Upper Darby Shocks Garnet Valley

Written by: Billy Scully on Saturday, October 9th, 2010. Follow Billy Scully on Twitter.

The Upper Darby Royals headed into Morris “Moe” DeFrank Stadium at Garnet Valley with a three game winning streak and still had something to prove. Head Coach of the Upper Darby Royals Rich Gentile said “I think it helped coming into this game with people figuring we didn’t have a shot tonight. It was like those three games we played didn’t matter because we are playing Garnet Valley and their undefeated and their just going to run over us. I think our guys had a chip on our shoulders and they played angry tonight.” The Royals proved that they may be more than just a threat in the Central League.

Jaguar’s senior running back, Obi-Tabot rushed for 56 yards and scored on the Jaguars five minute opening drive. That was all the Jaguars had offensively in the first half of the game. Upper Darby’s defense wouldn’t let them see the end zone again until late in the fourth quarter.

The Royals went on to score five touchdowns without the Jaguars responding. First Amara Kamara tied the game on a 15 yard touchdown run. Scoring second was John Townsend catching a 16 yard touchdown reception. Sonkarly Winpea dove into the end zone for the third score from the one yard line. Cory Harrison caught a nine yard touchdown reception, and to cap off the scoring Chris Wallace returned an interception for a touchdown. The Royals literally scored in every way they could; running, catching, and defensively.

On the nine yard touchdown reception Harrison said “McGee put it up there and I knew he was only going to put it a place where I can get it. McGee knows what I can do I know what he can do so I just kept on running kept my eye on the ball and it fell in the right place.” Harrison added, “Coach has a saying if you punch them in the mouth first then they’re not going to get back up first and you just keep pounding on them and pounding on them, and that’s what we did and we kept the momentum all game.”

Players were leaving the game left and right with injuries, especially for the Jaguars. Entering the game they were already without their two big running backs, Alex Warden and Justin Pyle. To make things worse for the offense senior quarter back Jake Helmes left the game due to a right ankle injury. Helmes played through the first half but did not return to the second half of the game.

With the big win over the Jaguars, Coach Gentile said “We are back to what Upper Darby football is, power running. It’s been that way for as long as I’ve been coaching here. When you have a back like Kamara and Winpea, that run hard and have speed that can get you three or four yards we control the football and that’s how we win.”

Next week it doesn’t get any easier for the Jaguars as they travel to Strath Haven to play the Panthers at 7:30pm. on Friday night. Head Coach of Garnet Valley Mike Ricci said, “Strath Haven is playing great football right now, so we are going to need to play a lot better.”

Upper Darby takes their four game winning streak to Harriton at 7:00pm on Friday night. “Our motto going into this season and especially after we started on this winning streak is to reacquaint people with Upper Darby football” said Royals Coach Gentile.