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Wissahickon Pulls Off Stunning Comeback Against New Hope Solebury 34-31 OT

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

| October 18, 2020

“I mean honestly, I was just focusing on the uprights, just trying to think of my motion and I saw the snap and I saw the hold and I just bombed it through. It felt good of the foot” said Nate DeVincent after kicking the game winning field goal for the Wissahickon Trojans on Saturday in what was an unbelievable game of football.

The Trojans had to come from behind for the second straight week, after beating Hatboro Horsham 14-12 last Friday. Although, this game was a bit different. Originally scheduled for Friday Night, the game was postponed until Saturday because of the heavy rain. Despite the rescheduling, this game did not disappoint in the slightest.

The game started off with the Trojans recovering a pooch kick by Bobby Hassz at the New Hope 35 yard line. They weren’t able to take advantage, going three and out, forcing them to punt. New Hope on the other hand, did not skip a beat, going 80 yards down the field for a touchdown. Two big plays by Quarterback Phillip Weinseimer set up a 20 yard touchdown run by Running Back Joey Capriotti to put New Hope up 7-0 early in the first.

The Trojans answered right back, tying the game up at 7 on a three play drive that took less than a minute. Though three games, Kyle Lehman has show that whenever he’s in the backfield, the Trojans are always a threat to score. This time he took the ball 59 yards to the house on a delayed handoff on third down.

New Hope didn’t have any trouble on their next drive either. After a nice return, the ball was spotted at the 50 yard line. Like Wissahickon it only took New Hope three plays to score a touchdown. A big catch by Evan Davidson led to a 9 yard touchdown by Phillip Weinseimer on a QB keeper up the middle. Just like that, it was 14-7 and there was still five minutes left in the opening quarter.

After the Trojans second three and out of the game, New Hope was pinned deep in their territory. Despite starting from their own 7, the Lions didn’t have any trouble moving the ball down the field. The Trojans defense didn’t have an answer for the Lions motion-heavy offense. They moved the ball down the field with ease, getting into the red zone, before Weinseimer ran the ball in for his second score of the game. This time it was from 19 yards out.

New Hope looked like they might run away with it after another three and out by Wiss, but the Trojan defense was able to get their first stop of the game. The Trojans got a spark from Kyle Lehman yet again, this time he carried the ball 74 yards before getting dragged down from behind at the four. From there, the Trojans were able to punch the ball in on a two yard run by E.J Schreinerr. Schreinerr, a Senior Wide Receiver has experience playing quarterback and this play he was lined up in the wild cat.

New Hope responded by driving the ball deep into Wiss territory, but a holding call killed their momentum and they were forced to try a field goal. The 32 yard kick was converted by Kris Kolen, making it 24-14 with just over 1:30 remaining in the half.

On the ensuing kickoff, there was a bit of a controversial call, when New Hope recovered a surprise onside kick, but there was a flag on the play. The call on the field was kick catch interference. The ref explained that the New Hope player had pushed the Wiss player before the ball hit the ground, but New Hope tried to argue that the ball had already hit the ground, therefore making the hit was legal. The Trojans weren’t able to do anything with the good field position and they went into the half trailing by 10.

The second half started out promisingly for Wissahickon, who came out with a different look on offense. The Trojans had three players in the back field with E.J Schreinerr as a wildcat, lined up alongside Kyle Lehman and Jeremiah Clark. This proved to be successful as the Trojans offense moved the ball down the field. When faced with a third and long starting Quarterback Aidan Defeo came back in, but was unable to convert to keep the drive going. The Trojans attempted a field goal to try and make it a one possession game again, but it was blocked by New Hope, who kept their opponents at arms length.

New Hope once again was able to move the ball into Wiss territory, but defensive lineman Shane Lynch got in the backfield on third down to make a big play to force a 4th and Long. New Hope was unable to get a first down, giving Wissahickon the ball back with 4:36 left in the third.

Both teams traded punts, and the third quarter remained scoreless. The Trojans got the ball at their own 27 with less than two minutes remaining in the third, needing a big play to gain momentum heading into the fourth quarter. On a 3rd and 12, the Trojans were able to get exactly what they were looking for when Aidan Defeo got out of the pocket and completed a 33 yard pass to E.J Schreinerr along the sideline.

“Aidan as a junior, he’s starting to learn how to extend plays, throw the ball away when there’s no need to force anything. I’m proud that he walks out of this game with no interceptions” Said Coach Fleming

Wissahickon still had work to do to get the ball in the end zone. E.J Schreinerr was able to pick up a first down on a QB sneak when the Trojans were faced with a fourth and inches. A few plays later, Wiss was able to convert another 4th down. This time it was Defeo finding Maurice Johnson Jr. on a crossing route over the middle for a 20 yard score. Johnson, who was the hero last week, came up clutch for his team again. The PAT made it a 24-21 game with 8:17 remaining, but the Trojans defense had been shutting down the Lions offense all throughout the third quarter.

“We don’t play on grass, this is our first game on grass all year, so that was an adjustment for us. But once we got a handle of what we had to do, understood what they were trying to do offensively, to force them to try and stay inside the pocket. Their quarterback number 9 is a dynamic player, but we knew we had to make small adjustments to slow their offense down and to allow our offense to get back into rhythm.”

New Hopes offense wouldn’t be shut down for much longer. Unlike their previous drives, the Lions went down the field methodically, bleeding as much clock as they could. With 4:26 remaining New Hope was faced with a 4th and 8 from the Wiss 30. After calling a timeout to talk things over, the Lions came out and surprised the Trojans with a trick play. Quarterback, Philip Weinseimer flipped the ball to his receiver who ran towards the sideline, looking down the field for a pass. Weinseimer maneuvered his way through traffic, before popping open at the 10 yard line, making the catch for the first down. They had successfully pulled off the famous Philly Special. But, New Hope was faced with another 4th down with the ball at the two yard line this time. Weinseimer came up big again, when he faked a hand off and ran to the outside, stiff arming a defender on his way to the corner of the end zone, putting the Lions back up 10. At this point, it looked like the Lions had it in the bag, but the Trojans weren’t ready to give up just yet.

“My message to the guys is that we never give up. Is that we wanna fight to that final clock is all zeros and we knew no matter how much time is left; we always have a chance.”

This is when things start to get interesting. A nice return set the Trojans up with good field position. Defeo then scrambled around and found Kyle Lehman down the field for a big gain with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty added onto the end of it. Now the Trojans were in business. After a 5 yard scramble by Defeo, he found E.J Schreinerr on the next play for a 7 yard score to cut the deficit to 3 with 47 seconds remaining.

The Trojans needed to recover their second onside kick of the game to keep their hopes alive. Senior Kicker Bobby Hassz popped the ball up towards the Wissahickon sideline and it landed perfectly into Jackson Intrieri’s arms for the recovery.

On the first play of the drive, Defeo found Schreinerr over the middle, who broke a tackle and got a couple of key blocks for another huge play. Wissahickon now had a chance to win the game, but two straight incompletions forced the Trojans into a field goal to try and send the game into overtime. After getting his first kick of the game blocked, Junior Nate DeVincent knocked through the 27 yarder to extend the game.

The Trojans won the coin toss and elected to play defense first in overtime. Jackson Intrieri almost came up with anoyjer huge play for Wiss when the ball was thrown his way in the back of the end zone, but he was unable to come down with the interception. New Hope was faced with a 4th and goal from the 3 and they elected to go for it instead of kicking the short field goal. The Lions tried an end around, but the Trojans were having none of it. Senior Defensive Lineman Kareem Roberts made the key play, setting the edge, not letting the runner get to the outside and making the tackle.

Now all Wissahickon needed to do was kick a field goal to win the game. They did decide to run the ball a few times with Kyle Lehman, but they actually lost 5 yards, making it a 32 yard field goal for DeVincent. There was some uncertainty surrounding the kick considering DeVincent had a kick blocked earlier in the half, but this time he left no doubt, drilling the game winner and sending the Trojan sideline into a frenzy.

“Once we knew we got the game into Overtime, I knew that we were going to win. Our guys fought back from down 10 with under two minutes left, to force overtime, we knew that if we get on defense first, we would stop them and win the game”

After the game, Coach Bruce Fleming expressed how big of a win this was for his program “For a program like Wissahickon, if this is a team of the past, we find a way to lose this game. Our senior class has been through a lot and they know what it takes now to finish games. Last week, we finished the game, this week, we got down, we came back, but it’s a program changer for us to know that we’re in a different direction now.”

The Trojans are now above .500 for the first time this season as they set to play William Tennent (1-2) away next Friday, while New Hope Solebury will face off against Academy of the New Church (2-0).

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