Dixon makes history, Radnor rolls
TREDYFFRIN >> On Senior Night at Conestoga’s Teamer Field Friday, Radnor’s defense and a record-setting evening by junior wide receiver Jahmir Dixon highlighted a 28-7 win.
It marked the third year in a row that Radnor (5-4, 4-4 Central) has beaten Conestoga. The Raiders held the Pioneers (3-6, 3-5) scoreless until the final six minutes.
Radnor got some big plays from the 5-foot-9, 140-pound Dixon, who grabbed five Sam DiLella’s passes for 210 yards — a Radnor program record — and three touchdowns.
“We played great today, we had a great week of practice,” said a smiling Dixon. ‘Coach (Tom Ryan) told us to come out and be athletes and play Radnor football, and that’s what we did to come out with the win. Sam had a perfect night at quarterback. Our defense came out hard, and at halftime, the coaches told us to step it up, and that’s what we did “
Radnor opened the scoring when DiLella hit Dixon for a 20-yard touchdown in the right corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
“The coaches told me that I should be able to beat their corners up top,” Dixon said. “We’re going to throw it up and you make a play.”
Late in the second quarter, Radnor began another long drive, moving to the 2-yard line. The key plays were a 27-yard pass from DiLella to Dixon and a 19-yard run down the sideline by Taylor Margolis. But a Radnor fumble in the end zone gave the ball back to Conestoga, and the first half ended at 7-0.
Radnor took the second-half kickoff and marched 80 yards in 10 plays. DiLella found Dixon for 35 yards and Brendan Surbeck for 19, then hit Gavin McCall for an 8-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0.
Conestoga picked up a couple of first downs on the following series, but the drive stalled at the Radnor 38, where the visitors took over on downs. Two plays later, DiLella hit an open Dixon across the middle, and Dixon turned on the jets for a 66-yard touchdown.
“Sammy and me worked on that play all summer,” Dixon said. “He told me where he was going to throw it; I looked up and it was there.”
Early in the fourth quarter, the DiLella-to-Dixon combination hooked up once again for one last big play, a 62-yard TD strike down the left sideline.
“Our coaches told me to run a fade, that it was going to be open, and Sammy’s going to put it up — make a play,” said Dixon, who gathered in the pass at about the 30 and raced into the end zone to make it 28-0 with 9:06 to play.
Meanwhile, the Radnor defense was giving Conestoga a first down here and there, but keeping the hosts off the scoreboard.
“This was one of our best defensive efforts of the season,” Ryan said.
Conestoga finally got on the board with 5:51 left on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Chris McGovern to sophomore wide receiver Peter Detweiler. Two plays earlier, McGovern hit Michael Prestipino for a 24-yard gain on 3rd-and-7 at the Radnor 34 to keep the drive alive.
Conestoga will end its season at Haverford High next week to play the Fords.
