LOWER GWYNEDD — Avery Hankey didn’t take all the credit for Bonner & Prendergast’s 35-7 win over Archbishop Carroll Friday night at Wissahickon High School.
But there is a reason why the senior running back is the reigning Catholic League rushing champion. He knows how to take over a game.
Hankey gashed Carroll’s defense to the tune of 227 yards on 22 carries and three touchdowns. The yardage is a career high.
The stats are nice, but Hankey cared only about one thing.
“Getting the team win,” he said, “that’s all that matters.”
And, frankly, the Friars (2-1, 1-0) needed a strong showing in their Catholic League divisional opener with the new-and-improved Patriots (2-2, 0-2). Last week’s 36-0 home defeat at the hands of Salesianum was forgettable. The defending PCL Blue Division champs knew they had to make a statement Friday.
“This was Bonner football, this is what I am used to,” said Hankey, the No. 1 running back on last year’s Bonner team that advanced to the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class 4A playoffs. “Last week was tough. It was our first time going against a real good team and we didn’t do well at all. We’ve got a whole new O-line, only one returning lineman, so we got a lot of new guys stepping up. But today, they definitely balled out, they did their thing. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did.”
Hankey’s first score was a 44-yard scamper with 6:29 to play in the second quarter, which extended BP’s advantage to 15-7. When the Friars got a short field to begin the second half courtesy of a Carroll fumble, Hankey went back to work. He darted 10 yards to the end zone to put the Friars up double digits. Hankey concluded his mastery of the Carroll defense with a 26- yard scoring jaunt with nine minutes left in the game.
Hankey heaped praise on the Friars’ offensive line, which includes lone returner Kieran Darren as well as Gabe Mooney, Chaz Ingram and others.
“They worked hard all game. I knew it was going to come together sooner or later,” Hankey said. “But I’m glad it came sooner than later.”
The Friars got off to an inauspicious start. Freshman quarterback Kenjai Gatling, who would complete a 48-yard pass to Jeremiah Coleman and score on a 12-yard run in the second half, threw an interception to Too Jemawhuo, one of the Patriots’ talented defensive backs. Jemawhuo returned the pick 45 yards with 6:14 left in the first quarter for the first score of the night.
But from that point forward, the Friars were in control. All-Delco defensive back Isaiah Session racked up runs of 12, nine, 21 and eight yards on Bonner’s next possession, the last a touchdown. He added the two-point play to give BP an 8-7 lead. Bonner never looked back.
“He is such a reliever,” Hankey said of his running back mate. “I can trust Isaiah and Mick (Johnson, who had 29 yards on two carries). If I go down or if I need a break, I can trust both of them to come behind me and do the same thing I do.”
Session ran seven times for 63 yards. He spent the rest of the game playing shutdown defense.
“Isaiah Session is a very talented runner,” Friars coach Jack Muldoon said. “But he is so, so good on defense and people kind of take him for granted on offense. When teams see Avery out of the game, they think they get a break. Not with Isaiah. And then we mixed in Mick. We don’t really play Avery on defense, so the other two we use them to kind of relieve Avery. They do things that we have specifically for them, but the important thing is they both run well. We hope it kind of becomes a three-headed monster for us.”
Bonner’s defense was relentless. Defensive ends Jalil Hall and Mylachi Williams combined to sack Carroll quarterback Jay Boyd (2-for-12, 14 yards, one interception) five times. The Friars defense recorded 13 negative yardage plays and held the Patriots to 40 yards of offense.
“Much better performance tonight,” Muldoon said. “I was happy. Carroll is big and physical and they have a lot of talented kids. I knew they would come in fired up. But I was happy with the way we responded there after a slow start.”
