Ben Franklin earns hard fought victory over Overbrook
Anthony Franklin | August 25, 2024
The Ben Franklin Electrons hosted fellow public league member the Overbrook Panthers in what was the first game of the 2024 public league season at 29th street stadium. The late great Philly hall of fame high school sports journalist would always attend the first city game to kick off his season long coverage. In the spirit of keeping his memory alive I took the trek to cover this spirited game. Ben Franklin led by 2nd year head coach Aleem Medley who also is an 2002 alumni are looking to improve upon a surprisingly successful 2023 season in which they won 6 games and upset Gratz in the opening round of the playoffs. They’d start this game off receiving the ball and miscommunication about handling kick returns led to Brook recovering the ball and seizing the early momentum.
After an initial first down Brook would turn the ball over on downs and Franklin would waste no time driving 48 yards with Jr. RB Tae Wiggins capping the drive off with an outside run in for the touchdown and an early 6-0 lead after the conversion failed. The ensuing kick off would result in sensational Jr. RB Josiah Carter zig zagging across field sprinting 99 yards for a kick return touchdown. Fellow Junior Jaylen Porter would punch in the conversion to give Overbrook the 8-6 lead with roughly 8 minutes remaining in the 1st quarter. The score would remain 8-6 in favor of Brook until about 9 minutes remaining in the 2nd quarter when Sr. QB Samir Smith found star Sr. WR David Winchester for a quick touchdown score to recapture the lead for Ben Franklin 12-8.
Not to be outdone on the next possession Josiah would put the Brook Panthers on his back and ran 56 yards for a touchdown to give his team a 16-12 lead with just under 6 minutes remaining in the half. Ben Franklin would immediately respond with a 51 yard quarterback keeper by Samir to once again retake the lead at 20-16. Following a quick possession for Overbrook, Tae Wiggins would race 38 yards for his second score to cap off the first half scoring while extending the Franklin lead to 26-16. That score would hold as both teams went into halftime looking to make adjustments.
The second half played under humid conditions led to many players cramping up and having leg injuries. The final score would remain 26-16 in favor of Ben Franklin.
Samir is a first year starting QB for Franklin and a North Philadelphia resident. After the bobbled kick return to start the game he stated “After the bobbled kick we knew we had to get the ball back in our hands and make the most of it so I told my teammates to keep their heads up and stay disciplined”. He felt the momentum in the game shifted in their favor “when the defense we knew that if the offense made a mistake the defense could pick us up and get the ball back in our hands”. Samir was one of a handful of Electrons who was hurt during the game but he managed to stay in for all offensive possessions. He acknowledged being hurt but said “I was hurting but being hurt is temporary, I knew I needed to get on the field to secure our first win of the season while finding our key guys for big plays which was our whole game plan on offense. We lost our starting lineman early but we had our backups step up with the next man up mentality to finish things off in the second half”. While the season is young Samir has some things he would like to accomplish namely “win each game weekly to finish the season undefeated and winning a championship, while also earning college interest and attending a good college with a good football program while continuing to ball out like I normally do”.
Coach Aleem and the Electrons move to 1-0 on the season and will travel to Olney HS (Northeast supersite) in a short week as they play Thursday night. Overbrook who played with several key players unavailable will regroup and travel to Roxborough High on Friday afternoon. A classic only in the pub moment came a hour before kick off when it was noticed the press box was unavailable for coaches and therefore there was no access to try and operate the scoreboard so the game officials were responsible for the game clock. As Ted would say “Only In The Pub Baby”.
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