It is now clear that the Henderson High School football team is not good enough to get away with a shaky performance against a quality opponent. The mistake-prone Warriors dropped a 20-0 decision to visiting Plymouth Whitemarsh (PW) before a big crowd enjoying perfect high school football weather Friday night at Oscar J. Dicks Stadium.
The visiting Colonials did what Henderson could not by converting a field position opportunity late in the first half and then collecting two interception returns for touchdowns in the second to send the crowd home unhappy. It was Henderson’s first loss after two season-opening wins with the Ches Mont rivalry game against West Chester East on tap Friday night.
“I’m puzzled about why our offense was so inept,” offered Henderson coach Joe Walsh. “With each mistake we made, we became a little more hesitant. I told the players just now that there’s no guarantee when you come out here. Sometimes you have it. Sometimes you don’t.”
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Henderson was unable to take advantage of excellent field position throughout the first half thanks to a series of miscues that resulted in downs and distance of third and 21, fourth and 21, third and 23 and
third and 38. PW had its own third and 24 at the start of the second quarter and the game continued scoreless until late in the first half.
After a big defensive play by PW’s Dan Meluskey put Henderson into a fouth and 21 at its own 40, the punt snap was mishandled and the Colonials took over at the Henderson 31 with just 40 seconds left in
the first half. On fourth and four at the 25, PW quarterback Russhon Phillips rolled right and scrambled down the right sideline for 20 yards to put his team in business at the five with 26 seconds and all three
timeouts. On second down, Corey Kelly took the inside handoff from Phillips and busted into the end zone for the first points of the contest.
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The defensive star of the first half was Joe Dingfelder, whose interception of a screen pass in the first quarter reversed field position thanks to his 33-yard return. Later, he blocked a PW punt, giving
Henderson possession at the Colonials’ 32, but the Warriors again could not take advantage.
Jake Richard, the quarterback/running back threat also helped the Warriors with his punting, launching a perfect boot at the end of that possession to pin PW at its one yard line. It seemed that the Warriors
would finally break through after forcing the Colonials to punt from their end zone, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave the Colonials another field position reprieve.
Despite Henderson’s field position advantage, PW collected four first downs to Henderson’s two in the first half as the two teams continued to iron out early-season offensive wrinkles.
The game turned totally to PW’s favor early in the fourth quarter. The Warriors’ stout defense held PW out of the end zone with a fumble recovery at their own three, but on second and three from the 10,
quarterback Strafford Foster was picked off by Connor Watton, who waltzed into the end zone from the left flat for a 12-yard TD return.
Later in the period, Foster was trying to avoid a sack with a pass to the right sideline, but PW’s Xavier Ellington intercepted and sped down the sideline for the clinching score with less than seven minutes to go.
“This was one of those rare ones,” offered second year PW coach Dan Chang, whose team moved to 2-1 on the season with a win over Methacton and a loss to Abington. “We thought it would be a shootout. Henderson’s got a great program and they’re usually firing on all cylinders. But we continued fighting all game long. We got some good bounces and I thought maybe we were wearing them down towards the end.”
“They’re hurting now, but they’ll bounce back,” Walsh asserted. “We start ChesMont play next week and that’ll be plenty of motivation.”
