On Senior Night, WC Henderson downs Unionville for first win of season
West Chester >> On Senior Night, the West Chester Henderson football squad made its last home game of the season a memorable one Friday evening, defeating Unionville 14-7 for its first victory of the year.
First-year head coach Bob Brice paid tribute to his 15 seniors.
“This win means a lot, because our seniors have played their hearts out all year, they bought into our mentality all year, and this is all about the seniors tonight,” said Brice. “I think our team played for them, they played for each other, and they bought in no matter what our [game] outcomes have been, and I’m so proud of them.”
The Warriors (1-7) defeated a Unionville team that came into the game with a 3-5 record and was ranked No. 17 in District 1 5A power rankings. The Longhorns needed a win Friday to boost their chances of qualifying for the 5A playoffs.
“The whole fight that we had in our team this week was impressive,” said Brice. “We came in tonight 0-7 against Unionville, and still to be focused all week and to fight for this game, I think it’s incredible for teenagers to buy in and do that.”
The first quarter of Friday’s contest was scoreless, although the Longhorns threatened to score a couple of times.
On Unionville’s first possession of the game, they penetrated all the way down the Henderson 23-yard-line, but failed to gain a first down there, turning the ball over to the hosts on downs.
A short Henderson punt on the next series gave the Longhorns the ball at the Warriors’ 46. This time the visitors capitalized. On the first play of the second quarter, Unionville junior tight end Mick Levendis grabbed a tipped pass from senior quarterback Ryan Gilday down the middle for a 28-yard gain that took the Longhorns to the 2.
“That was a really heads-up play by [Levendis],” said Unionville head coach Pat Clark. “I thought we executed it really well, it was a big chunk play.”
Unionvile sophomore running back Brady Kelly then plunged over for the score to give the visitors a 7-0 lead.
Henderson came right back with a quick scoring drive of its own. After the Warriors returned the kickoff to the Henderson 43 yard line, junior running back Evan Kearney broke free for a 32-yard run on the very next play, moving all the way down to the Unionville 25.
“Evan Kearney is a heck of a player; he’s extremely coachable, and he’s a tough, hard-nosed player, so it was good that he could break one free,” said Brice. “Our offensive line has been working really hard on their fundamentals all year, and I think tonight, everything just clicked for them.”
A few plays later, Henderson faced 4th-and-4 at the 9, when a penalty gave the hosts a crucial first down. Three plays later, sophomore running back Brady Collins scored on a 1-yard run and the score was tied 7-7.
With about five minutes to go in the third quarter, Unionville had the ball on a fourth-and-one on its own 36 yard line, and opted to go for the first down. They didn’t make it and Henderson took over on downs.
On the very next play, Henderson junior running back Jake Ball broke free on a 35-yard run down the right sideline all the way down to the Unionville 1 yard line. On the following play, Collins ran in for a score, and the hosts led 14-7 with 4:23 left in the third period.
“It was good for us to capitalize on the opportunities; I think our defense played really well tonight, and they have in the last few weeks,” said Brice. “[Senior middle linebacker] Cole Foster has played his heart out all year long. He’s bought in since Day One. I had a one-on-one conversation with him in March, and he’s followed the line the entire time [since then], and I’m so happy for him tonight, for his hard work to pay off.”
With about eight minutes to go in the game, Unionville started another long drive, highlighted by a 37-yard pass from Gilday to junior wide receiver Oliver Tarr that put the Longhorns on the 21. On 4th-and-14 at the 25, Gilday threw a long pass that was intercepted by Kearney in the end zone.
There were about 4 1/2 minutes left in the game, and Henderson kept the ball on the ground, with 11 consecutive running plays — 10 of them by Collins. The Warriors picked up four first downs on the drive, and still held possession when the final gun sounded.
“Collins kept his shoulder down well and stayed in bounds well, and he’s going to be a heck of a player, but I think our offensive line took over at the end of the game,” said Brice. “All of them – Logan Goodwin, Matt Jury, Ramsey Tarazi, Zach Blando, Mike Boden, Ryan Schellhammer, they all played their heart out tonight.”
For Unionville, Clark stressed that the season isn’t over.
“We have to keep continue to keep working to get more consistent,” said Clark. “Our kids played with tremendous effort and I’m really proud of that, but we have one more week to work and become a little more consistent. We talked about extending our season [into the district playoffs] and a win tonight would have helped us, but we didn’t get it done so we’ve got to play Week 10 – pick up a win in Week 10 and see what that does for us.
“I thought we played pretty good defense tonight, and I thought we executed well at times on offense. I think we had some kids who grew up from last week [on defense] – we were much more consistent on defense tonight.”
NOTES: Two seniors Brice particularly singled out for praise after Friday’s game were linemen Alex Maher and Sean Hopkins, who were named honorary captains Friday.
“Alex and Sean have shown up every single day to play scout team and to make our varsity team better,” said Brice. “They knew from the beginning of this season that they weren’t going to play on Mondays or on Fridays, and they [still] showed up every day, and we made them honorary captains today and I think the team responded pretty well to that.”
