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Ridley’s Staley Runs Over Springfield

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

| September 1, 2019

The Ridley High School Green Raiders were looking to break a three game losing streak to Central division rival Springfield.  Well Raiders Senior RB Dylan Staley prepared for his Friday night performance by working on his footwork at practice all week at the suggestion of his coaches.  It all paid off  as Staley had his best game ever running 17 times for 158 yards and 2 TD’s in a 22-6 win over the Cougars.  Staley said ” My coaches often preach to work on my footwork and vision and give a split second for a seam to open up “, he also added ” The offensive line was outstanding tonight and make sure you give them a shout out. ” Most certainly I will Dylan.  The Raiders line included, center Josh Benner, right guard Steve Wallis, right tackle Sean O’Doherty, rotating left guards Mike McDonald and Victor Nenson and rotating left tackles John Watkins and Drew Applegate. Overall the Raiders pranced 38 times for 236 yards and a 6.2 average per carry.   Ridley never trailed on the evening. After holding the Cougars to a three and out on their first possession Ridley took advantage of a bad punt and started their first drive from Springfield’s 33 yard line. It took the Raiders just six plays to score when Staley ran into the end zone from the five yard line. The PAT kick failed and it was 6-0 with 7:46 to play in the first quarter.

 

Dinking and dunking pass all evening Cougar QB Kevin Rechner completed two balls on his squads second drive but the total result was just 6 yards thus forcing the home team to punt. The Green Raiders didn’t fair well on their  second and third drives and were also forced to punt as the momentum shifted in the direction of the Cougars after DE Aidan Shandley sacked QB Jack Grace for an 11 yard loss forcing a punt from Ridley’s own 17 . Punter Gavin Kingsborough booted the ball 30 yards to his own 47 where it was fielded by Tom Dougherty who advanced it just three yards to the 44.  Seven of the eight next plays were passes by Rechner who completed six of them for 41 yards. Double digit completions were 10 yards to  Robbie Longo and 12 yards to Alex Sciarrino.  Sciarrino caught the biggest one, an 8 yard TD heave from Rechner to knot the score at 6 after the PAT was unsuccessful.  Holding the Raiders again on defense the Cougars drove from their own 44 to the Raiders six but Bret Barber missed on a 23 yard field goal with just under four minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Staley gave the Raiders a big boost as he ran the jet sweep 35 yards to the Cougars 45 on the first play of the drive.  He later came up big when he snagged a 22 yard pass from  Grace which set up kicker Chris Vinci’s 20 yard field goal as time expired. The Radiers led 9-6 at intermission with Staley rushing 12 for 85.  Ridley’s defense proved even tougher in the second half allowing the Cougars to penetrate to their side of the field just twice on six possessions.  On one occasion that they did it was torn apart on the fourth quarters opening play when Jack Wills intercepted a Rechner tipped ball at the Cougar 40 and raced untouched to pay dirt for a TD and after Vinci’s PAT the arithmetic read 16-6 .  In fact another interception proceeded the Raiders final TD . Sonny Elhamamay’s pick at his own 37 was followed by another Staley jet or rocket sweep for a 63 yard TD to conclude the scoring for the day midway through the fourth quarter.

Notes:

Along with Wills and Elhamamay Nicholas Becker also had an interception for Ridley. Becker also led in tackles with 8 including 2 TFL’s.  Elhamamay notched 6 while Jordan Le and Wills both had 5 . Wills had two behind the line of scrimmage. Ridley was penalized 12/114. Springfield just 2/10. Ridley punter Gavin Kingborough punted 5/28.2 avg.  Rechner who passed 16-35-3 – 119- TD also punted 4/30.5 . Ridley had 6 returns for 109 yds. Springfield 6 for 63.  The Cougars leading receiver was Longo with 3 catches for 43 yds. Shandley paced the Cougars defense with 8 tackles, 7 solo and a sack. Trailing him were Devin Allen 6-5 -3 TFL’s, Michael Grapin 6 and 1 TFL . Adding 5 were Mike Wysocki, Connor Smith  and Tom Dougherty. Smith and Dougherty each had a TFL.  Longo also had 4 tackles

Ridley improves to 2-0 while Springfield is now 0-2. Last week the Green Raiders traveled to Cooper City Florida and defeated the hometown team 21-20. Staley, Kingsborough and Malachi Williams all scored TD’s . Vinci nailed the game winning conversion kick.  Becker was named the games Defensive MVP while Grace was the Offensive MVP.  Ridley will face another central league squad next week when they visit Strath Haven.

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