Ghosts' Toughness Prevails: Abington Wins an Overtime Thriller over Northeast High
Barry F. Hess
September 17, 2006
ABINGTON, Pa- One of the many fantastic scenes in the 1973 classic gangster film, The Godfather, is when the aging singer, Johnny Fontane, comes to Marlon Brando’s character for help after having a rough year.
Down on his luck and brought to tears by the unfortunate turn of events in his life Fontane begins to cry and says “I don’t know what to do,” to which Marlon Brando angrily responds “You can act like a man,” before berating and mocking his godson’s lack of moral toughness.
Friday night at Schwartzman Stadium the Abington High football team had every reason to act similarly to Johnny Fontane.
They were entering a big game against a very talented Northeast Philadelphia High without star quarterback Kevin Morton, who suffered a shoulder separation in week two against Plymouth Whitemarsh, several players were still mourning the death of a close friend who finally lost her long battle with cancer just days before the game and true freshman, Sam Kind, was preparing to make his first ever start under center at the varsity level.
The Ghosts, however, refused to allow the obstacles in front of them to make a negative impact on their play and rebounded off their first loss of the season with a heart pounding 19-13 overtime win over a desperate Vikings team that dropped to 0-3 with the loss.
When you get in a situation where you lose your best player there is going to be a point and time when kids and coaches alike say, well what are we going to do now?” said Ghosts’ head coach Tim Sorber. “With the funeral this week as well and just everything that these kids have had to go through, I told them, if you win a game like this it just makes it feel that much sweeter.”
After Sorber’s aforementioned pre-game speech his players responded to his message immediately, literally.
Junior running back Kahlil Pittman returned the game’s opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, giving his team a quick 7-0 lead and taking much of the pressure of his young quarterback.
Our normal return is to run it left but as I was running to the left my coaches are always telling me to look for the cut back, I saw it, made the cut to the right and was able to put a move on the kicker to beat him and score,” said Pittman, who rushed for 120 yards on 30 carries. “Whenever you get a chance to get on the field it doesn’t matter if you are a starter or not you want to make a good impression so every game I just go out and do the best that I can.”
With Pittman taking the bulk of the load off the his young QB the Vikings were unable to put a steady dose of pressure on the freshman, despite his early interception from his own 15-yardline that resulted in a game tying Viking touchdown.
Despite two fairly successful drives the Ghosts were unable to build on the early touchdown for the remainder of the first half leaving it up to the defense to keep them in the game, a challenge they eagerly accepted.
For us it was just feeding off the preparation of coach Conlin [the Ghosts’ defensive coordinator] and we could go out and see what they wanted to do and we were able to stop them for the most part,” said Rashad Miller, senior defensive end. “Our defensive line was able to stop the run, which is a huge part of their offense, so that was really big.”
Heading into the second half the Ghosts’ offense finally returned the favor with an 11 play 53-yard drive that ended with a Dan MacMillan one-yard TD run before kicker Nate Meyer missed the extra point.
And though the Viking quickly came back and scored a touchdown in similar fashion it was a blocked extra point by the Ghosts’ special teams unit that kept the game tied at 13-13.
With neither team able to score again in regulation the game went into overtime, where each team is given the ball at the opponents’ 10-yard line and the opportunity to score either a touchdown or a field goal.
After the stingy Ghost defense forced the Vikings to attempt a 32-yard field goal the special teams unit came up big again and put enough pressure on the Viking’s kicker to force the football wide left.
With their own chance to end the ball game Kind and company took the field with all the confidence in the world.
It was an unbelievable feeling to go out on the field in overtime with the chance to win the game,” said Kind. “All the support from my teammates and coaches this week kept me calm and focused out there and to know that I had a hand in the 2006 Ghost season is so big.”
A facemask penalty gave the Ghosts the football at the one-yard line and four opportunities to score, though Macmillan only needed one to score the game-winning touchdown, improve the Ghosts to 2-1 and exorcize a demon that still lingered from one year ago.
You know, the last time we played an overtime game it was down at that very end zone and it was against Cheltenham last year when we lost on Thanksgiving Day,” said Sorber. “So to come back in overtime and win shows a lot of heart to overcome the adversity that the kids did tonight.”
The Ghosts will now prepare, on a short week, to begin Suburban One League, National Conference play as they travel to Neshaminy to take on the Redskins Thursday night.
Down on his luck and brought to tears by the unfortunate turn of events in his life Fontane begins to cry and says “I don’t know what to do,” to which Marlon Brando angrily responds “You can act like a man,” before berating and mocking his godson’s lack of moral toughness.
Friday night at Schwartzman Stadium the Abington High football team had every reason to act similarly to Johnny Fontane.
They were entering a big game against a very talented Northeast Philadelphia High without star quarterback Kevin Morton, who suffered a shoulder separation in week two against Plymouth Whitemarsh, several players were still mourning the death of a close friend who finally lost her long battle with cancer just days before the game and true freshman, Sam Kind, was preparing to make his first ever start under center at the varsity level.
The Ghosts, however, refused to allow the obstacles in front of them to make a negative impact on their play and rebounded off their first loss of the season with a heart pounding 19-13 overtime win over a desperate Vikings team that dropped to 0-3 with the loss.
When you get in a situation where you lose your best player there is going to be a point and time when kids and coaches alike say, well what are we going to do now?” said Ghosts’ head coach Tim Sorber. “With the funeral this week as well and just everything that these kids have had to go through, I told them, if you win a game like this it just makes it feel that much sweeter.”
After Sorber’s aforementioned pre-game speech his players responded to his message immediately, literally.
Junior running back Kahlil Pittman returned the game’s opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, giving his team a quick 7-0 lead and taking much of the pressure of his young quarterback.
Our normal return is to run it left but as I was running to the left my coaches are always telling me to look for the cut back, I saw it, made the cut to the right and was able to put a move on the kicker to beat him and score,” said Pittman, who rushed for 120 yards on 30 carries. “Whenever you get a chance to get on the field it doesn’t matter if you are a starter or not you want to make a good impression so every game I just go out and do the best that I can.”
With Pittman taking the bulk of the load off the his young QB the Vikings were unable to put a steady dose of pressure on the freshman, despite his early interception from his own 15-yardline that resulted in a game tying Viking touchdown.
Despite two fairly successful drives the Ghosts were unable to build on the early touchdown for the remainder of the first half leaving it up to the defense to keep them in the game, a challenge they eagerly accepted.
For us it was just feeding off the preparation of coach Conlin [the Ghosts’ defensive coordinator] and we could go out and see what they wanted to do and we were able to stop them for the most part,” said Rashad Miller, senior defensive end. “Our defensive line was able to stop the run, which is a huge part of their offense, so that was really big.”
Heading into the second half the Ghosts’ offense finally returned the favor with an 11 play 53-yard drive that ended with a Dan MacMillan one-yard TD run before kicker Nate Meyer missed the extra point.
And though the Viking quickly came back and scored a touchdown in similar fashion it was a blocked extra point by the Ghosts’ special teams unit that kept the game tied at 13-13.
With neither team able to score again in regulation the game went into overtime, where each team is given the ball at the opponents’ 10-yard line and the opportunity to score either a touchdown or a field goal.
After the stingy Ghost defense forced the Vikings to attempt a 32-yard field goal the special teams unit came up big again and put enough pressure on the Viking’s kicker to force the football wide left.
With their own chance to end the ball game Kind and company took the field with all the confidence in the world.
It was an unbelievable feeling to go out on the field in overtime with the chance to win the game,” said Kind. “All the support from my teammates and coaches this week kept me calm and focused out there and to know that I had a hand in the 2006 Ghost season is so big.”
A facemask penalty gave the Ghosts the football at the one-yard line and four opportunities to score, though Macmillan only needed one to score the game-winning touchdown, improve the Ghosts to 2-1 and exorcize a demon that still lingered from one year ago.
You know, the last time we played an overtime game it was down at that very end zone and it was against Cheltenham last year when we lost on Thanksgiving Day,” said Sorber. “So to come back in overtime and win shows a lot of heart to overcome the adversity that the kids did tonight.”
The Ghosts will now prepare, on a short week, to begin Suburban One League, National Conference play as they travel to Neshaminy to take on the Redskins Thursday night.
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