Upper Dublin to lean on running game in 2023

The Upper Dublin football team has had a luxury the last couple of seasons.

The Cardinals won the 2020 District 1-5A championship on the right arm of sophomore quarterback Colin O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan allowed Upper Dublin to enter the 2021 and 2022 seasons knowing they could rely on their signal caller to lead the offense up and down the field every week.

O’Sullivan, who led the team to another district championship last fall, has graduated and is at Rutgers University. Upper Dublin likes its quarterback room, but will turn to its running game in 2023.

“We’re really young and inexperienced at quarterback right now,” Upper Dublin coach Bret Stover said. “Where we are experienced is running back. With Shyne (Roberts) and (others) – we’ve only got seven or eight running backs, but most of those guys have played – that’s where our experience is right now. We bring back two of the five guys up front, who are only juniors.

“Hopefully we are going to be able to run the ball so we don’t have to rely on any of our quarterbacks to win a game early. Hopefully they can be a part of it and not have to do the whole thing. Colin could do the whole thing, Mike Slivka (2019) could do the whole thing, Ryan Stover (2015) could do the whole thing, but they’re not there yet.”

At the top of the running back rotation is Roberts. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior can attack defenses in a variety of ways. His size and strength allow him to power through defenders while his speed allows him to run away from them, like he did with a 39-yard touchdown run against Plymouth Whitemarsh in the district semifinals last season.

Alongside Roberts in the backfield are junior Dominick Paone and sophomore Ronald Shepherd. Paone, who was a first team All-Suburban One League Continental Conference outside linebacker as a sophomore last season, is another battering ram at 6-foot and 195 pounds while Shepherd is a shiftier runner.

“We’ve got Dom Paone, we’ve got a sophomore coming up (Shepherd),” Roberts said, emphasizing how strong the backfield is.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can make things happen out there,” senior receiver Chris Kohlbrenner added.

“Dom and Shyne are kind of the same mold,” Stover said. “The great thing about both of them is they fall forward. They’ll get hit at three yards and they’ll get you four, which I love. Shepherd’s got that ability to go to the house on any play, but he’ll stick his head down and run you over, too. Those three, right there, are special.”

Stover added that senior Martin Campbell will have a big role as a blocking back.

QUARTERBACK COMPETITION

Junior Kevin Etkin, sophomore Jack Frearson and freshman Lawson Tyler are competing for the starting quarterback job.

“One of those three will emerge,” Stover said. “I’m not a big by-committee quarterback person because I think if you have two you have none, but I think this may be something different just until we get going. Especially with the non-league that we have – it’s a brutal beginning for us. It might be good to get multiple guys different sections against different teams.

“All three of those kids can throw the football for us, but I don’t want to put all the game on their shoulders yet. They’ll get to the point where they have to win a game, but… we’re not (there) yet.”

Etkin was the JV quarterback and O’Sullivan’s backup last season. He got some playing time in the second half of games while the Cardinals cruised to most of their 14 wins, so he’s the guy the returning starters are most familiar with.

“During the offseason right after spring sports ended we just went to the field almost every day working on our routes, our timing and everything,” senior receiver Chris Kohlbrenner, a three-sport athlete that also plays basketball and lacrosse, said. “We’ve gotten our chemistry up a lot since last season.”

Frearson quarterbacked the Cardinals freshman team last fall and Tyler led the middle school squad. Both players had their seasons cut short due to injury.

Upper Dublin starts its season with non-league games against Kennett, Central Bucks West and North Penn. The SOL Continental schedule starts Thursday, Sept. 14 against Bensalem.

DEFENSIVE CHANGES

Upper Dublin has a handful of starters back on a defense that is transitioning from longtime defensive coordinator Dave Sowers, now at Hatboro-Horsham, to Ed Wall, the former defensive backs coach and current baseball head coach.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that were in the rotation last year that are coming back,” Kohlbrenner said. “So we’ve got a lot of experience back there.”

“On defense,” Roberts added, “we’re going to be solid.”

The defense has experience in the secondary with Kohlbrenner, at linebacker with Roberts, Paone and junior Ryan O’Sullivan and on the line with sophomore Justin Waugh, who is the most experienced player on the front four.

“(Defense) is definitely going to be our strength to start the season,” Stover said.

“Chris (Kohlbrenner) has been a great leader for us as far as off the field stuff goes. He gets it. Four-year starter at safety. He’s been all-conference. He really should have been the last two years – he was a second-team two years ago. He’s still all-conference and runs the back end.”

To get even better for his final high school season, Kohlbrenner put in plenty of work during the offseason.

“The secondary, we worked on a lot of man-press and flipping our hips and just being ready to go for the season,” Kohlbrenner said of his offseason program, which also included improving footwork and technique.

Roberts focused on his hands, footwork and following the quarterbacks eyes while preparing for his defensive role this year.