Park & Co. pave the way as Delco Christian rolls
NEWTOWN SQUARE >> Giho Park learned to play football when he came to this country from South Korea four years ago.
“My friends were going to play so I said I would, too,” Park, a Delaware County Christian School senior, said Saturday after he and the other members of the Knights’ offensive line helped three teammates rush for more than 100 yards each as DC gained 400 yards on the ground in a 34-7 Bicentennial League victory over Calvary Christian in a game played at Episcopal Academy.
“The first couple years I wasn’t that good.”
Park, who has always done well in the classroom and would like to attend Johns Hopkins University to study medicine and train to be a surgeon, and his offensive line mates operated at maximum efficiency Saturday to help Delco Christian (6-1, 4-0) to its fifth consecutive win.
Kouadio Toukou, Jacob Gutkowski, Kyle Winters, Stephen Mitchell and tight ends Jacob Favino and Jack Grim teamed with Park to help Nazim Trammell-Wells gain 142 yards on the ground, Amir Dorsey rush for 128 yards and Dan Poirier add 112 yards to the Knights’ total of 400 yards rushing on 54 carries, the last six of which resulted in short losses by second stringers at the end of the fourth quarter.
“It was very important that we control the line of scrimmage,” DC head coach Drew Pearson said. “We have a lot of respect for Calvary, and we knew they would come here and play hard. But we were physical, the backs ran hard, and we got a good win today.”
Things were a little strange in the opening quarter. Calvary’s Michael Hollinger ran 36 yards to the Delco Christian 13 on the first play from scrimmage, but the Cougars got only seven yards on their next four snaps and lost the ball on downs.
Dorsey took off for 63 yards on DC’s first play, but Victor Pedraza caught him from behind, punched the ball out of his grasp and claimed it. Pedraza fumbled when he was hit, but a teammate recovered.
The Cougars drove from their 27 to the Knights’ 15 before Jalen Mitchell broke up a pass play for the home team on fourth down.
Quarterback Devin Hill appeared to have an 85-yard scoring run for DC, but a penalty put the ball at the Knights’ 45. On the next snap, Trammell-Wells raced 55 yards for the first score of the game.
Dorsey’s interception and 30-yard return to the Calvary 7 set up his scoring run six minutes before halftime.
“We had a great week of practice, and our line did a great job,” Dorsey said. “Their blocking was very good.”
Poirier’s first of two touchdowns came at the end of a 76-yard march that began the second half. He scored four minutes later after DC fell on a muffed kickoff and went 52 yards in nine plays.
“So much of what we do is because of our offensive line,” the junior said.
After a Calvary scoring pass, Dorsey countered late in the third quarter with his second scoring run.
After the game, Pearson talked to his team about understanding that there was room for improvement, setting the tone for another week of hard work in preparation for a key Bicentennial contest against Bristol Saturday night.
“We know what that game will mean for us,” the coach said.
