Grimm, Owen J. Roberts persevere, rally past Wissahickon 34-24
BUCKTOWN >> It was a tale of two leg cramps Friday.
Key players from both sides of the Owen J. Roberts/Wissahickon pairing had the problem crop up in the second half of their non-league game at Wildcat Stadium: Avrey Grimm, Roberts’ standout running back, and Wissahickon’s starting quarterback, Aidan Defeo. They both tried to come back from the ailments, but the results differed significantly.
While Defeo was unable to replicate his earlier success in the Trojans’ rushing and passing games, Grimm overcame the discomfort to help secure the Wildcats’ come-from-behind 34-24 victory. The OJR senior ran for a game-high 187 yards and three touchdowns, the third lifting the ‘Cats to their first lead of the game (19-18).
And it was pretty much his idea to avoid being shut down for the rest of the game due to the cramp.
“The trainers said I was done,” Grimm recalled, “but I said I wanted to see how it was until the fourth quarter. It was nice they trusted me a bit.”
Avrey Grimm powers behind line and get Owen J its first lead, 19-18 (pat pending) with 9:41 to play pic.twitter.com/FPgLob3S3q
— Austin Hertzog (@AustinHertzog) September 4, 2021
Staying in the action — Grimm added another 20 yards to his rushing total down the stretch — helped inspire the Wildcats to continue their rally against a Wissahickon unit that opened an initial 18-6 lead with Defeo and its own marquee runner, junior Kyle Leaman, combining for the three scores. The Roberts defense took advantage of Defeo’s physical issue to pick off a pair of passes, a second by Ned Burgess returned 30 yards for a “pick six” that gave Owen J. a formidable 34-18 lead with 6:27 remaining.
“Knowing they had to throw, we could go looser with our drops,” Roberts head coach Rich Kolka said of the interceptions by Burgess and Derrick Perry about three minutes earlier. “That was more the case than anything else.”
In the early going, Defeo ran for 72 yards in complement to Leaman’s 148 and completed 16 of 26 passes for 228 yards. But cramping up after making an 11-yard run off his right guard took him out of the equation.
“He got a cramp that was real deep, and he couldn’t kick it out,” Wissahickon head coach Bruce Fleming said. “That’s one of the things about developing the guys behind him. You can’t lose a beat.”
Defeo’s replacement, Braheen Thomas, went 4-for-4 in the passing game, good for 20 yards. Throwing solely to Leaman (six catches, 30 yards), the Trojans got the deficit down to 10 points after Leaman (24 carries, 148 yards) circled his right end from one yard out with less than a minute to play.
The visitors tried an onsides kick after that, but OJR covered the ball at the Wissahickon 47. From there, quarterback Mike Reed needed only to take a knee twice to run out the clock on Roberts’ first win of the season.
“The atmosphere was great tonight,” Kolka said of the Wildcat Stadium crowd, a contrast to pandemic restrictions that didn’t allow spectators into games last fall. “We got off to a tough start, but the kids showed grit and guts.”
As is generally the case, Grimm credited his success to Owen J’s six-man offensive line rotation. Domenic Franks, Joshua Fobia, Jonathan Havrilak, Christian Gregory, Grayson Kurth and Alex Karnbach led the way for the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s reigning rush leader.
“All the time. I guess I’ll have to buy them dinner,” he said with a laugh.
At the same time, Grimm’s workhorse style featured him disappearing from view within the pile, only to push it for additional yardage.
“He makes plays that are not there, all the time,” Kolka said. “He told me he could go. If he feels he can go, he’ll go. I’ll take a 60 percent effective Grimm over anybody else.”
One team goal Kolka identified during the preseason was the development of a passing game to complement Grimm’s running power and add a dimension to its game plan. Roberts took a significant step in that direction against the Trojans, Reed covering 145 yards on 8-for-15 efficiency and throwing a three-yard scoring pass to Anthony Villarosa on the drive set up by Perry’s interception.
“Our running game sets up the play-action pass,” Aston Shrum, who had three catches for 56 yards, said. “The play-action can be huge. Once we trust the quarterback, we have the power to do big things.”
Shrum to Villarosa for 2 pt conversion and 21-18 OJR lead on Wissahickon, 9:41 left pic.twitter.com/Pz2hwI6OtU
— Austin Hertzog (@AustinHertzog) September 4, 2021
Wissahickon’s passing game was more diverse, with seven players making catches. Jason Michaels had six receptions for 74 yards, Chase Bethea had three for 28 and Jaylen Quick, who finished with 54 yards, got all but three of them from a Defeo toss early in the second quarter.
“We’re good enough to have a passing game, to get work moving downfield,” Fleming said. “We graduated a large number of senior receivers, so this off-season we looked at who developed.”
NOTES >> Grimm’s longest TD run was 63 yards on OJR’s first scoring drive. … The Coventry Wildcats youth football and cheerleading programs were recognized pregame — the players ran out onto the field with the high-school team — and during the game, with the cheerleaders joining their high-school counterparts on the Roberts side of the stadium.
