Upper Dublin’s high powered offense soars past Truman
LEVITTOWN>> It took a little longer to get going, but after a few early bumps Upper Dublin picked up right where they left off last week, throwing and running the ball at will, on their way to a 41-0 win over Harry S. Truman.
“We were better this week than we were last week,” Upper Dublin head coach Bret Stover said. “This week we had a more physical opponent than we did last week but we got better.”
Early on, the Cardinals were successful in moving the ball but whether it was a penalty or a costly turnover, something would come up and end a promising drive.
Eventually, they were able to right the ship and get going but they finished with 10 penalties for 80 yards, something that will have to be cleaned up moving forward.
“I wasn’t happy with our penalties, we have to fix simple things like alignments and you can’t fumble there going into the end zone,” Stover said. “Things like that all need to be fixed but I also thought we got better, our passing game was good and we protected well.”
“Good” may have been a little bit of an understatement by Stover.
Senior quarterback Justin Horn was deadly with both his arm and his feet, racking up 324 yards and three TD’s in the air and 29 more on the ground.
Horn’s control of the offense and ability to sling it was on display all night and he didn’t disappoint.
The Cardinals’ 389 total first half yards lead UD to a 34-0 halftime lead, a 90-yard touchdown pass to open the second half and Horn and the starting offense was done for the night as they watched the rest of the team close it out.
It wasn’t just Horn that was lighting up the stat sheet. Phil Butler scored twice on the ground for Upper Dublin and racked up 54 yards on just six carries. When they were executing properly the offense looked dangerous and possessed an air and ground attack that’s not common in the high school game.
On the other end, Truman struggled to get anything going offensively as the Cardinals defense was in the backfield most of the night wreaking havoc. The Tigers managed just 140 yards of total offense, and their inability to throw the ball allowed the defense to stack the box and key on the running backs.
David Akinwande was the lone bright spot for Truman as he finished the night with 61 yards rushing, but it wasn’t enough to get his team going.
Four fumbles lost in crucial moments were the icing on the cake for the home team as they kept coughing up the ball.
After losing 22 of 24 starters from last year’s District 1-AAAA championship team (including kicker and punter) there were plenty of question marks surrounding the Cardinals to open the season but with back-to-back wins, both in convincing fashion, they don’t seem to have missed a beat.
