Upper Dublin defense shines in win over Souderton

UPPER DUBLIN >> For Upper Dublin, the No. 1 objective was stopping No. 27.

“He’s a big boy, a big load,” said the Cardinals’ Tawfiq Bartlett, speaking of Souderton’s Brayden Porter. “And we got him down. The defense was amazing. Our boys read our keys, did what we had to do: shut down a very good team with a great running back.”

The Upper Dublin defense was there all the way to the end, coming through with two more stops in the fourth quarter to help produce a hard-earned, 10-7 victory over Big Red in a battle of defending District One Champions Saturday.

“This is a great win,” Bartlett said. “The team energy had been down. I just love how my boys flew around. We got the energy back up and we wanna keep going into the playoffs. We’re looking to get to our goal from the beginning of the season, which is a state championship.”

The win raised Upper Dublin’s record to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Suburban One League Continental Conference. Big Red is now 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the conference.

Souderton captured the District 1-6A title a year ago while Upper Dublin ruled in 5A, and on Saturday the two teams pushed each to their brink and beyond.

“(Lineman) Kyree Butler, battling (through shoulder pain), kept playing. That just shows the heart,” said Bartlett, a major contributor at linebacker. “Tristan Cairnes, senior captain, got an interception. Everyone just stepped up and had a good game.”

That interception by Cairnes came in the final seconds around midfield, locking up the victory for the Cardinals. Three times in the second half, Upper Dublin turned Souderton over on downs, including a tackle for a loss by Bartlett on a fourth down in the third quarter.

“That was just our energy and our adrenaline. The crowd came out here at 11 o’clock and gave us some real, loud noise,” he said of the effort by the defense.

Upper Dublin led 10-7 at the break and then its defense protected the lead for the final 24 minutes. The Cardinals came through with their most emotional win of the season, on a blustery afternoon on the turf at Upper Dublin.

“That was a really good high school football game. It was two heavyweights going toe to toe,” Cardinals coach Bret Stover said. “(Coach Ed Gallagher has) some really good players. Porter is awesome. And (Luke Pollock), the linebacker – they were everywhere. They’re always well-prepared and well-coached. We knew we were gonna have our hands full.”

Upper Dublin broke the scoreless tie on the third play of the second quarter, when quarterback Colin O’Sullivan hit Noah Lee over the middle for a 19-yard score and 7-0 lead.

Big Red tied it with 1 minute, 38 seconds left in the half, with the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Porter (99 yds, TD) bursting through a hole on the left side and taking it in from seven yards out to draw things even at seven apiece.

Upper Dublin went into a hurry-up on its final series of the half, and O’Sullivan completed six straight passes, including an 18-yarder to Griffin Pensabene, to keep the Cardinals moving.

Pensabene (8 rec, 90 yds) came up with the play of the drive, catching a deflected pass – which had bounced off another receiver – right along the sideline to move the Cardinals down to the Souderton 13.

That enabled Owen Carl to boot a 30-yard field goal just before time expired for a 10-7 lead at the break, which wound up being the final margin.

Carl was tremendous on kicks and punts all day.

“It’s just a really good win for this team,” Stover said. “We weren’t able to get over the hump against North Penn and then we got it handed to us at Quakertown. And we kind of staggered back and lost our confidence. I think this game can kind of regain that edge you wanna have going into the playoffs.”

Souderton wants to continue its drive for the postseason as well.

“It was two really good teams slugging it out. I thought they were just a little bit more physical than we were along the line of scrimmage,” Gallagher said of the contest. “Our kids fought. They gave it everything they had. They just came up a little bit short. We came out in the second half and were able to move the ball by tweaking things a bit, but we just couldn’t finish. So credit (Upper Dublin) for getting the stops when they got the stops.

“Next week is weird, with the forfeit with Hatboro-Horsham. We’re gonna try to find a game, to keep the kids playing going into (Week 10 against) Bensalem. We’ve gotta keep getting better. Because if we are to make the playoffs at 6-4, we’re gonna play a big dog, so we better step it up in the next two weeks.”

Upper Dublin 10, Souderton 7
Souderton                    0   7 0 0 –  7
Upper Dublin                0 10 0 0 – 10

Second Quarter
UD-Noah Lee 19 pass from Colin O’Sullivan, (Owen Carl kick), 10:50.
S-Brayden Porter 7 run (Rylan Zuk kick), 1:38.
UD-Carl 30 field goal, :02.

S                      UD

First Downs                17                        10

Rushes-yards             45-164                 24-38

Passing (c-a-i)            8-21-1                  14-25-0

Passing yards             67                        144

Total yards                 231                        182

Punts                        2                            5

Penalties-yards         5-40                        5-50

Fumbles-lost             2-1                          1-1

Turnovers                  2                             1

Rushing
Souderton: Sean McGoldrick 7-28; Porter 25-99, TD; Elijah Goods 4-27; Javier Torres 2-6; Nate Hageman 5-5; Chris Kerns 2-(-1).
Upper Dublin: Nyfise McIntyre 11-30; O’Sullivan 8-(-1); Nick Rodriguez 1-2; Tawfiq Bartlett 3-3; Trey Relvas 1-4.

Passing
Souderton: Hageman 8-20-67-0-0; Jared Zimmerman 0-1-0-0-1.
Upper Dublin: O’Sullivan 14-25-144-1-0.

Receiving
Souderton: Goods 3-10; C.J. Winters 2-15; Caleb Hageman 2-27; Porter 1-15.
Upper Dublin: Noah Lee 1-19, TD; Tristan Cairnes 1-17; Griffin Pensabene 8-90; Chris Kohlbrenner 1-3; McIntyre 1-4; Dan Nardo 1-5; Dan Johnson 1-6.

Interceptions
Upper Dublin: Cairnes.