Brian Dresnin leads Plymouth Whitemarsh’s rushing attack against Upper Moreland
WHITEMARSH >> It didn’t take long for Plymouth Whitemarsh fullback Brian Dresnin to make an impact in the Colonials 28-6 Suburban One League American Conference win over Upper Moreland Friday night.
The senior gained 23 yards on his first carry of the game and had 73 yards and a touchdown on five attempts on the PW’s opening drive.
“Going into every game we expect to dominate,” Dresnin, who had 115 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter, said. “Upper Moreland was a good team. They gave us probably our best competition of the year so far. Going into the game we had good energy and we always expect to come out and dominate.”
Dresnin finished the game with 181 yards and two scores on 22 attempts.
Senior running back Michael Paciello added 12 carries, 104 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
As a team, the Colonials (5-0, 2-0 SOL American) ran the ball 43 times for 304 yards.
“The o-line blocked amazing tonight,” Dresnin said. “Coach (Dan) Chang called great plays. He put me in a position to make plays. Our quarterback Larry (McLaughlin) made great reads. I just think overall we had good energy tonight.”
“The offensive line is getting better and better,” Chang said. “Upper Moreland did a great job mixing it up and giving us some things to think about. I’m just proud of our guys up front, keeping their cool, knowing what they have to do. We have some guys who can make some plays in the backfield. I’m happy with how they’re running the ball.”
McLaughlin made the correct decisions all game in the triple option attack to keep Upper Moreland’s defense guessing. He handed to Dresnin when there was space up the middle and he flipped to Paciello when there was room around the outside.
“You can definitely tell (when defenses get frustrated) because some of their guys will start to go down and we also run no-huddle,” Dresnin said. “We’re constantly driving down the field and we don’t give the other defense any breaks. It’s hard for them to adjust to no-huddle, so they’ll start going down, start yelling at each other.”
“It’s hard (to stop PW’s rushing attack),” Upper Moreland coach CJ Szydlik said, “especially when you’re out-manned, obviously they have some big guys up front. The fullback is on top of you so fast. They do a good job of checking at the line and making sure when you’re going to be in certain things they will run certain plays. If you don’t have big enough guys to push them off, it’s hard. We just have to keep working. We won’t see anything like that again. We’ll be all right.”
Almost a shutout
Once again the Plymouth Whitemarsh defense was close to recording a shutout.
The Golden Bears (3-2, 0-2 SOL American) scored on the final play of the game when quarterback Casey Aidain hit running back Cameryn Jackson for a 35-yard touchdown as time expired.
“Every game right at the end,” Chang joked about missing the shutout. “Our ones haven’t gotten scored on in a couple games now. We’re happy with how we’re playing on ‘D’ and they did some nice things on ‘O’ as well. We have to keep doing the little things right — tackling, getting off blocks — and we’ll be OK.”
Jackson gained 57 yards on his first two carries of the game, but that drive ended with a failed 4th down attempt at PW’s 26-yard line. After his first two carries, Jackson totaled 22 yards on 11 attempts.
PW’s defense made it a priority to stop Upper Moreland wide receiver Jahaire Johnson. The Colonials doubled him most of the game, with one cornerback pressing him and another 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. Johnson finished with one catch — a 41-yard jump ball — and two jet sweeps for 11 rushing yards.
“(Johnson) is really good,” Chang said. “They tried to get him the ball in a couple different ways. We wanted to make them beat us with something other than their best guy. I think Paul Borusiweicz, our defensive coordinator, did a great job game-planning for him and our guys executed well. He still had a great, unbelievable catch on that long ball. He’s an athlete, definitely.”
“He’s been a little hobbled with some things like everybody is this time of year,” Szydlik said of his star wide receiver. “He got cramps again there at the end which obviously takes away a huge weapon for us. We just have to work on other things. (PW) put two guys out there, which most teams should. We just have to block the other guys. It’s as simple as it sounds, we just have to do a better job that way.”
Eyes on next week
After the tough loss, Upper Moreland shifts its focus to Hatboro-Horsham.
“We’ll be better from (the loss),” Szydlik said. “We just have to take our lumps now and re-group and figure ourselves out. The best thing for us is we have Hatboro this week, which is a big deal for us. We’ll rally together. We’ll be all right. Our young kids have to grow up fast. No other way than getting thrown into the fire.”
