Upper Dublin flexes its muscles in win over Del Val

By Jonathan Vander Lugt

UPPER DUBLIN >> The skies were clear, but there were lighting strikes all over the field at Upper Dublin Friday night.
The Cards raced out to a 35-0 lead in the first half, garnering 248 yards and four scores on just 16 plays, including touchdowns of 48, 47 and 65 yards (to go with an 81-yard interception return for six) in what wound up being a 42-7 drubbing of the Warriors.
“It’s somewhat shocking, to be honest,” said UD head coach Bret Stover. “[The matchup] was one that had us concerned. We didn’t take it lightly.”
Taking on Delaware Valley Charter, the Cardinals headed into their non-league season-opener hoping only to size themselves up against the Warriors, and find out what to expect as they move into their Suburban One American title defense.
But, after Ryan Stover, Stacey Gardner, Kaleif Lee and company sliced and diced their way through Del Val’s defense, the Warriors could muster little in response.
“Just about everything we put into our game plan was working,” the younger Stover, UD’s quarterback, said. “We had a lot of time to prepare, and we saw some stuff to exploit — we put it to execution.”
“We have a number of weapons,” the senior Stover said, “which is nice. We can come at them from a lot of different angles. It’s going to be exciting as long as we stay healthy.”
“It’s a matter of rotating a lot of guys through,” Stover said, about the secret to running such a potent offensive attack. “We have a lot of interchangeable parts.”
Indeed they did: 13 Cardinals got touches on the afternoon, and most did pretty well for themselves in the action they saw. Stover was sublime both in and out of the pocket, throwing for 161 yards and a score on 8-of-11 passing and running for another 55 on three carries, highlighted by a 47-yard scramble to pay dirt.
Gardner had 99 yards from scrimmage on six touches (and eight-yard TD trot and a 65-yard score through the air among them), and Lee tallied 65 yards (with a 48-yard touchdown) on four runs.
This isn’t meant to overshadow the defense, either. They gave up just 178 yards, to go along with three sacks and two picks. Cole Swiger had one of each—a seven-yard stop of Warrior quarterback Matt Cavallaro and the aforementioned 81-yard pick-six.
“We really knew what was coming at us the whole night,” Swiger said “We came out and played our hardest, and knew our offense would take care of it the whole night.”
“We knew we could take advantage of the weak side,” he went on. He was right — his interception return was made after a throw to Cavallaro’s left.
It wasn’t all perfect for Upper Dublin, though. They committed 10 penalties for 95 yards, something they’ll surely have to shore up as the season progresses.
There were five holds, two false starts, and two personal fouls. “There’s no excuse for that,” Bret Stover said.
“If you get in a real tight one,” he went on, “that could cost us a ball game.”
“It’s something we’ve got to clean up. Against teams where it’s a closer game, that stuff is going to be what kills us,” Ryan Stover said, indicating that the apple does not fall particularly far from the tree.
“I’m sure the coaches will be on us,” he continued. “We’ll definitely be on the lookout for that next week.”
That said, a 42-7 is certainly a big confidence booster.
“It’s awesome,” the younger Stover said. “We realized that we can execute what we want on both sides of the ball…I’m excited for the season to come.”