The Funding Zone
 
SAFR: Safer Through Science
 

Wissahickon suffers tough defeat at the hands of Methacton

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

| September 11, 2021

Wissahickon Junior Running Back Kyle Lehman

It’s been a tough start to the season for the Wissahickon Trojans, after one of their most successful seasons in the past decade last year. This week they fell to Methacton in a hard fought game 35-27. The Trojans got clobbered

by their rivals Upper Dublin in the opening game 43-0, which was tough, but the Cardinals are one of the best teams in the 5A classification in the entire state. The past two weeks have been winnable games for the Trojans, but they haven’t been able to come up victorious, dropping a game to Owen J Roberts last week. With three losses to start the season, the Trojans already have more losses than they did last season, granted it was a shortened season because of COVID, the Trojans still finished 3-2 in the regular season.

Wissahickon was able to make it to the playoffs to the first time in over a decade, thanks to an experience senior class. It was a big step forward for the Trojans and even though they lost to West Chester Rustin in the opening round, it was something to build off.

Something about the Trojan team last season was that they were able to finish games, but this year the team has struggled to continue that trend. Last season, the Trojans found themselves behind at halftime in four out of their five regular season games and in all their wins, they had to overcome fourth quarter deficits. In one game against New Hope Solebury, Wissahickon was down 10 points with 1:30 left in the game, but somehow managed to send the game into overtime and won the game after that. This year, it’s been a different story.

After being up 17-6 at one point in the game last week, the Trojans couldn’t hold on and lost 34-24. This week was much the same. After going up 14-0 to start the game on Friday, thanks to a safety and two Kyle Lehman touchdowns, it looked like the Trojans could run away with the game. Khayden Smith returned the ensuing kickoff for Methacton to get the Warriors on the board. That started a back and forth between the two teams which would continue until it was Methacton who took their first lead of the game 28-27 off a Dan Bradi 28 yard touchdown pass to Brian Dickey. Methacton then proceeded to shut the Trojans out for the rest of the game to give them a 35-27 victory.

In the first three games of the season Wissahickon has been outscored 63-12 in the second half of their games. “The coaching staff has been talking about how can we carry things over into the second half.. The senior class understood what it took last season and they’re now trying to bring up our younger guys to understand that we fight to the end and even though the final score today didn’t go our way we still fought to the end. We just couldn’t put points on the board to pull this victory out, so it’s something that we’ll keep continuing to grow on and understand what we have to do.” Explained Wissahickon Coach Bruce Fleming

The Trojans lost 17 seniors from the team last year, who were key contributors for multiple years. They went through good and bad times together meaning they had plenty of experience playing with each other which is why they found success last season. Losing players from every single position besides Quarterback, Running Back and a couple of lineman, can be tough, which is part of the reason why the Trojans have struggled this season.

It’s not all negatives in the end for Wissahickon. Kyle Lehman had a huge week, but it had nothing to do with football at all. The Junior Running Back is a star lacrosse player for Wissahickon and is ranked as one of the best players in the country. He committed to play lacrosse at Penn State, one of the top programs in the country. Lehman followed up his big three touchdown performance last week, with another one this time around. In the third quarter Lehman caught a screen pass and took it 57 yards on a third and long and took it to the Methacton 15 yard line. A couple plays later, Lehman caught a swing pass from Quarterback Aidan Defeo. Lehman has to bring the ball in with one hand and once he controlled it, he bounced off a tackler and ran to the corner of the endzone for a touchdown. Lehman finished the game with over 150 yards from scrimmage, providing a spark both on the ground and in the screen game.

“Kyle is a dynamic running back, receiver, he does a little bit of everything for us. It’s our job to get him the ball in different ways, which forces defenses to look at him even more which can open up things for our receivers and even for Aidan to run the ball as well. Having him opens up our offense even more to make teams prepare for a lot more, instead of just keying. in on him and stopping him and only him.” Explained Coach Fleming

The Trojans head into Suburban One league play with a tough first game on the road against a 3-0 Upper Moreland team. But Coach Fleming believes the American division will be tight and that every game is winnable for the Trojans. “I believe every game is going to be tight and tough. I’m glad I don’t have any more hair to deal with that, but I think we’ll be in every single game. We have to find moments where we can take opportunities to stop the other team and put points on the board so that the final score is us with the victory.”

 

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
QwikCut
 
GoRout
 
Rainbow Lettering
 
x