To run in the August 28th Bucks County Herald
Vikings were known for their sea power.
But on Friday night in Warrington, the Archbishop Wood Vikings threw for 301 yards and five touchdowns in their 39-28 opening night win over host CB South.
“Watching film, we knew we would have to outscore them offensively,” said senior wide receiver Kenny Montgomery. “But we thought that we could. We took shots all game and it worked out at the end of the day.”
On Wood’s fifth play of the year, junior southpaw Jack Drakeley hit senior wide out Trey Smith on a 54 yard slant for a touchdown to put the Vikings up 7-0. The 6’4” Smith, who announced his commitment to Navy 24 hours before kickoff, did a fair impression of an F-14 with eight catches for 175 yards.
South answered with a 6-play, 50 yard drive ending in Braylen Cape’s 22-yard score. Wood retorted when Montgomery hauled in a 3rd and 14 pass, got a block, and went 49 yards for a touchdown.
Titan quarterback Cade Crim answered that with a 12-yard touchdown counter run to knot the score at 14.
South took the lead when Gavin Graham impressively raced 50 yards for a score with 9:47 left in the first half. Drakeley cooly responded with consecutive third down touchdown passes: 17 yards to Montgomery and two yards to David Robbins.
Wood led 26-21 at halftime. South appeared to gain momentum when Drakeley was forced to miss two series with a cramp. Momentum was short lived as Drakeley’s understudy, David Melcher, ran 57 yards for a score on only his third snap.
“We’ve got a good, strong rotation. We don’t have backups,” Montgomery pointed out. “It’s obviously good that we have guys who can step up like that and score.”
After South responded with a Dylan Ahuja 40-yard touchdown catch on fourth down, Melcher hit Montgomery on 4th and 17 for a 34-yard score with 11:04 left. Montgomery’s third TD grab put Wood up 39-28.
It was Wood’s fifth touchdown on third or fourth down. “It is our mentality. We played a lot of good competition in 7 on 7 this spring,” Drakeley noted. “We feel like we’ve been at it for a while and it’s our time to shine. Nothing fazes us.”
Drakeley, who re-entered the game in the fourth quarter, completed 14 of 26 passes for 246 yards and critically: no interceptions.
“This is just a reflection of the work we put in during the offseason,” Drakeley explained. “Coach Goettner had us working since January. I work with Kenny and Trey all the time. Kenny works his butt off. Trey is just a baller. And we have guys who didn’t even get into the game who can do the same thing. We’re on a roll right now.”
Montgomery hauled in five balls for 110 yards. “Kenny is great out of the slot and we felt today was going to be a big day for him,” Drakeley shared. “He is a nice shifty, receiver with great hands. Trey obviously is a deep threat and at 6’4”, he can go up and get any ball he wants. He was bringing over a safety tonight, which opened the field for the other guys.”
CB South, the defending SOL National champions, won their opening 12 games before falling in District semi-finals last season. South graduated a lot of talent but they return Cape- who ran for over 700 yards last year- and leading tackler Jack Bartolillo.
The Titans were able to run effectively. Graham and Cape each had 11 carries, picking up 91 and 64 yards respectively. Defensively, Titan linebacker Sean Bulicki and Wood senior Bill Davis heard their names frequently called as tacklers.
Wood had an unsightly 2-8 record last year…but had two wins and two one-point losses in their last six regular season games. Head coach Brian Goettner showed Friday that the 2025 version of Wood football looks very different than its predecessor.
Next Friday, Wood plays their home opener against Cardinal O’Hara while South hosts Souderton.