Defeo’s career night gives Wissahickon their first win of the season @WissFootball

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

Zak Wolf | September 25, 2021

Aidan Defeo had a career night for Wissahickon as they picked up their first win of the season, over New Hope Solebury in a blowout fashion 43-7. Defeo was dominant all night long, picking apart the New Hope secondary, using his deep ball to connect with his receivers. Defeo finished 11-18 for 209 yards, while accounting for all 6 of the Trojan touchdowns on the night, with 5 coming through the air and one coming on the ground in the third quarter. Defeo’s 5 passing touchdown is the most he’s ever thrown in a high school game, ever since taking over the starting job his sophomore season.

“That’s senior leadership at the quarterback position. He’s been playing off and on since he was a sophomore and this year, I had high expectations for him to take control of the team as a senior play caller. He’s starting to put it together and hopefully this is the first of many games for him to have complete control.” Explained Wissahickon head coach Bruce Fleming

Defeo started off his career on the freshman team and was the backup for the varsity team at the start of his sophomore year. It wasn’t long before Defeo was called into action when the starter was injured, and the job has been his ever since. Last season, Defeo had seniors across the offensive line and at the receiver position as well. This year, he’s taken one a bigger role as a leader and play caller, all while trying to create new chemistry with his players on offense. Defeo showed off his chemistry with receivers like Braheem Thomas and Jaylen Quick. The pair of senior wide receivers had two touchdowns each on the night. Quick scored on catches of 42 and 31 yards, both of which came in the first half, finishing with 79 yards on the night. Thomas was able to score on plays of 11 and 44 yards as he finished with 77 yards on the night.

“Obviously as the season goes on, you get more chemistry with your receivers. We were working in the offseason and everything like that. When game comes it’s a different tempo, so practice helps and once you get to the game, you’re on the same page” Defeo Explained.

Over the years, Defeo has gotten better and better with protecting the ball, which has been on full display the past couple of games. Defeo has gone two games in a row without an interception after a couple of unlucky ones earlier in the season. “I’ve learned not to force the ball. I’ve learned to control the ball and throw it away, take off and run. I think when we keep control of the ball, we can make good plays and when you’re not turning the ball over, you have more opportunities to make big plays.” Defeo mentioned

He’s also been trusted with running the ball more this year as well, taking on more of a dual threat role, with a lot of attention going towards Junior running back Kyle Lehman. Defeo has found success, keeping the ball on read options, as well as scrambling when a play breaks down. The running threat has opened up the RPO game for Defeo, which he used to full effect in the second half, “You can see when we ran them in the second half, we were getting big plays every single time we ran one of them. It’s what you want to see, and it shows improvement in our team that I’m looking for so I can be more confident in games going forward.” Defeo mentioned

After losing three straight tough games, to Owen J Roberts, Methacton and Upper Moreland, in all of which the Trojans held a lead in the second half, it was important to get the first win on the board. The loss to Upper Moreland was a tough one to swallow for the Trojans, but it gave them confidence going forward, knowing that they could take a tough team down to the wire like they did.

“I told the guys during pregame that we’re a snowball on the hill, and then last week we started to get rolling and we hit a rock in Upper Moreland. The whole goal tonight was to get the snowball moving again and now we’re starting to roll down the hill, so we gave to build more momentum like any snowball on a hill. Once you get rolling, you get bigger and bigger, so I feel big things are coming for us.”

After going 3 and out on their first possession, the Trojans got going early, leading 21-0 in the first half thanks to a late touchdown from Jaylen Quick. After a 22-point explosion in the third quarter, the Trojans put away New Hope and prevented any comeback from happening this week. The Trojans couldn’t get the shutout, but the defense had a solid showing, with the only New Hope touchdown coming off a miraculous 50-50 ball catch by a New Hope receiver.

“It feels good to get the monkey off our back. We’ve been close the past three weeks on pulling out a win, but we were always finding a way for things to fall through. It felt good to really put everything together and get that first win. Hopefully this is the first of many this season.” Fleming explained.

The Trojans head into their week 6 game against Springfield with some momentum as they look to get above 500 in league play for the first time this season.

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