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Admirers of alliteration can make a match by calling the football players from Prep Charter High School, 1928 Point Breeze Ave., “hungry Huskies,” but astute afionados can classify them as “hardworking,” too. On Saturday, the athletes combined their carnivorous nature and committed mindset to register a 14-12 victory over Del-Val Charter at the South Philadelphia super site, 10th and Bigler streets. With the win, the West Passyunk-based performers claimed the Public League’s Class AA title, their site’s premier pigskin crown.
“We’ve wanted this from the moment we came together,” second-year coach David Hand said to his charges, who moved their mark to 9-0-1 ahead of this Saturday’s 1 p.m. AA City championship matchup with Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., which walloped West Catholic, 34-12, in the Catholic League’s AA final. “You played for each other and earned this moment.”
Having tallied the first postseason triumph in program history last season, this year’s players and staff knew they had the potential to embarrass defenses and offenses with equal skill. They entered the contest having throttled The Academy at Palumbo, 1100 Catharine St., 62-0, in a Nov. 1 semifinal and looked for more jubilation against the Warriors, whom they had already bested, 13-6, on Oct. 18, their lowest-scoring tilt of the campaign.
“We needed to put it all together and give an all-around team effort to get it done,” senior quarterback Vian Dolo said. “We’re a more mature and composed group than we were last year, so this is huge for our confidence.”
The captain and his colleagues took the frigid field with conviction, vowing to honor Hand’s instruction to play with “controlled violence.” Following a failed drive that ended with a fumble and an impressive defensive stand, they appeared ready to execute uninhibited vigilance to gain immortality. Owners of five shutouts, the visitors could not corral Dolo on a third-and-13 play, with the Southwest Philly dweller escaping pressure to connect with junior wide receiver John Davis for a 79-yard score. Along with their defensive ledger, the guests have made mincemeat of opposing stoppers, with four games of at least 50 points, but Karamo Dioubate and his crew quickly revealed their foes’ woes would be plentiful with key stops on their second stand.
“All year, we’ve trusted what our coaches have said,” the junior end said of approaching another duel with the Warriors. “We knew we needed to step up because a regular season win against them is great, but we wanted more.”
The defensive diligence gave Dolo et al great field position following a botched punt attempt, and the signal caller, who teams with Dioubate to give Hand a pair of Liberian stalwarts, gave the ball to junior running back Quadir Strothers, whose 10-yard scamper made the tally 14-0. A mix of sloppy plays and strong defensive calls kept the teams from mounting any second-quarter threats, leaving Prep Charter one half from engendering hero worship.
“We knew their reputation,” Southwest Philly’s Dioubate, who picked up 4.5 sacks in the regular season scrum, said. “We were determined to keep the pressure on them.”
It soon seemed the Huskies might give their guests a goose egg, as two more futile series helped to give Dolo another chance to make the opponents’ limbs languish. Off a fake to running back Tarr Monway, he raced in from 12 yards out, but a penalty negated the score.
“That definitely could have gone a long way toward putting the game out of reach, but those things happen,” Dolo said.
With new life, the Warriors showed their might by converting a fourth-and-10 call that included a penalty. Quarterback Shayne Smith found Shaheed Brown for a 14-yard touchdown, and suddenly the whole location seemed electrified as temperatures dropped and breezes increased.
“We didn’t think they were stealing the momentum because we knew we would keep going after them,” Dolo said.
His second interception did not break the Huskies, but it did make his counterpart giddy, as Smith and Nasir Bonner hooked up for a 60-yard scoring strike, though the latter’s spiking of the ball pushed his squad back for its two-point conversion, which the Huskies stymied. With eight minutes to go, the crowd sensed a comeback could ruin the home unit’s date with history, but Dioubate would not allow it.
“I wanted that pressure,” the 6-foot-4 lineman said of dashing the upset plan. “I wanted to be there at the end.”
His desire became a lasting memory, as he dropped Smith for the second time to seal the win and set off the celebration. Part of a much more engrossing script, the victory quickly became secondary as the Huskies turned their attention to the task of defiling the Saints.
“They have very solid players,” Hand said of the 7-4 parochial club. “We’re going to have to make plays, plain and simple.”
“We’re strong and they’re strong,” Dioubate added of the impending super site clash. “We’ll have to settle it on the field to determine who’s stronger.”
Contact Managing Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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