Episcopal Academy’s first loss is hard to take

NEWTOWN TWP. >> When it was over, the only thing that Episcopal Academy’s Mike McFillin and DeeWil Barlee could do was shake their heads.

A 13-10 defeat to Blair (N.J.) Academy Saturday afternoon was not what the Churchmen had in mind. It was a game they could have — probably should’ve — won.

“It’s humbling,” said McFillin, a two-way senior lineman and co-captain. “We thought we were up here, but we’ve got to work for it. We’ve got to keep on trending upwards, keep on working.”

Missed opportunities and mistakes hindered the Churchmen (3-1), who have one more nonleague game  — next Saturday night at Salesianum (Del.) — before the Inter-Ac League season begins.

“I didn’t think they were all that good, I just think they had a good game plan,” Barlee, a junior running back, said of the Blair defense, which limited the Churchmen to 149 yards of total offense. “We just came up short.”

Episcopal held a 7-0 lead at halftime after a two-yard touchdown run by Barlee with 17 seconds to play in the second quarter. The 10-play, 60-yard drive was a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish performance by the Episcopal offense.

“Offensively, we’re going to keep on going the way we’ve been going. We just didn’t execute today,” said Barlee, who ran for 94 yards on 24 carries. He also made five catches for 27. “We had a good game plan and our offensive line did what they could.”

Blair used 12 plays in the third quarter to score its first touchdown, a two-yard sneak by quarterback Thomas Jenkins. This transpired after a controversial non-fumble call cost the Churchmen six points. Senior linebacker Milt Mamula stripped Jenkins at the line of scrimmage and took off the other way to the end zone. However, the officials ruled Jenkins down before the ball came loose.

The officials appeared to be wrong.

“We had some bad luck. We had a player running down the field with the ball, but they said they blew the whistle,” Episcopal coach Todd Fairlie said. “It came about 20 yards late and we didn’t really get an explanation about what happened. Then they go down and they score to tie the game.”

Fairlie doesn’t like to use excuses, but he has a point. Episcopal would have been on its way to a 4-0 start, if not for the questionable ruling by the officials. Then, on the first play from scrimmage in the fourth quarter, Blair dug into its bag of tricks to go ahead on the scoreboard. A halfback pass from Taheem Crocker to Cody Romano went for 62 yards.

“We let someone get behind us on a play that shouldn’t happen in our program,” Fairlie said. “There’s no excuses for that.”

Let it be known, however, that Blair (3-0) needed a fumble that wasn’t and a trick play to defeat Episcopal.

“It’s tough to give up a play like that,” Barlee said. “I’m not going to blame a guy for missing a job, you know? It happens.”

After giving up the go-ahead score, Episcopal drove to the Blair five-yard line but a sack of rookie quarterback Maurcus McDaniel prompted Fairlie to send in his kicking unit. James Silvi drilled a 33-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 13-10 with seven minutes to go.

EA’s defense forced Blair to punt twice deep inside its territory in the fourth quarter — Mamula, Ryan McCann and Jack Purcell were among the standouts all day — but the Churchmen couldn’t capitalize. A pass from McDaniel to Colin Phillips in the end zone was broken up by Blair safety Willie Kaiser on fourth down.

Blair punted once more with six seconds left. Episcopal blitz 11 men to try and block it, but Blair was able to get the ball off as time expired.

There were battle wounds. After the game lineman Ryan Rockenbach received treatment for a busted nose. Temple-bound lineman Adam Klein was also banged up.

“I’m always proud of the offensive and defensive lines, no matter what the score is,” McFIllin said. “We had people like Paul McLaughlin stepping up for Ryan Rockenbach. Rockenbach may have broken his nose, but he kept on playing. Adam Klein gets hurt, but doesn’t say a word, he just keeps on playing.”

It’s those examples of toughness that will keep the Churchmen marching toward their ultimate goal of winning an Inter-Ac League title.

“That’s what we’re looking for in a culture. We want a gritty culture and those are gritty kids,” Fairlie said. “They don’t care what’s going on, they just show up and grind. You can throw whatever you want at them and they’re just going to take it in stride and keep fighting. They’re just a bunch of positive, good kids. I couldn’t be happier with them. I think they’re going to come back to win us a lot of games.”