Abington rallies behind Dzielawa, tops CB West
ABINGTON >> Abington football coach Kevin Conlin wanted to see how his team would respond.
After a wire-to-wire win over Central Bucks South in the season opener, it was a much different start against Central Bucks West on Friday night. A gashing opening drive by the Bucks and a gaffe by the Ghosts spotted the visitors a two-score lead and it was up to Abington to respond.
Shaking off the first quarter, Abington surged back then held on late to top the Bucks 28-20 at Schwarzman Stadium and move to 2-0 on the season.
“We learned a lesson tonight that no matter who you are or what you are, in this league, you better bring it,” Conlin said. “We always say bring your lunch pail, because you’re going to work and tonight, I don’t think we brought our lunch pail. Maybe we got caught up reading about the scores last week and it showed.”
West, which never led in last week’s loss to Pennridge, got off to a much better start against the Ghosts. The Bucks marched 63 yards on the opening drive of the game to take their first lead of the season with the final 35 coming on a strong run by emerging standout sophomore Eli Boehm.
Boehm, who ran a kick back last week, didn’t get that chance on special teams but he did his work on the field by rushing for 134 yards on 17 carries.
“He’s tough, man. He’s fearless, he has great vision and tremendous burst out of his cuts,” Bucks coach Rob Rowan said. “I think he knows now after two weeks playing a team like Pennridge and a team like Abington where he’s been a standout player, he knows he belongs.”
Abington’s first offensive series ended in a punt, with a fumbled snap helping bring it to a halt. The Ghosts’ second drive went even worse, with a botched snap first causing a 21-yard loss before a second turned into a fumble that West’s Jackson Spradlin recovered on the Ghosts’ 15.
Five plays later, West freshman quarterback Ganz Cooper scored from three yards out and the Ghosts trailed 13-0.
“I was talking to my assistant coaches the other day and I said ‘I don’t know what kind of character our team has,’” Conlin said. “Last year, I knew those guys were going to come back. With this group, I didn’t know if we’d have that chance anytime soon. After this league, a lot of kids were thinking it was going to be easy and it’s not.”
Abington regained some control on its next drive, when senior Oreck Frazier capped the series with a 21-yard scoring run. Ghosts senior lineman Billy Everitt felt that play was a turning point and one that settled his team down.
“We talked about it together, reminded everybody to get their heads back in it, calm down and we could come back,” Everitt, who plays offense and defense, said. “We were only down six points at the half, so there was no reason for anybody to have their heads down.”
JOHNNY ON THE SPOT
Abington started 10 seniors on offense Friday night.
The sole non-senior in the lineup was the guy under center. When things started to go wrong, Johnny Dzielawa not only kept them from getting worse but got things going back in the right direction.
By the end of the night, the junior quarterback had more than done his part in the win, rushing for the go-ahead score and connecting with senior Caleb Baker on a pair of TD passes.
“We just had to do what we know how to do,” Dzielawa said. “I was making mistakes and missing snaps but we just needed to come out in the second half and start executing.”
Abington got the ball to start the second half and needed just two plays to take the lead. Dzielawa ripped off a 58-yard run down the left side of the field for a touchdown and Antonio Ditri’s extra point made it 14-13 Ghosts with 11:14 left in the third.
“I had a great block by Oreck Frazier, he sealed it and just did everything perfect,” Dzielawa said. “He just destroyed the guy and made a huge hole for me.”
Dzielawa’s final rushing total of 62 yards was very deceptive with the early bad snaps and a couple late losses behind the line trying to kill clock cutting into his total. While not quite the athlete last year’s starter Tamir Berthau is, the junior showed a nice knack for making big plays.
On a key fourth quarter drive, he made three very important plays that led to it ending in seven points. The first came off another snap miscue, with Dzielawa scooping up the loose ball and scrambling his way forward for 11 yards and a first down.
Facing a 4th-and-10, he found Baker for 12 yards, again moving the sticks in a play Rowan noted as a game-changer. Finally, he went back to Baker, tossing one up that the senior wideout soared above two defenders to muscle it in for a six-yard score.
“Ten starts on offense are seniors, he’s the one junior and he was the calming influence,” Conlin said. “He was just fantastic.”
Dzielawa was sharp throwing the ball, going 11-of-13 for 85 yards and two scores.
“We knew we had all the time in the world to score and we knew we could do it,” Dzielawa said. “We trusted in each other that we could go down the field, score and make the comeback.”
In the opener, it was Frazier who paved the way for Abington offensively. Against the Bucks, it was Dzielawa. The Ghosts have plenty of weapons like Baker, Robert Bell, Javon Neely and Jonah Dalton and a big, experienced line up front.
While the road doesn’t get any easier with games against Neshaminy, Pennsbury and Pennridge coming up, Abington isn’t going to make it easy on any of them either.
“It’s going to be a great lesson for everybody,” Everitt said. “Johnny came out, he showed us last week and again tonight he has what it takes to be a great quarterback. I think we have a really good offense.”
PUSHING ON
West isn’t a team that settles for moral victories, so Friday’s result was one it took to heart.
However, the Bucks also did plenty of things well, including a much better start than last week, some tough running and a defensive effort that played to the final snap. Spradlin, Jack Fileppo and Casey Smith all made some timely plays for West.
“Look at our offensive unit, we have eight underclassmen and three seniors starting,” Rowan said. “There are plenty of guys getting their first varsity starts and for those guys to know ‘I’ve got it, I belong on this field with the best teams in the league right now,’ that’s a very important thing.”
ABINGTON 28, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 20
ABINGTON 0 7 14 7 – 28
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 13 0 0 7 – 20
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
CBW – Eli Boehm 35 run (kick miss) 9:18
CBW – Ganz Cooper 3 run (Luke Shank kick) 1:02
2nd Quarter
A – Oreck Frazier 21 run (Antonio Ditri kick) 10:38
3rd Quarter
A – Johnny Dzielawa 58 run (Ditri kick) 11:14
A – Dzielawa 16 pass to Caleb Baker (Ditri kick) 5:34
4th Quarter
A – Dzielawa 6 pass to Baker (Ditri kick) 5:10
CBW – Donte Mancini 4 run (Shank kick) 2:23
Team Stats
A CBW
First downs 20 11
Rushes-Yards 36-180 40-176
Passing 11-13-2-0 3-4-0-0
Passing Yards 85 12
Total Yards 265 188
Penalties 2-20 3-28
Fumbles-Lost 4-1 0-0
Individual Stats
Rushing: A – Oreck Frazier 9-70, Johnny Dzielawa 17-62, Robert Bell 10-48; CBW – Eli Boehm 18-134, Donte Mancini 10-46, Jack Wierzbowski 8-0, Ganz Cooper 4-(-4)
Passing: A – Dzielawa 11-13-2-0-85; CBW – Cooper 3-4-0-0-12
Receiving: A – Javon Neely 3-7, Caleb Baker 5-68, Khaliq Henry 1-5, Jonah Dalton 1-5; CBW – Boehm 1-6, Trey Laatsch 1-2, Wierzbowski 1-4
