Upper Dublin overcomes sluggish start, beats Pennsbury

UPPER DUBLIN >> Upper Dublin felt it did enough to win on Saturday against visiting Pennsbury, but would have liked to do more.

“We want to be clean. We want to have momentum going into the playoffs,” Cardinals coach Bret Stover said. “We played well in spots. We just didn’t play the way I had hoped we would play. We didn’t play clean. It wasn’t a clean game for us. We’re happy to get the win – we needed the win. We took a nice step (in the win over Truman), and then we leveled off. We need to figure out how to keep going up the hill.”

The Cardinals overcame a sluggish start to win 28-9 over the Falcons, raising their overall record to 5-2. Upper Dublin is still 3-1 in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.

Pennsbury, with its triple option looking good early, took a 3-0 lead on its opening series but did not score again until midway through the fourth quarter. The Falcons are now 0-7 on the season and remain 0-4 in the SOL National.

Upper Dublin reached the end zone on back-to-back drives in the second quarter to take control.

A possession that included both the running and passing of quarterback Colin O’Sullivan was capped off by a four-yard touchdown burst by Nyfise McIntyre, who rushed for 73 yards on 14 carries in the contest.

“This team had great potential. We all know we have the potential,” said McIntyre, who had a pair of rushing TD’s. “A win is a win, but for us, we still have things to accomplish and things to do. To be honest, we did not play that well.

“We did put together some really good drives, which got us hyped up a little bit. After those drives, we scored, and we felt good about that. But at the end of the day, we still have to do what we have to do.”

After O’Sullivan hit Griffin Pensabene for an 11-yard score, Upper Dublin would take its 14-3 lead into the break.

The Cardinals padded their advantage on the opening drive of the third quarter. Upper Dublin chewed up nearly six minutes and drove it 80 yards in 12 plays, with McIntyre scoring on a 14-yard run to make it 21-3.

“When we get going, we’re fine. It’s just sometimes it takes a little while for us to get going,” Stover said.

The Cards were held scoreless until 8:12 remained in the second quarter.

“We’ll have an off-sides or we’ll miss a block. It’s just little things we’ve been doing all year. We need to fix it,” he said.

In addition to McIntyre’s production, Tawfiq Bartlett added 21 yards on the ground, O’Sullivan ran for 44, and Michael Wright chipped in with 14. Six different players caught passes, including Noah Lee, who caught six balls for 55 yards.

“We do have a nice little stable of backs and receivers, a lot of guys who can catch the ball, run the ball, which is nice,” Stover said. “We’re figuring out how to work everybody in, and it gives opponents a lot to look at on film and figure out.”

The Falcons scored their lone touchdown in the fourth, on a pitch to Nathan Beighley, who raced in from five yards out to make it 21-9. The run attempt for two failed. Upper Dublin then capped the scoring with a one-yard surge by Wright.

Galamama Mulbah had 81 yards rushing for the Falcons, including 29 on the opening series that resulted in a 30-yard field goal by John Brady Burgfechtel.

“With that triple, it’s tough to replicate their speed and how they’re hitting it and how they’re blocking it,” Stover said. “Once we got up to speed, we figured it out. It’s just so hard to replicate the triple in four days of practice. But we figured it out. (Pennsbury coach Dave McShane) had a good plan. We did enough to win.”

Upper Dublin 28, Pennsbury 9
Pennsbury                 3   0 0 6 –   9
Upper Dublin              0 14 7 7 – 28
First Quarter
P-John Brady Burgfechtel 30 field goal, 5:49.
Second Quarter
UD-Nyfise McIntyre 4 run (Owen Carl kick), 8:12.
UD-Griffin Pensabene 11 pass from Colin O’Sullivan (Carl kick), 1:16.
Third Quarter
UD-McIntyre 14 run (Carl kick), 6:15.
Fourth Quarter
P-Nathan Beighley 5 run (run failed), 7:02.
UD-Michael Wright 1 run (Carl kick), :53.

P                        UD

First Downs                                 10                       18

Rushes-yards                              32-159                36-157
Passing (c-a-i)                             3-12-1                13-16-1
Passing yards                              37                      125
Total yards                                   196                    282
Punts                                           3                       1
Penalties-yards                            5-35                   4-20
Fumbles-lost                                0-0                     2-0
Turnovers                                     1                        1

Rushing
P: Galamama Mulbah 12-81; Shane McGurrin 13-27; Nathan Beighley 4-33, TD; Markis Rogers 1-9; Jordan Czerniak 2-9.
UD: McIntyre 14-73, 2 TD; Tawfiq Bartlett 7-21; O’Sullivan 8-44; Chris Kohlbrenner 1-5; Michael Wright 6-14.

Passing
P: McGurrin 3-12-37-0-1.
UD: O’Sullivan 13-16-125-1-1.

Receiving
P: Czerniak 1-8; Beighley 1-19; Jayce Secoda 1-10.
UD: Kohlbrenner 1-1; Ryan Mulroy 1-7; Noah Lee 6-55; Pensabene 3-32, TD; Bartlett 1-20; Dan Johnson 1-10.

Interceptions
P: Daniel Miller.
UD: Tristan Cairnes.