Lower Merion’s late touchdown drive spells victory vs. Harriton

With a 3-play, 40-yard touchdown drive in the final minute of play, the Lower Merion High School football squad defeated host Harriton, 19-14, Oct. 27.

For Lower Merion (2-8, 1-7), quarterback and captain Marek D’Alonzo scored the winning touchdown on a 5-yard run with 18 seconds left. Earlier in the game, he fired two touchdown passes.

“When he took off for the end zone on the game winning play, I knew he would find a way to get in,” said Lower Merion head coach Bryan Scopelliti. “He has been working toward that moment for four years.

“We are really proud of the way the players battled for a full 48 minutes. We trailed the majority of the second half, but our guys kept playing one play at a time. In the end, we were given our opportunity and we took advantage.

“Our three-play drive with 50 seconds left in the game speaks volumes to our seniors. They seemed to will us to victory. We had no timeouts left, but we kept our cool and executed under pressure.”

Lower Merion trailed 14-12 with 50 seconds left when they got the ball at the Harriton 40 yard line. On the first play of the winning drive, D’Alonzo scrambled for six yards, then a late hit out of bounds penalty moved the ball to the 19. D’Alonzo then hit wide receiver Ian Goodman for a 14-yard completion, the D’Alonzo scored the winning TD from the 5 yard line.

To view D’Alonzo’s winning touchdown run click here

Scopelliti added, “We got great performances from wide receivers Jaden Helton and Ian Goodman (one touchdown catch each). Defensively, Elijah Smith, Will House and John Trainer played their tails off.”

Lower Merion will finish its season Nov. 4 with the 121st annual LM-Radnor game, considered the be the longest continuous public high school football showdown in the United States.

“Over the last two weeks, we learned that it takes a full four quarters to win a game,” said Scopelliti. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the tradition of this great rivalry, but we need to continue to play one play at a time and have fun – this will be the last game for our seniors.”