HUNTINDON VALLEY—Two football teams finding their way found each other Friday afternoon to open the 2026 season. For host Lower Moreland, the work of the preseason was rewarded with a 51-22 non-league win over Vaux Big Picture at Mark Mayson Stadiun.
All hands contributed to the winning formula. Levi Fishman and Andrew Roriguez each ran for two scores. Quarterback Jude Gove ran for 113 yards and a touchdown. Chase Carroll, a senior and former soccer player playing in his first high school football game, ran for a touchdown. He noted the importance of seeing the preseason work pay off.
“It’s really important,” he said. “Knowing every single play, not getting yelled at, you’ve to know every single ply. One {mistake] messes up the whole game.”
Head coach Dominic Gregorio was elated to his troops realize the fruits of their labors.
“These kids are young kids and they needed momentum,” he said. What we’re going to try to do is have a snowball effect coming off of this and get bigger and bigger.”
Lower Moreland dominated the first half; it scored on all four of its possessions. Fishman’s touchdowns on runs of three and one yard put the Lions up 12-0 with 8:45 left in the first half.
Rodriguez contributed scoring jaunts of 39 and five yards; in between the Lions added a 31-fumble return by Jagger Fink for good measure.
For most of the Cougars seemed dormant. But Hamid Griffin’s 70-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 3:53 left in the half woke them up.
Lower Moreland took a 32-6 into the break but the second half was more competitive. Semaj Pridgen (3 yards) and Carrol (11 yards traded rushing touchdowns in the third quarter. Relief quarterback Darin Astillero and Grove added rushing touchdowns for the Lions in the final stanza. In between, the Cougars’ Sean Washington found Aleem Mathis with a 34-yard scoring pass.
The Lions got 148 rushing yards from the quarterback position a factor Gregorio cited as instrumental to his team’s success.
“We run our quarterbacks often,” he said. We had the numbers game in the box because of the running back being the [lead blocker}. Actually, our game plan came together. We did pretty well rushing.
“We also have four returning starters on our offensive line from last year when we rushed for over 2,800 yards.”
Vaux coach Robbie Marsden cited out halftime adjustments for his team’s-half success.
“We figured out some adjustments that we could make,” he said. “As far as techniques, but also some personnel changes.
“It’s our first game of the year and we have a pretty small team. We probably added eight of these guys (on a 25-man roster) in the last week so in our training camp, we were not able to go a lot of live time. But, I’m proud of how our guys finished the game.”
1 2 3 4 Final
Vaux Big Picture 0 6 8 8 22
Lower Moreland 6 26 6 13 51
Scoring
1 LM Levi Fishman 3 run (run failed) 5:04
2 LM Fishman 1 run (run failed) 8:45
2 LM Andrew Rodriguez 39 run (kick blocked) 5:24
2 LM Jagger Fink 39 fumble return (Darin Astillero run) 4:07
2 VBP Hamid Griffin 70 kickoff return (pass failed)
2 LM Rodriguez 5 run (pass failed) :18
3 VBP Semaj Pridgim 3 run (Sean Washington run) 7:35
3 LM Carroll 11 run (run fails) 2:38
4 LM Astillero 12 run (run fails) 8:59
VBP Aleem Mathis 34 pass from Sean Washington Mathis run)
LM Gove 42 run (Senan Makharov kick)
Team Statistics VBP LM
First downs 5 13
Yards rushing 52 235
Passing (att-comp-int) 3-7-0 6-7-0
Yards passing 45 79
Total Offense 91 314
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties 8-50 3-20
Individual
VBP
Rushing: Washington 11-51; Pridgin 2-16 TD; Mathisw 2-14; Hinds 2-3; Patterson 1-3; Brown 1-1; Franklin 1- (-16)
Passing :Washington 3-7-0, 45 yards, TD
Receiving : Mathis 2-37, TD; Patterson 1-8
Lower Moreland
Rushing: Gove 13-113-TD; Rodriguez 4-48 2 TDs; Astillero 3-35, TD; Fishman 10-34, 2TDs; Carroll 2-10, TD;
Passing: Gove 6-7-0, 79 yards
Receiving: Carroll 3-61; Rodriguez 2-14; Udal 1-4