Glen Mills defense turns it up to shut down Chester

THORNBURY >> It wasn’t pretty, in fact it was pretty ugly at times. But the Glen Mills-Chester game Friday night at Jack Pearson Stadium was a throwback to the rugged Del Val days of old.

The Battlin’ Bulls and Clippers pounded each other defensively, but Glen Mills ultimately pulled away for a convincing 22-0 victory by wearing down Chester on both sides of the ball. While the game had its share of miscues and penalties, Bulls coach Kevin Owens was happy to nail down a tough win in the league opener over a quality opponent.

“Our defense played the kind of football that we pride ourselves on,” Owens said. “They did a great job playing the run and covering the receivers. Chester had some good, talented young men and some running backs that could run the football, but our defense came to play tonight. They had a goal to shut (Chester) out and that’s exactly what happened.”

With lead running back Quadir Gibson unable to play due to injury, Glen Mills quarterback Tarik Bey got a chance to showcase his skills controlling the game. The junior signal-caller scrambled and leapt into the end zone for a 12-yard scoring run in the second quarter before Quadir Bollings-Simmons (71 yards) punched in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 Bulls’ lead.

“He’s growing and starting to mature and understand the game a little better. I think we’ll see him improve more and more as the year goes on,” said Owens, whose team improved to 2-3. “Quadir Gibson couldn’t play tonight, so we had to put out some other guys who stepped in, worked hard for us, and did a great job.”

Bey was happy to be a part of the crew picking up some of the offensive slack for Gibson, who is an absolute workhorse for the Bulls.

“I had trust in my o-line and trust in my receivers, and we just had to go out there and execute,” said Bey. “We knew (Gibson) was going to be out in the beginning of the week, so we knew we just had to go out, work hard at practice, and execute.”

Bey was not finished after his scoring run. The quarterback hit Ka-Ron Thomas with a beautiful 30-yard pass for another Bulls touchdown. After Bollings-Simmons again hammered home the two-point conversion, the Glen Mills lead was a very comfortable 16-0.

“In practice (Thomas) was my go-to receiver and I knew if I put it up to him, he could make a play,” said Bey.

It was from this point that the impressive Bulls’ defense completely took over. The unit swarmed the Clippers offense and prevented Chester from doing any significant damage on the ground. For the game, the Bulls limited the Clippers to 88 yards on 35 attempts.

Without the benefit of being able to balance its aerial attack with a running game, Chester struggled to move the ball. Jamal Harden, Nahiem Davis, Raysonno Williams, Faheem Parker were all in on sacks for Glen Mills, which terrorized Clippers quarterbacks Tahree Fuller-Bryan and Lahneir McBride all night.

Trevien Gaddis (51 yards) added a touchdown with a five-yard run in the fourth quarter to give Glen Mills further breathing room.

Despite the loss, the Clippers (2-4, 0-1) displayed some prowess on both sides of the ball. Fuller-Bryan showed a terrific arm, running backs Cahron Wilmore and Devan Freeman each displayed some burst, and McBride was dangerous whenever the ball was in his hands. Even with those legitimate weapons, the Bulls’ defense was just too overpowering.