Porter runs for 4 touchdowns, Souderton rallies past Abington

FRANCONIA >> Brayden Porter sensed the Souderton football team was going to pull off something big in the final seconds of the first half.

“Right before the play, I kind of felt it,” the senior running back said. “We always run it to the boundary – 929 Bucknell – we always run it to the boundary so I knew it was going to be there and it was going to be open. So I trusted my lineman and I cut it upfield and took it.”

Porter took a handoff and found a seam through on the left side before a downfield block from Ben McMackin allowed him to cut inside and dash to the end zone for a 69-yard touchdown with just 7.1 seconds left in the second quarter.

“That’s our bread-and-butter play and I figured let’s get the first down and if he gets more great, I have a timeout left we can maybe throw the ball one more time out and bounds and kick a field goal,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said. “But he took it to the house and changed the game.”

After trailing visiting Abington 14-0 after a quarter, Porter’s long TD run pulled the Indians even with the Galloping Ghosts 14-14 at the break.  Porter ran for two more scores, finishing with four Friday night while Big Red’s defense pitched a shutout in the second half as Souderton earned a 28-14 comeback victory.

“I was just so surprised, they came out and smacked us in the mouth and we haven’t been smacked in the mouth like that like all season basically,” Porter said. “And we weren’t expecting it at all but we rallied them up and said ‘Yo, we need to bounce back from this, this is our Homecoming, we are home, we have not lost yet and we need to come back and just win basically.’”

Porter ran for all four Souderton touchdowns, finishing with 193 yards on 19 carries – posting 101 yards on six rushes in the first half – and added another 40 yards on three catches as the Indians (4-3, 3-1 SOL Continental) bounced back from last week’s loss to rival Quakertown and got back above .500 with an SOL nonconference victory.

“I was really worried that our morale was just going to go down because we were deflated,” Gallagher said. “Honestly, last week when Quakertown had that bad snap on the extra point and then ran it in for two, our team was deflated and I felt like we’ve been deflated until we scored our first touchdown today so we didn’t fold up the tent at 14-0 like you said and we performed, responded and got our mojo back.”

Abington running back Zahmir Lee and quarterback Johnny Dzielawa each ran for more than 100 yards, both with a touchdown as the Ghosts (1-5, 0-4 SOL National) scored on their first two drives for the early 14-0 lead. But Abington came up a yard short on a pair of 4th-and-2s in the second quarter and Souderton converted both stops into points to pull level at intermission.

“Great start, I thought we had a great week of practice offensively and defensively,” Abington coach Kevin Conlin said. “We came out and after last week I just told our kids, ‘Listen, it’s about pride, it’s about fighting.’ Our kids came out and they fought and played as tough as they possibly could, it’s just play here, play there man, it’s a typical high school football game it comes down to a couple play.”

The Indians went ahead for good on the opening series of the third – Porter rushing for a nine-yard TD at 6:57. Abington drove inside the Big Red 30 on the ensuing possession but on 4th-and-6 from the 26 Dzielawa was intercepted by CJ Winters.

The Indians extended the lead to 28-14 by going 81 yards in 10 plays, Porter picking up the last 46 going through the left side of the line on 4th-and-3 and racing to the end zone with 7:56 left.

“It was just hitting, the same play was hitting, we ran the same three plays basically and they just couldn’t stop it,” Porter said. “Our o-linemen were blocking on those three plays so we perfected those three plays, came out and we kept rumbling.”

Dzielawa ran 20 times for 121 yards and was 4-of-15 passing for 39 yards and two interceptions. Lee had 96 yards after six carries in the first quarter and ended the night with 119 yards on 17 carries. Abington, which has lost six straight, hosts Neshaminy in an SOL National contest Friday.

“It’s a tough league but our kids are fighting and that’s all I care about,” Conlin said. “We’re not laying down for anybody and we’ll play Neshaminy as hard as we can and see where the ball goes. It’s our Homecoming and we’ll play Pennsbury as hard as we can, see where it goes and then we’ll have our Senior Night and I know our kids are going to give everything they got for Senior Night.”

Souderton quarterback Nate Hageman was 9-of-14 passing for 94 yards with Danny Dyches catching five passes for 46 yards. The Indians visit Upper Dublin Saturday, Oct. 16 for an 11 a.m. SOL Continental matchup.

Abington took a 7-0 lead over Big Red by starting Friday with an 11-play, 62-yard drive capped by Lee slicing through the middle for an 11-yard touchdown at 6:02 in the first quarter.

The Galloping Ghosts made it 14-0 by going 77 yards on seven plays, the last a one-yard TD run by Dzielawa with 68 seconds left in the opening quarter.

An Indians fumble on 4th-and-5 from the Abington 35 had the Ghosts with the ball at their own 42 and looking to increase their 14-0 lead. But four plays later, Abington gave the ball back when it was held to a yard on 4th-and-2 from the 50.

“Our defense came up big when they needed to,” Gallagher said. “Again, they had a ton running the ball tonight, Abington and you want to call it bend don’t break but they got the 14-0 lead on us and were able to continue to run the ball most of the game and fortunately our defense did come up with the stops when they needed them.”

Souderton needed five plays to go 51 yards and cut its margin in half – Porter avoiding a backfield loss then darting in for a 10-yard score at 8:13 in the second quarter.

The Ghosts used 11 plays to drive 67 yards to the Souderton 13 but on the series’ 12th  play Abington was again held to just a yard on 4th-and-2, giving the Indians the ball back with 48.5 seconds.

After a Porter 11-yard run and Hageman eight-yard completion to Caleb Hageman, Big Red called timeout with 23.7 seconds left. A second-down incompletion made it 3rd-and-2 and the Indians decided to give it to Porter and the senior delivered with his 69-yard TD run to knot things up at 14.

“It was third down, so I wanted to make sure we got the first down and I’m thinking ‘All right let’s get Brayden out in space,’” Gallagher said. “He’s not easy to tackle so you get him out in space and see if one of them can make an open-field tackle on him and honestly, they didn’t. He was the better player at that time.”

The first drive of the second half, Porter converted two third downs on receptions – first for 19 yards on 3rd-and-13 at the Souderton 45, the second on a 24-yard catch on 3rd-and-11 from the Abington 37 – then scored on a nine-yard TD run to cap a 10-play, 73-yard drive at 6:57 in the third.

The following series, Abington was going to go three-and-out but a Souderton personal foul penalty on the Ghosts’ punt kept the drive alive. The visitors got to the Indians 23 but lost three yards on a third-down fumble with Winters making the pick on fourth.

Porter collected his four TD on his 46-yard run to make it 28-14 with 7:56 left in the fourth. Starting at the 50, Abington drove down to the Indians 18 but Dzielawa was intercepted by Jared Zimmerman.

For a moment, Abington seemed to have returned a punt 13 yards for a touchdown after a low, bobbled snap but the Ghosts were flagged for roughing the punter. The Indians kept the ball and ran the clock out.

Souderton 28, Abington 14
Abington (1-6, 0-4) 14 0 0 0 — 14
Souderton (4-3, 3-1) 0 14 7 7 — 28
Scoring

First Quarter
A — Zahmir Lee 11 run (Pat Capone kick), 6:02.
A — Johnny Dzielawa 1 run (Pat Capone kick), 1:08
Second Quarter
S — Brayden Porter 10 run (Rylan Zuk), 8:13.
S — Porter 69 run (Ty Quintois kick) 0:07.1
Third Quarter
S — Porter 9 run (Zuk kick), 6:57.
Third Quarter
S — Porter 46 run (Quintois kick), 7:56.
TEAM STATISTICS
A S
First Downs 16 18
Rushes-Yards 39-243 35-235
Passing Yards 39 94
Total Yards 282 329
Passing 4-15-2 9-14-0
Punts 0 1
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 1-0
Penalties-Yards 3-35 4-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Abington: Johnny Dzielawa 20-121, TD; Zahmir Lee 17-119, TD; Ryan Smith 1-2; Jonah Dalton 1-1.
Souderton: Brayden Porter 19-193, 4 TD; Javier Torres 6-18; Chris Kerns 6-17; Ryan Sadowski 2-9; Nate Hageman 2-(-2).
PASSING
Abington: Johnny Dzielawa 4-15-2, 39.
Souderton: Nate Hageman 9-14-0, 94.
RECEIVING
Abington: Ryan Smith 1-16; Danny Moynihan 1-13; Josh Young 1-7; Jonah Dalton 1-3.
Souderton: Danny Dyches 5-46; Brayden Porter 3-40; Caleb Hageman 1-8.
INTERCEPTIONS
Abington: None.
Souderton: CJ Winters, Jared Zimmerman.