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Upper Dublin Fights Back, Comes up Short Against Imhotep Charter 21-14 in State Semifinal

Tagged under: District 1, District 12, Game Photos, News, Playoffs

| December 3, 2022

(Photo courtesy of Michael Apice Photography)

Lower Gwynedd- Upper Dublin found itself in uncharted territory Friday night during their PIAA-5A state semifinal game against Imhotep Charter. For the first time all season, deep into the third quarter the Cards were down by three scores. With their backs against the wall, trailing 21-0, this special group of seniors which is led by QB Colin O’Sullivan buckled down and got to work. O’Sullivan found senior WR Staring Reaves who slipped past the secondary for a 34-yard diving catch and first down.

Four plays later at the 4-yard line, O’Sullivan threw a dart to his favorite target Griffin Pensabene to make it 21-7 with 3:02 to go in the third.

After jockeying possessions with the Panthers twice the Cards went on a 12-play drive that saw two fourth down conversions. With 4:59 to go in the game O’Sullivan ended the drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass to DJ Cerisier

which made the score 21-14. Upper Dublin’s defense forced a huge three and out on Imhotep’s next possession. Georgia commit, Jabree Wallace-Coleman was bottled up by the Cardinal defense twice for negative yards on the possession to stall the drive and then on third and long senior DE Nyles Bunn-McNeill forced Mykal Davis Jr. to throw the ball away as he was hit hard which forced Tep to have to punt with 3:26 to go in the game.

Upper Dublin moved the ball downfield as O’Sullivan hit multiple wide receivers for big gains to include a 32-yard pass to senior WR Chris Kohlbrenner to set up the Cardinals at the Tep 25-yard line. The first two downs of the possession ended in incomplete passes followed by an offensive holding penalty that set up 3rd & 25. O’Sullivan found Reaves again, this time for 12-yards but it wasn’t enough, and the Cards faced 4th & 13. The ensuing snap was bobbled, and O’Sullivan lost his helmet trying to pick the ball up, but the Imhotep defense gobbled up any hope and forced a turnover on downs after the 8-yard loss. Wallace-Coleman’s number would be called two more times and he picked up the first down on consecutive runs to secure a trip to Chapman Field in Cumberland Valley where he and his teammates will face the Pine-Richlands Rams for the Class 5A State Championship next week. After the game head coach Bret Stover reflected on the night, “I’m very proud of the way we competed tonight, 21-0 we could of went away but we didn’t. Stover continued, “We got beat by a good football team tonight, we didn’t get blown out & we had a chance to win it in the fourth quarter.” While Upper Dublin’s (14-1) magical season comes to an end, the team should be very proud to have won a conference & District title. “This group is going to be hard to replace for sure, We have two, three, even 4 year starters out here which is unheard of for us,” explained Stover. The coach reiterated, “We’re going to be missing a bunch of football players who are going to be playing on saturdays and I’m excited to go watch them on Saturday but I’m also excited to get going after a few weeks off with our 23 squad.”

 

Imhotep Charter 7 7 7 0 21

Upper Dublin       0 0 7 7 14

Scoring Plays

First Quarter

Imhotep: Davis Run 61 yards Kick good

Second Quarter

Imhotep: Wright Downing pass from Davis 37 yards Kick good

Third Quarter

Imhotep: Davis Run 1 yard Kick successful

Upper Dublin: Pensabene Pass from O’Sullivan 4 yards Kick Good

Fourth Quarter

Upper Dublin: Cerisier Pass from O’Sullivan 13 yards Kick Good

 

Team Stats

Rushing

Imhotep: Wallace-Coleman 22-62, Davis 6-72, Stewart 3-9, Center Snap 2-minus 28 yards.

Upper Dublin: McIntyre 7-14, Kohlbrenner 5-34, Roberts 3-0, Reaves 2-minus 4, O’Sullivan 3-minus 10

 

Passing

Imhotep: Davis 9 of 18 for 127 yards 1 TD

Upper Dublin: O’Sullivan 25 of 44 for 234 yards 2 TDs, 2 INTs

 

Receiving

Imhotep: Hennigan 4-61, Wallace-Coleman 2-10, Wright-Downing 1-37, Brown 1-10, McKnight 1-9

Upper Dublin: Ceresier 10-88 1 TD, Kohlbrenner 5-61, Pensabene 6-27 1TD, Reaves 2-46, Roberts 1-12

 

Interceptions:

Imhotep: Stewart, Reid

Upper Dublin: None

*Thank you Willie McGonigle for keeping stats

Photos courtesy of Michael Apice Photography 

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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