Springfield Township’s Strong Second Half Leads To 34-6 Win Over Palumbo Academy

Tagged under: District 1, District 12, Gameday Hub, News

Mark Carfagno | October 21, 2019

Cam Dennis

Springfield Township High School from Montgomery County PA runs a play called the Fly Sweep. Unlike most Jet or Rocket Sweeps the Fly Sweep is a forward pitch, if the pitch is dropped it’s an incomplete pass and not a fumble.  The Spartans coaching staff mentioned this to me on numerous occasions.  No need to mention it fella’s , this old guy has been around for years, smile ! The primary recipient of the pass is Jr WR Cam Dennis. The QB who fills the stat sheet along with Dennis is Jr. Gabe Franzyk. Township ran the play for Dennis 11 times for 94 yards.  Along with his 11  pitches to Dennis, Franzyk completed 12 other balls for 129 yards and finished the game completing 23 of 27 passes for 223 yards. Dennis says; “Anyone can run the play, but I am happy to be the chosen one and I’m grateful for it. Well that’s being a bit modest since it takes hours of practice to execute the pitch perfectly and also the receiver must be able take the toss and turn the corner and get up the field.

The duo were perfect on all of their sweeps and only one went for negative yards. Ironically Dennis did not score a touchdown in Springfield’s 34-6 victory over the  Palumbo Academy Griffins.  Palumbo hung around for the first half trailing 14-0 after 24 minutes. Franzyk had both Springfield TD’s on runs of 1 and 6 yards. Jack Hyland kicked both PAT’s. The home team cut the lead to 14-6 midway through the third quarter when Sinseir Smith scored on a 11 yard run. The PAT run failed and the scoreboard read 14-6. After the score the stingy Spartan defense held the Griffins to just one first down the rest of the game. After the Palumbo score  Springfield answered right back mostly as a result of the Fly Sweep. The Spartans ran the play 5 times on the next drive as Dennis registered 48 yards.  The TD came when Franzyk connected with Keith Grantland on a 9 yard pass. J.P. McGowan and Franzyk would both score on fourth quarter runs to complete the 6 point scoring. Hyland was successful on one of his last two conversion kicks.

Along with Dennis , Brennan Fluchr snagged three balls for 70 yards while Grantland had 7 for 48.  McGowan ran 22 times for 81 yards and Franzyk 8 for 48.  Others who caught passes were McGowan 1-3  and Amir Williams 1-8.  The Spartans ran the ball 36 times for 160 yards for a 383 Total Offense number.   They returned 4 balls with 2 being interception returns for 105 making the All Purpsose yard number read 488.  Grantland , Gerry Marino and Williams had interceptions for the Spartans. The only sexy numbers for the Griffins were tackles recorded .  In fact three players  has double digit tackles which is quite unusual.   Middle Linebacker Charles Blaine notched 12 , outside backer Alvin Bunch and DT Bhashyr Akinwande both had 10. Bunch had one for a loss. On offense  Glenn Delee III rushed 11-41. QB Sage Taylor passed 7-13- 51 yds. The Griffins rushed times 20 for just 80 yards and had 5 returns for 55 yards . Ryan Ebner led the Spartans defense with 6 tackles including a sack. John Adams and Grantland both had 5.  Adams had one behind the line of scrimmage.  Others who had TFL’s included Steph Blanc- 2 and Mike Ecker and Zach Morrison each with one.

Notes: Springfield who plays in District One played as an Independent this year as a result of ending their program a few years back because of lack of numbers.  Next year they will return to Suburban One and play in the American Division.  According the Assistant Coach Wes Sheffer the Spartans have qualified for this this years State Playoffs. Although not officially notified by the PIAA and District One  the coaching staff did the math on the complicated power point system that is used and figured out that they should be in the playoffs in 4A  The victory improved Township to 7-2 with one game remaining .  The offensive line for the Spartans include : Strong Tackle Sam Shapely, Strong Guard Dan Daley , Center Luke Gozzard, Quick Tackle Chris Schultz and Quick Guard Gavin Delarso.   Palumbo who is a member of the Philadelphia Public League and District 12  along with the Philadelphia Catholic League also in D 12 both participate in their own league playoffs following their respective seasons. This agreement was made when the Public League entered the PIAA in 2003.  The Catholic soon followed .  After both league playoffs are completed the different Classifications compete for what is called the District 12 Championship.  The winners advance to the state playoffs.  As a result of the high number of teams in the league the Public League playoffs will begin next Friday and Saturday.  The Catholic League will start the following weekend.

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