Plymouth Whitemarsh offense comes to life in win over Tennent

WARMINSTER >> As soon as Plymouth-Whitemarsh wide receiver Phil Taormina beat his man in single coverage down the right sideline, he knew what was coming.

“Aiden, I trust him,” Taormina said of Colonials quarterback Aiden O’Brien. “If I’m open, I know he’s gonna find me. Shout out to him because he throws the ball when he needs to throw it. And it’s a perfect ball.”

Taormina gathered in O’Brien’s perfect strike in stride, hauling in the 23-yard touchdown pass to put PW ahead 6-0 after a sluggish start Friday night. The Colonials would go on to two more scores in the first half, including another O’Brien-to-Taormina connection, and pulled away to a 35-14 victory over William Tennent in a Suburban One League American Conference contest.

“We didn’t play our best game. We had a lot of early mistakes. But we came out with the win so you can’t complain,” said Taormina, who caught three passes for 47 yards and a pair of scores.

PW raised its record to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the SOL American. A young William Tennent squad is now 0-7 on the season and 0-4 in the SOL American.

A scary moment came in the second quarter, when the Panthers’ Stephen Cosenza was injured and taken off the field on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital by ambulance. The team got tremendous news later in the evening though, when they were told Cosenza had feeling and movement in all of his limbs.

The Colonials punted on their first series but then scored touchdowns on three straight possessions. After Taormina’s first score, Devon Orensky broke free, racing around the left side for a 37-yard touchdown, and with O’Brien’s two-point conversion run, it was 14-0 PW after one.

O’Brien hit Taormina on a 14-yard slant to the end zone, and Gregory Feinberg’s two-point run made it 22-0 Colonials at the break.

“I’m happy that we kind of pulled it together,” said PW coach Dan Chang. “I thought our guys played tough, and we told them all week that Tennent is a tough, physical team and we have to be ready to go. We didn’t get off to a great start but I was happy with how we rebounded.”

O’Brien rushed for 96 yards and a TD, and threw for 75 yards and two scores. Zion East had 45 yards rushing and a touchdown and PW’s defense had a shutout into the fourth quarter.

“(Tennent) was definitely intent on stopping our run game so we gotta be able to throw the ball too,” Chang said. “So I thought we did a pretty nice job protecting and delivering the football.”

The Colonials padded their lead to 28-0 in the third quarter when East raced in from five yards out on a toss.

The Panthers got on the board with a 13-yard touchdown connection from Tim Lawson to Dan Patrick, and after O’Brien’s eight-yard TD, Tennent capped the scoring with the biggest play of the night by either squad, an 80-yard touchdown pass from Lawson to Liam Gibson.

“We have five sophomores starting on both sides of the ball. We know we’re gonna take our lumps this year,” Panthers coach Rich Clemens said. “Our guys are working, getting better. We have two games left, so we’re looking forward to next week.”

Plymouth-Whitemarsh 35, William Tennent 14

PW                         14 8 6   7 – 35

Tennent                    0  0 0 14 – 14

First Quarter

PW-Phil Taormina 23 pass from Aiden O’Brien, (kick failed), 2:19.

PW-Devon Orensky 37 run (O’Brien run), :45.

Second Quarter

PW-Taormina 14 pass from O’Brien (Feinberg run), 9:00.

Third Quarter

PW-Zion East 5 run (run failed), 3:02.

Fourth Quarter

WT-Dan Patrick 13 pass from Tim Lawson (Kyle Flack kick), 7:27.

PW-O’Brien 8 run (Jared Kolsun kick), 3:19.

WT-Liam Gibson 80 pass from Lawson (Flack kick), 3:07.

PW                      WT

First Downs                                   16                        7

Rushes-yards                               36-219                  34-68

Passing (c-a-i)                              6-12-0                  7-11-3

Passing yards                              75                         130

Total yards                                   294                       198

Punts                                           2                          1

Penalties-yards                            11-80                    8-53

Fumbles-lost                                1-1                       2-1

Turnovers                                    1                           4

Rushing

PW: Zion East 10-45, TD; Dominic Konieczka 4-29; Chris McLaughlin 1-1; Devon Orensky 1-37, TD; O’Brien 14-96, TD; Feinberg 3-7; Luke Winterbottom 2-3; Anthony Iannozzi 1-1.

WT: Liam Gibson 1-3; Dan Patrick 1-3; Lawson 15-29; Rymeer Newkirk 8-1; Brandon Stier 7-34; Stephen Cosenza 2-(-2).

Passing

PW: O’Brien 6-12-75-2-0.

WT: Lawson 7-10-130-2-3.

Receiving

PW: Taormina 3-47, 2 TD; Jullian Williams 1-12; East 1-3; Orensky 1-13.

WT: Gibson 2-84, TD; Luyzito Rosales 3-21; Newkirk 1-12; Patrick 1-13, TD.

Interceptions

PW: Jimmy Foy, Nate Kern, Jared Kolsun.