan Thorpe had a pick-six covering 49 yards at 2:15 before halftime. Right before the end of the third quarter, Carnell Kemp had a two-yard TD run that ultimately closed out the scoring.
“If you ask a coach in the preseason, he’ll say the big thing is for the team to come together,” Knox said. “Well, we’re coming together.”
The Hill (0-4), to its credit, got within reach of SCH in the early going. After the Devils cashed in with Rascoe’s scoring run, Gernard Finney fielded the subsequent kickoff at the Rams eight and roared through the visitors’ kickoff team for a 92-yard TD jaunt.
Two possessions later, after leaving SCH empty at the two, the Hill moved the ball near midfield with help from a 35-yard Finney sprint. But Thorpe intercepted a Henry Komosa pass and ran it back for the first of two TDs the Blue Devils scored in the final 2:15 of the half.
“In the first half, we were right there with them,” Hill head coach Jeff Hollway said. “But the pick-six and punt (26-yard Williams return), and we go from being one (score) down to three down.”
The Rams, who host Peddie School in next Friday’s Mid-Atlantic Prep League opener, got a big ground showing from Finney. In addition to his return TD, Finney had 104 yards on seven carries. The bulk of his yardage came off 39- and 35-yard runs in the first half.
But the Hill saw its offense effectively bottled up in its half of the field. Of its eight possessions, the best of the Rams’ limited forays into SCH territory was to the Devils’ 34 at the start of the fourth quarter.
“It’s like a broken record,” Hollway said. “The defense played well, but the offense has to do better. We need to establish some consistency on the offensive side.”
