Football: Welde, O’Hara defense comes up in clutch as Ewing gets first win
MARPLE — For the first time in more than 30 years, Cardinal O’Hara was victorious in a football game with a member of the Ewing family as the head coach.
When a last-second Archbishop Carroll field goal attempt was unsuccessful Friday night, the home-standing Lions had claimed a 14-12 decision over the Patriots, snapping their seven-game losing streak and presenting first-year head coach Mike Ewing with his first win.
Ewing is the grandson of the late Bob Ewing, who began his 16 seasons as head coach at O’Hara in 1975 and earned 116 victories, three Catholic League championships and one Philadelphia City title.
“This feels so good,” Ewing said after the happy O’Hara students, who turned out for Senior Night, finally had cleared the field after congratulating the players. “I’m so happy for our seniors, and all the other players, too. We have such a young team, and so many of them will be coming back.
“They’ve put in a lot of work. There have been tough times when they could have just packed it in. But they came out every day and believed in what we were trying to do. We’re really planning to build something special here.”
Freshman John Welde’s final statistics might not have seemed all that special. He misfired on five of his first six pass attempts and finished 8-for-22 for 123 yards. But two of his completions resulted in six points: A 64-yard TD pass to Logan Maloney that opened the scoring midway through the second quarter, and an 18-yard connection with Ethan Schulcz on the Lions’ first snap of the second half.
“It’s not about individual statistics or things like that,” Welde said. “We’re coming together as a team, and it’s about playing for the guy next to you or the guy in front of you or the guy behind you.
“I couldn’t have done what I did here tonight if the offensive line wasn’t giving me time to execute when I was throwing those deep balls.”
Joey Gillin, Dillon DiBattista, Nate Kutufaris and Kendan Temple-Hudson were among the lineman who did their jobs up front in support of Welde.
O’Hara’s first scoring drive lasted only one play after a Carroll punt, with Welde dropping the ball into the hands of a streaking Maloney behind the Pats defenders with 6:36 before halftime.
Demere Bright and Devon Washington teamed to shut down a Carroll fourth-down run from midfield, but the Lions turned the ball over on downs with 1:33 left before the break. One play later, Carroll’s Mason Graham was in the end zone after a 65-yard run. The conversion kick was no good, leaving O’Hara ahead at halftime, 7-6.
On the first play of the second half, O’Hara senior Jack Shelton III claimed a fumble at the Carroll 18. On the next snap, Welde hit Schulcz with an 18-yard scoring pass. Gavin Mclean’s kick gave the Lions, who would get off only 17 more plays in the game and didn’t gain another first day, a 14-6 lead.
Carroll’s second TD came at the end of a 14-play drive that covered 67 yards and concluded with a one-yard run by quarterback James Wright. Hasaan Bailey (16 carries, 70 yards) got the call on the conversion, but Shelton III threw him for a loss.
“Coach Ewing had me in the right place to make a play,” Shelton III said. “He put me in the A gap, they ran to the A gap, and I made the tackle. I can’t say enough about the job Coach Ewing has been doing. It’s so great to finally get a win for him.”
Ewing did have a few anxious moments before the game ended. Carroll used up the first five minutes of the fourth quarter marching from midfield to the O’Hara 5-yard line. Shelton and Temple-Hudson shut Bailey down on first down, then Wright threw an incompletion.
On third down, Bailey got to the 2 before being stopped, and the Pats tried a short field goal, which flew wide.
With 1:37 to play, Carroll got its last chance to pick up its first win of the season. Wright had completions of 18, 9 and 10 yards to Luke Watson, taking the ball to the O’Hara 17. On the final play of the game, the Patriots tried another field goal.
“It hit one of their players in the helmet,” O’Hara’s Michael Kutufaris, who wound up with the ball as the whistle blew, said. “I didn’t block either of their (attempted) field goals, but I got close to the first one.
“It feels great to win. We know we’re building something here and we want to keep getting better.”
