Upper Moreland scores 42 straight points, stuns Plymouth Whitemarsh

WHITEMARSH >> Plymouth Whitemarsh High’s football team was counting on a big win heading into next weekend’s showdown with Upper Dublin.

Now the Colonials will have to win just to stay in the Suburban One League American Conference race.

Friday night, after building an early 14-point lead, the Colonials saw Upper Moreland score 42 unanswered points en route to a 49-35 victory that knocked PW from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Paced by the big-play running of Rodney Morgan and the savvy play of quarterback Casey Decker, the Bears ignored their early deficit and came within a second-half touchdown of kicking in the running clock.

“We talked all week about how this game was going to come down to the end, these games always do,” said Golden Bears head coach Adam Beach. “When we got down early we didn’t push the panic button, and we wound up making enough plays to win.

“We told our guys (PW) hasn’t had to play a full game since Souderton (a season-opening overtime win), so we wanted to try to wear them down.”

The Beach Plan worked nearly to perfection.

“I think we were handled physically,” said PW head coach Dan Chang. “They were very physical up front, and (Morgan) is very good.”

After a 50-minute delay at the start of the game because of the weather, things went swimmingly for the Colonials.

PW went 70 yards on eight plays, but caught a huge break when Joe Soberl’s pass was deflected by Bears defensive back Cole Kitchen into the waiting arms of Nafeese Nasir, who turned the deflection into a 44-yard touchdown.

PW doubled its lead on its second possession when Nasir polished off a 79-yard, 10-play march with a 2-yard score on the second play of the second quarter.

It appeared the home team was in good shape, but the Bears came right back, going 70 yards on nine plays.

“I had trust in our team,” Decker said. “We felt we could come back and win.”
And keyed by Decker’s swing pass that Nick DeLucas turned into a 32-yard gain to the Colonials 1-yard line, the Bears halved their deficit when DeLucas pile drove in from there.

PW’s ensuing drive ended in a missed field goal, and the Bears went right back to work.

Well, actually it took one play for Rodney Morgan to break the line of scrimmage and bolt 80 yards to tie the game.

By game’s end Morgan would total 246 rushing yards.

After a Colonials three-and-out, the Bears, riding a wave of momentum, cruised 86 yards on nine plays with Decker capping it with a perfect play fake and a sprint to the end zone that sent the Bears into the break with a shocking 21-14 lead.

But that was only the beginning.

Upper Moreland scored on its first three possessions of the third quarter, driving 45 yards to up its lead to 28-14 on a Decker touchdown pass to Ryan Norton, then pushed it to 35-14 after a PW fumble when Decker faked an inside handoff  and bolted 83 yards on a keeper with 5:30 left in the third quarter.

One play after another Colonials lost fumble, Decker found Nick Pagano behind the Colonials defense for a 36-yard score that made it 42-14.

PW came back hard, getting a 13-yard touchdown pass from Soberl to Luke Mascio to cut the deficit to 42-21, then chopping the deficit to 42-28 on a 41-yard pass from Soberl to Vince Martina with 9:32 remaining in the fourth.

But the Bears righted the ship, got a 52-yard scoring run from Morgan with 6:50 left in the fourth, withstood a late Colonials TD and sealed the win when Christian Leighton picked off a Stoberl pass deep in Bears territory in the final 2:30.

“Our ground game was halted,” Chang said. “We weren’t getting much movement up front.

“But you’ve got to give (Upper Moreland) credit. They had a good game plan and they executed.”