Upper Moreland’s Broderick eyes strong finish, Wissahickon’s McLean eyes new beginning
LOWER GWYNEDD >> Stephen Broderick and Jalen McLean had something in common on Friday night.
Broderick, the Upper Moreland senior, and McLean, the Wissahickon junior, may be at different points in their respective careers with their teams at different points of contention but the two were undeniably the center of attention for their squads as they faced off. The do-everything Broderick is hoping to end his career right and carry the Golden Bears on a playoff run while the emerging McLean is hoping to be the part of something new with the rebuilding Trojans.
Friday, Broderick’s four touchdowns were too much for McLean’s efforts to overcome as Upper Moreland downed Wissahickon 42-14 in a game that was within a score late in the third quarter.
“At one point in the game (McLean) started really eating us up on one drive and I told my guys ‘we really have to get up,'” Broderick said. “When guys start coming at us like that, I start getting heated and I want to stop them and return the favor.”
Broderick rolled up nearly 300 all-purpose yards for the Bears (6-1), running 17 times for 174 yards and a trio of scores, turning his one reception into a 30-yard touchdown and accumulating 89 kick return yards with 71 coming on one of the game’s biggest plays. He had three consecutive rushing touchdowns after McLean and Wissahickon cut the lead to 21-14 with 4:10 to play in the third, effective closing the game out while rarely taking a snap off playing defensive back on defense.
McLean didn’t get a touch on Wissahickon’s (0-7) first drive but he was superb after, rushing for 129 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries and adding 56 yards on eight catches including a jump-ball TD. Like Broderick, he also rarely left the field playing as a linebacker on defense.
The junior came to Wissahickon last year after spending his freshman year at Cheltenham.
“I have to trust my guys and when I see a hole, hit and hit it hard,” McLean said. “What I do when I run, I take the ball, see the hole and hit it then anything open, that’s where I’m running to. I’m really going to give it to my guys, they really blocked great on the line and opened things up for me to find and hit it.”
Playing football at Upper Moreland wasn’t much of a choice for Broderick, not after his older brothers Brett and Anthony were standout players for the Golden Bears. Stephen, the youngest of six, has already decided he isn’t going to play at the next level so he’s very cognizant his time playing is only guaranteed for three more weeks.
Predominantly a wide receiver last year, Broderick has assumed the Swiss Army Knife role this fall for coach Adam Beach – the same coach his brothers played for – lining up as a flanker, in the slot and at tailback throughout Friday’s game. His running seemed to get stronger as the game went on, his 42-yard touchdown run highlighted by some shifty moves that had a Wiss defender chasing his own tail but it’s his internal fire that seems to be the main factor in his success.
“Being versatile and doing whatever I can for my team to win, that’s all I’m worried about doing this year,” Broderick said. “We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves, we’ve been planning for this SOL league for so long and our competition, what it’s about to be, I’m telling you, our guys can’t wait to go in there and face those teams.”
UM scored on its opening drive, with quarterback Shawn Herbert finding Broderick on a 30-yard pass. The story of the first half, aside from McLean’s emergence running the ball, was the aggression both teams showed on fourth downs.
To that end, Wissahickon converted two fourth downs, the second a five-yard catch by McLean, on its ensuing drive that ended with McLean running in from four yards out to pull within 7-6 after a missed extra point. All night, the junior had plenty of Bear eyes on him but the Trojans kept calling his number on handoffs, toss plays and screens and McLean kept battling for any extra yardage.
He knows every time he gets the ball, there are eyes on him and not just those of defenders lining up on the other side.
“You have to keep your head up and go hard, every single time, no matter what, you go hard until you can’t go hard anymore,” McLean said. “The first game, once we started losing and I was cramping, I started hanging my head. After that, I had to check myself because personally, I was never the type of kid to think ‘oh, we suck,’ and just take it, I have to be the leader and pick people up. You do that by keeping your head up and keep going.”
Upper Moreland used a pair of touchdown runs by the bruising Hassan Johnson, a unique mixture of rumbling fullback and run-stuffing defensive tackle, to take a 21-6 lead to the half. After the defense got a stop to start the third, McLean and the Trojans marched right down the field and capped the drive with the junior winning a jump ball in the endzone for his second score and a two-point try making it 21-14.
On the Bears sideline, Broderick was fuming and knew he could turn things around with one touch. So, he did, taking the following kickoff 71 yards down the field to put UM in immediate scoring positing then toting the ball three times with the last taking the form of a 16-yard touchdown run.
“I don’t like when teams run down the field on us and after they scored, I was tired but I knew I had to stay in and when I saw a crease, I ran hard and we went down and scored just like we needed to,” Broderick said. “The energy around from the team, when you have the energy on your side, football is a game of momentum so once we start picking up momentum and our guys start getting hot, we start rolling and there’s not even a thought of coming out of the game.”
McLean plans to run track this spring and hopes to get more explosive, strong and up his endurance for his senior season with dreams of playing college football. With a new coaching staff led by Rory Graver at Wissahickon this fall, McLean also knows it’s an opportunity to be part of a new foundation.
One of the biggest challenges at Wissahickon has been getting the athletes to join and stay in the football program. Coming from an outside program himself, McLean knew the expectations at Wissahickon weren’t high but he wants to show that it’s ok to stay home and play for the Trojans.
“We have a very young team, you hear the stuff in school like ‘you’re trash,’ and I think at Wissahickon, there’s been a losing mindset,” McLean said. “When they stepped on the field, it was like they felt ‘we’re going to lose.’ Nobody here wanted to play football but Coach Graver is changing that. You have to start from the ground up and especially with Tik Tok, Twitter, social media, if it’s not now, then you gotta go but we need to trust the process.
“I don’t want to follow the crowd, I want to start something new. What we put in, that’s the future here.”
SMASH AND DASH
Hassan Johnson is 6-foot, 235 pounds of downhill runner.
The senior fullback was selected as an additional team captain for Friday and he played like it, running for 38 yards and two touchdowns while also filling gaps on the defensive line. Part of the “Wolfpack” on defense,
“I told my teammates, they’re getting 110 percent and that’s what I gave to them,” Johnson said. “We’re like a pack of wolves. We’re hungry, we’re always ready to eat.
“One game doesn’t define us, we still think we have a long season and we’re chasing that number to be put up on a wall.”
Stephen Broderick is not close to the size of Johnson, but he’s the perfect compliment with his quickness and elusive moves once he gets past the line. The two seniors spent the whole offseason propping each other up knowing they would be the top options to carry the ball this fall.
“He’s a big, heavy running back that’s not easy to bring down and I’m a smaller, quicker running back,” Broderick said. “The duo of the two differences, it’s hard for teams to game plan to stop us and we compliment each other really well.”
“Without Steve, we don’t know where we would be, honestly,” Johnson said.
Upper Moreland 42, Wissahickon 14
UPPER MORELAND 7 14 7 14 – 42
WISSAHICKON 0 6 8 0 – 14
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
UM – Shawn Herbert 30 pass to Stephen Broderick (Jaryd Meehl kick) 7:21
2nd Quarter
W – Jaden McLean 4 run (kick miss) 11:08
UM – Hassan Johnson 8 run (Meehl kick) 6:38
UM – Johnson 5 run (Meehl kick) 34.5
3rd Quarter
W – Julian Perkins 27 pass to McLean (two-point run) 4:10
UM – Broderick 16 run (Meehl kick) 2:36
4th Quarter
UM – Broderick 42 run (Meehl kick) 9:29
UM – Broderick 17 run (Meehl kick) 8:06
Team Stats
UM W
First Downs 14 14
Rushes-Yards 31-240 32-133
Passing 5-9-1-0 13-20-1-0
Passing Yards 116 90
Total Yards 356 223
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 7-65 1-10
Individual Stats
Rushing: UM – Stephen Broderick 17-179, Hassan Johnson 8-38, Shawn Herbert 5-28, Elijah Davis 2-0; W – Jaden McLean 24-129, Julian Perkins 4-(-2), Kareem Lee 4-6
Passing: UM – Herbert 5-9-116-1-0; W – Perkins 13-20-90-1-0
Receiving: UM – Broderick 1-30, Johnson 1-24, Zion Akinbo 1-9, Domenic Giordano 1-14, Tahir Harris 1-39; W – McLean 8-56, Max Pester 1-10, Gavin Myers 3-17, Lee 1-7
