Football: ‘Special’ Ellis steers Upper Darby past Penncrest

MIDDLETOWN — Penncrest and Upper Darby put on a show as the Central League foes went toe-to-toe Friday night.

The Royals ultimately edged the Lions 35-27, but it was a back-and-forth battle that featured many wild swings of emotion and a dynamic performance from Upper Darby quarterback Montez Ellis.

Ellis finished the game with 284 yards on 19 carries and four touchdowns. It was just the type of performance the Royals (1-2, 1-1 Central) needed against a very tough Penncrest squad.

“We knew it was going to be a good fight,” Ellis said. “We never expect a game to be easy. We always say the hardest thing to do is win a football game. I was trying my best as a captain and a leader of the team to help the team.”

Ellis was quick to note that he could not have performed like he did without an offensive line of Justin Batemen, CJ Hassan, Ahmad Dixon, Tommy Wetling and Jake Crowding. That was music to the ears of coach Dave Barr.

“We showed some resilience, which was good, but Penncrest did some things offensively that gave us some trouble and that’s a credit to their coaching staff and players,” Barr said. “(Ellis) is our guy, the offense runs through him. There aren’t a whole lot of guys who can make something out of nothing and he just seems to be able to do that. The offensive line played their butts off and did well. Montez was special tonight.”

Upper Darby took an early lead when Andre Henneghan ran the opening kickoff back 89 yards for a touchdown. It would mark the beginning of a heavyweight fight.

Ellis added a 49-yard scoring run, but the Lions were equally as effective in the first half. Ethan Ryan scored a rushing touchdown, and quarterback Sean O’Donnell hit Matt Ferry with a touchdown pass to have the game knotted at 14-14 entering halftime.

The teams continued to trade blows in the second half, but Ellis was nearly unstoppable, adding three touchdowns. Kamar Perlote had two sacks to help lead the Upper Darby defense as well.

O’Donnell was great at quarterback, passing for 108 yards and rushing for 89. Asher Wynne (100 yards rushing), Ferry (115 total yards) and Ryan (50 yards rushing) were all strong and reached the end zone.

“We were really impressed with their fight. My message to them is that we have a big rock in front of us, but we’re swinging a hammer. It’s going to break, but we gotta keep swinging,” Penncrest coach Paul Graham said. “When we do the right things, we’re playing some great football. When we get things cleaned up, we feel like we can be a heck of a football team.”

With 10:02 left in the game, kicker Gavin Wray hit a 28-yard field goal that temporarily gave the Lions a 30-28 lead, but a penalty on Upper Darby gave the ball to Penncrest inside the Royals’ 10-yard line and a good chance to reach paydirt, A fumble, however, thwarted those plans, and Upper Darby marched down the field for another Ellis touchdown.

With the way that the Royals were running the ball, Graham knew he needed to try and go for the touchdown.

“With a first down inside the 10-yard line and with the way the game went, we felt like if we could score and get a two-point conversion to go up seven that could have been the difference we needed in the game. It was a no-brainer,” said Graham, who also complimented O’Donnell’s effort. “Sean is so tough, he’s a competitor, he gets hit a lot, but he’s a tough customer and he gets up every time. He sets an example for all of the young guys and shows them that’s what it’s going to take. We couldn’t ask for anything more from a quarterback.”