Hill School defense strong, but Rams drop opener to Germantown Academy
POTTSTOWN >> The Hill School had a tough assignment in its football season opener Saturday afternoon at Dell Field when it hosted Germantown Academy, a squad with a veteran offense that had rolled up 48 points in its opening win last week.
The Hill held the Patriots to just two field goals and a touchdown, but couldn’t get its offense going consistently in a 12-0 non-league loss. Brian Allen rushed for 148 yards for GA and Tristian Machado passed for 89 yards and a TD pass to Jake Hsu. The Patriots intercepted three passes while allowing only one completion.
Quarterback Hayden Fruhling ran for 60 yards, Anthony Wise for 48 yards and Kayden White for 33 for the Rams.
“I think we’re going to be okay,” said Hill first-year coach Orlando Patterson. “We’ve got to be able to play 48 minutes of football. We have to execute our offense. We have to run our offense.”
Wise ran for 12 yards on the second play from scrimmage, but the Rams were forced to punt and GA put together a drive of 46 yards on 14 plays that ended with a 32-yard field goal by Jared Smith.
Then the Patriots scored their only TD after the Rams went for a first down on a 4th-and-2 play and lost three yards back to their own 25 yard line. Machado’s 18-yard toss to Hsu made it 9-0 with 8:53 remaining in the first half.
After that, the visitors controlled the ball as Allen rushed 27 times on the day and Machado connected on 11 of 19 pass attempts. A 37-yard field goal by Smith completed the scoring four minutes into the second half.
“We think we can run the ball,” said GA coach Matt Dence. “We have five senior linemen. We think we can run the ball with senior running back Brian Allen.”
“I couldn’t feel better. We’re 2-0,”said Allen, who ran for 186 yards and two touchdowns in a 48-18 win over Simon Gratz last week. “I’ve played with these guys from JV through varsity. We’ve been working on five years. We’re just jelling at the right time. They made blocks for me. I just followed.”
After the Patriot touchdown, The Hill advanced from its own 24 to the GA 25, with much of the yardage coming on a 26-yard pass play from Fruhling to Luke Pickard. But the hosts fumbled the ball away on the next play and interceptions by Hsu, Aidan Zakarewicz and Evan Spivey ended the next three possessions for the Rams.
“We couldn’t throw the ball today,” said Patterson. “We had to make decisions on offense.”
The total yardage for the two teams was not all that one-sided, with the Patriots having a 284-181 advantage, but the Rams began their first six possessions on an average of their own 16 yard line.
“We controlled the field position better,” said Allen. “I think that was the game for us. We kept their players on their heels.”
“We have to be tougher,” said Patterson. “We have to be mentally tougher. We have to be physically tougher. Having a post-grad quarterback is tough. We’ve got to be ready to play any one. We are a good football team, not to take anything away from GA. They’re an incredible team.”
“Our kids played really well,” said Dence. “So did theirs. Orlando does a great job. He’s got them going in just a few weeks.”
Germantown Acad. 12
Hill School 0
Germantown Acad. 3 6 3 0 – 12
Hill School 0 0 0 0 – 0
GA-Smith 32 FG
GA-Hsu 18 pass from Machado (kick failed)
GA-Smith 37 FG
TEAM STATISTICS
GA HS
First downs 17 10
Yards rushing 195 155
Passing yards 89 26
Total yards 284 181
Passes C-A-I 11-19-0 1-4-3
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 10-90 7-50
Punts-average 2-26.5 1-23
Individual stats
Rushing
Germantown Academy: Allen 27-148; Dyches 6-43; Spivey 1-6; McGhee 1-3; Machado 2-(-5), Totals 37-195.
Hill School: Fruhling 15-60; Wise 3-48; White 7-33; Winter 5-8; McKeon 2-5; McMullan 2-4; Vennera 1-(-1); Craig 1-(-2); Totals 36-155.
Passing
Germantown Academy: Machado 11-19-89,1 TD.
Hill School: Fruhling 1-4-26, 3 INT’s.
Receiving
Germantown Academy: Donahue 4-27; Hsu 3-23, 1 TD; Spivey 2-38; Allen 2-1; Totals 11-89, 1 TD.
Hill School: Pickard 1-26.
Interceptions: Germantown Academy-Hsu, Zakarewicz, Spivey.
