Abington has plenty to build on after opener
ABINGTON >> As the Abington football team left the grass of Schwarzman Stadium on Friday night, it had a lot to like about where it was.
Yes, the Galloping Ghosts had been on the losing side of a 13-6 contest with visiting Central Bucks South, but it was the way they played the entire 48 minutes that inspired that confidence. Certainly there are areas the Ghosts will need to hone and work on throughout the coming week, but they believe they are right there.
Make no mistake, CB South deserved to win, playing a much cleaner game and exploiting the areas where it had advantages. But Abington was right there the whole time.
“That was something new,” Ghosts senior receiver/safety George Reid said. “Last year we didn’t have it and you could tell the difference between who was in and out. This team is willing to fight, we wanted to win the first game because it meant a lot.”
Abington’s defense played well, especially in the first half but the Titans were able to author a couple of long drives and had the explosive plays that help determine an outcome. South’s Tyler Watson ran for 112 yards and a score, quarterback Jack Johns ran for 47 yards, the game’s opening TD and threw for 62 yards and second QB Sam Thompson churned up 87 yards on the ground.
The Ghosts were paced by 147 yards on the ground from Darryl Davis-McNeal, 65 of those coming on his scoring run and 89 yards on six grabs by Reid.
Johns put the Titans on the board first when he ripped off a 43-yard run after being flushed from the pocket. That play came one snap after Abington was flagged for a late hit out of bounds, giving the Titans 15 yards and a free first down.
“We have a ton of great athletes on this team, if we can get the little mistakes cleaned up and make better decisions across the team, we’ll start getting wins,” senior tight end/defensive end Joe O’Brien said. “We had a couple mental lapses. We have to clean up the mental mistakes.”
Abington was flagged eight times for 83 yards including a few holding calls that bogged down the offense. First-year Ghosts head coach Kevin Conlin credited CB South’s defensive front and linebackers for recognizing the Abington offensive line is still coming together and attacking it.
With the front still building and the Ghosts breaking in a new quarterback in junior Connor Reed, it took time for the offense to find much success. But, coming out of the halftime break, the Ghosts were moving the ball very well until Reed threw an interception in the endzone on a great play by Tom McLaughlin.
“We had a good drive going and I made a bad call, so that’s on me, it was a bad decision,” Conlin said. “I’ll take that one.”
Reed threw three picks in total and looked a little nervous early on, something Reid the receiver said he talked to the quarterback about. Reid, who is committed to Temple, said he even still gets nervous before games and told the new quarterback just to calm down and remember it’s just a game.
Likewiese, O’Brien said he has confidence in his quarterback and the offense in general once they erase the self-inflicted setbacks.
“He was in there being competitive and I like that about him,” O’Brien said. “We just need to make cleaner decisions and do it quicker.”
Conlin also noted the way CB South took away deep throws but felt like his team adjusted well out of the break with Reid running routes under the coverage to take what was there. His goal now is to get the offense moving more downhill.
After the endzone interception ended Abington’s first drive of the second half, the Titans went 80 yards, all on the ground, to take a two-score lead when Watson scored on a seven-yard run. What happened next was a big part of why the Ghosts left the field with confidence.
On the first snap of the following drive, McNeal-Davis broke into the secondary and the junior was off like a blur, racing 65 yards down the field to get Abington and its fans right back into it.
“We have to come right back at them,” Reid said. “We can’t let one bad play define us. I had a couple bad passes to me, but you have to keep fighting through it and not let bad plays get into your head. We just have to work with the QBs, put in some work with the O-line and we’ll be fine.”
Both Reid and O’Brien said they were content with how the defense played overall. There were a few tackles that were missed and other small things, but nothing glaring. Lineman Barry Johnson and linebacker Shakur Williams both had strong games on the defensive side while Colin Buetefur recovered a fumble from the defensive line.
“I feel like we’re right there, we just have to make a play or two,” Conlin said. “We have to stop trying to force some balls, that kind of hurt us.”
CB SOUTH 7 0 6 0 – 13
Abington 0 0 6 0 – 6
First Quarter
CBS – Jack Johns 43 run (Owen Rhydderch kick) 4:18
Third Quarter
CBS – Tyler Watson 7 run (kick blocked) 4;20
A – Darryl Davis-McNeal 65 run (kick failed) 4:08
Team Statistics
CBS A
First Downs 20 10
Rushes-Yards 51-303 29-142
Passing 7-18-0-0 7-19-0-3
Passing Yards 62 90
Total Yards 365 232
Punts 2-17.5 4-31.3
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 1-0
Penalties-Yards 5-40 8-83
Individual Statistics
Rushing: CBS- Tyler Watson 20-112, Sam Thompson 17-87, Nate Norris 4-25, Jack Johns 2-47, John McSweeney 8-32; A- Darryl Davis-McNeal 19-147, Connor Reed 8-(-3), Jeremiah Scott 1-(-3), Taji Redd 1-1
Passing: CBS- Thompson 0-2-0-0-0, Johns 7-16-62-0-0; A- Reed 7-19-90-0-3
Receiving: CBS- Casey Sloms 1-11, Cole Braccio 3-37, Jack Gardy 1-11, Nate Norris 1-1, Matt Norris 1-2; A- George Reid 6-89, Isaiah Cruz 1-1
Interceptions: CBS- Tyler Watson, Tom McLaughlin, Matt Tobey
