Delco Christian doesn’t let an off track slow it down

PHILADELPHIA >> The scoreboard didn’t show it — or anything, really — but the Delco Christian Knights were dominant Saturday.

Playing Strawberry Mansion in nonleague play at Chalmers Park in North Philadelphia, the Knights ignored the lack of a scoreboard, a chain gang that ranged between confused and disinterested and a patchy field to earn a comfortable 47-25 victory.

Delco Christian (2-1) fell behind, 7-0, quickly, but scored four straight touchdowns to go into the half up, 27-7. It didn’t punt once. It led, 41-7, early in the fourth quarter before coach Drew Pearson emptied his bench and things started getting sloppy.

Between the blazing sun, bare-bones field and rather interesting ambiance, the Knights kept their focus. They didn’t complain. They manufactured energy. The results showed.

“We’re just going to come out and play the way that we play,” Pearson said. “I felt like our kids came out, there were some things that we did really well and there were some things that we can still improve upon — with technique. But I thought it was really fun, I was proud of our guys for finishing.”

The players barely seemed to notice their surroundings. It was just football to them.

“Coach kept us focused,” quarterback Devin Hill said. “We don’t really worry about what the field is. It’s football.”

After falling into that 7-0 hole, Hill dug the Knights out, throwing three touchdowns on play-action passes in four possessions — passes of 30 and 5 yards to Dan Poirier and a 20-yard floater to Jack Grim. Sandwiched in between those was Amir Dorsey’s 7-yard scamper, which came after Delco Christian was set up on a short field.

In the second half, Nazim Trammell-Wells hit from 10 yards out and Hill rolled in from 5 yards away to put the game out of reach. In all, the Knights ran for 288 yards. No individual player even reached 90 yards rushing — Dorsey led with 89.

That’s exactly how Pearson wants it.

“It’s a team,” he said. “Everything that we do is a team effort.”

However, he did single out Hill. The junior signal caller completed all four of his passes for 67 yards and ran for another 34.

“I thought Devin did a great job, just executing,” Pearson said. “To see him get three touchdown passes in the first half was fun. To see him run for another, he adds another element for us. I was proud of him for doing that.”

Like a good quarterback is supposed to, Hill gave the credit to the guys up front.

“It was our line,” he said. “My line did an amazing job.”

Strawberry Mansion, via some strong play from quarterback Basil Wilson (295 total yards), cut it to 41-19 before freshman Elijah Thomas returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. He was just one of many different Knights to contribute Saturday.

Trammell-Wells rushed for 83 yards, Poirier had 49 and those two touchdown receptions. Delco Christian had 355 yards of total offense.

“We have a lot of different (options),” Dorsey said. “They take a lot of different reps.”

The Knights will figure to get more of that when they open Bicentennial League play Friday afternoon at Valley Forge Military Academy. Last year, the Knights made the state tournament — but didn’t capture the outright league crown.
Delco Christian wants to rectify that in 2015.

“It’s kind of a new season for us, (our) goal is to win the BAL,” Pearson said. “Our goal is to win it outright and our goal is to compete in districts.”