Winters helps clear way as Delco Christian runs wild

NEWTOWN SQUARE >> As most of his Delco Christian teammates shivered in the cold Friday night while head coach Drew Pearson spoke, Kyle Winters was the only one in the circle around Pearson with his arms exposed to the howling winds.

Winters sported a sleeveless shirt and didn’t look one bit uncomfortable despite the very November temperatures.
Linemen are always the toughest players on the team anyway, right?

Winters looked perfectly comfortable all night at his left tackle spot, where he helped pave the way for 356 rushing yards in a 34-12 blowout of Calvary Christian.

The win in the District One/12 Class A Sub-Regional propelled the Knights to a school record for wins and a matchup with the winner of Saturday’s battle between No. 2 Jenkintown and No. 3 Bishop McDevitt. The Knights’ road to states continues Friday night at 7 at Hatboro-Horsham.

“It hasn’t set in yet,” Winters said of Delco Christian’s record-breaking foray into the double-digit win column.

“Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up and be excited, but it’s big. It is big. We couldn’t have done it without all the work that all of the guys put in in the last four years.”

That hard work was obvious against the Cougars (3-7). There wasn’t much of a change from the first time the two teams met, a 34-7 Knights win less than a month ago, and Delco Christian did what it wanted to offensively. That’s to say, the Knights ran the ball, ran it some more, and then just for fun, ran it again.

Calvary Christian’s commitment to stop the run game burned it, though. Three times, the Cougars allowed Nazim Trammel-Wells to escape the secondary for touchdowns of 62 yards or more. Ultimately, they went in the box score as 62, 64 and 63 yards, the highlights of a 10-carry, 220-yard night. Linemen don’t usually rack up stats, but Winters broke into a big smile once he found out what Trammell-Wells racked up.

“I’m always 30 yards behind him on those runs, but I love watching him go,” Winters said. “(The Cougars) stuck a lot of guys right up front, so if we could get him past the secondary, he was gone.”

For Trammell-Wells, a West Philly resident who makes a 30-minute daily commute to Newtown Square, it took a little while to get going. Backfield mate Amir Dorsey handled the dirty work against Calvary Christian, rushing for 79 yards on 19 carries. Dorsey got the early carries, but once Trammell-Wells got going, there was no slowing him down.

“They only have one backer and they were trying to stop the lead and crash everything on the inside,” Trammell-Wells said. “Once we got past that middle backer, I just had to make one move and I was gone. Playing in a 1-2 tandem with Amir is fun. That’s a guy that I grew up with. You would never think the two small kids riding the cheese bus would run for a bunch of yards and really help out this program.”

They sure did, though. On the other side, Calvary Christian ran its entire offense through quarterback Josh Reichenbach. He paced the Cougars with 94 yards on 21 carries, and while he was 3-for-12 for 45 yards, a touchdown and a pick, Reichenbach didn’t get much help from his friends. Twice, they dropped wide-open touchdowns, and the Cougars didn’t get on the board until Reichenbach connected with Victor Pedraza on a 36-yard wheel route against the Knights’ second string. Reichenbach rounded out the scoring with a 12-yard scramble, but it was too little and far too late.

Trammell-Wells and the Knights will have time to get ready for either Bishop McDevitt or Jenkintown. One offers a great unknown, while the other is all too familiar with Delco Christian.

“I don’t really know anything about Bishop McDevitt,” Trammell-Wells said. “I’ll probably be watching film as soon as we get some if it’s them. A little bit of unknown, but we know Jenkintown just fine. If they end up being the victor, we’ll be ready for them, too.”