Little things add up as Haverford School shuts down Germantown Academy

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HAVERFORD — When four teams entered last weekend’s Inter-Ac openers unbeaten, it was fair to wonder how five weeks of league play would separate them. Perhaps, in that month-long gauntlet, something small, something largely overlooked, would make the difference.

Saturday afternoon, Haverford School got all the big things right in a 38-7 walloping of Germantown Academy. The Fords got a near flawless performance from quarterback Dante Perri, three rushing touchdowns from Mekhi Ajose-Williamson and the team piled up 200 yards on the ground.

But crucial to the running-clock ending was a pair of early, decidedly unsexy, factors: Run defense and field position.

The first was spearheaded by Bill Brosko. The sophomore lineman, an All-Delco wrestler at Marple Newtown last year, had 2.5 tackles for loss on the first two GA series. He had a hand in back-to-back sacks, the latter with Matt Carlino, to force the second of GA’s six punts, a shutdown defensive possession after the Fords had taken a lead.

“As long as we set the tone early, the offense will build off of it,” Brosko said. “The defense, we kept off of it. As long as we keep doing that every game … we’ll be fine. We build off of that energy.”

GA (4-2 overall, 0-2 Inter-Ac) ran 27 times for just 69 yards. Quarterback Jordan Longino was sacked four times, and he missed most of the second quarter after getting stung on a hard hit.

The Fords (4-3, 1-1) inflicted such defensive damage by winning the field-position battle. Haverford’s average starting field position in the first half was its 48. GA starting at its 23, on average. Haverford kicker Chris Clark booted four touchbacks, a 41-yard punt and a 39-yard field goal.

The kicking game also yielded the Fords’ third score, a 78-yard punt return by Jake Spencer. He got to the end zone thanks to a pair of vicious blocks, first by Ben Murphy then Brosko, to seal the edge

“It makes it easier,’ Brosko said. “It pins them down deep. It makes them worry what they’re going to do. They have to think about field position and we build off of that.”

With the edge in the kicking game, GA didn’t penetrate the Fords’ half of the field until the final play of the first half, by which point it trailed 28-0. By the time the Patriots touched the ball in the second half, Haverford had run three plays to score again, culminating in Ajose-Williamson’s third TD.

“We’re used to getting the ball at the 40-plus yard-line,” said GA’s Lacey Snowden, who filled in for Longino. “Backing us up that extra 20, 30 yards is a little hard, but we’ve got to work harder.”

Those phases of the game down pat, the Fords offense flourished. Perri was phenomenal, completing 13 of 15 passes for 131 yards. He hooked up with seven receivers, including six completions to Spencer for 36 yards. Perri adroitly scrambled out of the pocket in the final minute of the first half and found Jack Cloran tip-toeing the front corner of the end zone for a 13-yard score.

Most importantly, Perri managed the game, his third straight without an interception. It’s huge growth from the opener against Northeast when he accounted for six turnovers.

“The first couple of weeks, I know it was hard to for him,” Ajose-Williamson said. “And soon as he got back to film, got back into practice, worked on his craft, he keeps improving. We don’t have any more jokes about picks anymore because he hasn’t thrown one since I don’t know when.”

Daiyaan Hawkins carried seven times for 48 yards as the Fords’ speed-back option. Ajose-Williamson punished the Patriots between the tackles. He dove in from the one on the Fords’ first possession, added a 23-yard score on a brilliant delayed draw on third-and-15 in the second quarter and scored from 11 yards in the third.

“We knew they would watch for our short passes, our swings,” he said. “So we developed that draw, and once we saw that hole and all that field, I just ran to it, and we ended up scoring.”

Longino would return to the game and went 13-for-23 through the air for 149 yards, including a 13-yard scoring strike to Snowden in the third quarter.

Matthew De George

Matthew De George
Matthew De George is the Asst. Sports Editor and the lead Union writer for The Daily Times.

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