Category: High School Sports

Ash Roberts remembers the dark. Some nights he would sob in a pillow, wondering if he lost his one love, football.

The 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior receiver at Roman Catholic never wanted anyone to hear or see him during those restless moments alone that kept him up burdened by self-doubt. He was the only one, he thought, who would forge through it.

Three years ago, major college recruiters would flock to see Tyseer Denmark, now at Penn State, work out when he was with Roman. But someone else also caught the scouts’ attention — a skinny, fast-twitch freshman. That’s when Roberts began receiving scholarship offers from programs such as Penn State, Alabama, Pittsburgh, and Michigan.

Something happened along the way. He broke his left collarbone before playing a down his freshman year, wiping out the season. Six games into his sophomore year, he snapped the same collarbone again. After 10 months of recovering, looking forward to a breakout junior season, he lost another year when he tore a meniscus in his right knee. The attention slowly dissipated. He found himself in a recruiting wasteland.

Roberts had only his senior year to prove himself — and he did just that. In Roman’s second game, Roberts scored three touchdowns in the Cahillites’ 49-35 victory over Cardinal Newman (Fla.). Against Catholic League champion and PIAA Class 6A state finalist La Salle College High School, he scored three touchdowns on two TD receptions and an 81-yard kickoff return. In Roman’s 39-36 win, he had 225 all-purpose yards, 130 yards receiving, and 95 return yards, looking arguably like the best player on a field filled with Power 5 recruits like La Salle’s Joey O’Brien, a Notre Dame signee, and Gavin Sidwar, who is heading to Missouri. In Roman’s 48-20 Class 5A state semifinal victory over Springfield (Delco) last Saturday, he had two touchdowns and a game-high five catches for 114 yards.

Temple football coach K.C. Keeler was not about to let a talent up Broad Street slip away from him, and on Wednesday, Roberts signed to play for Keeler and the Owls.

, Roberts will play a vital role Friday in Roman’s quest toward its first PIAA state football championship. The Cahillites (11-3) face District 3 and defending state champion Bishop McDevitt (12-2) at Cumberland High School in a rematch of last year’s Class 5A title game, won by McDevitt in overtime, 34-31.

As the days wind down toward his final high school game, Roberts said his injury ordeal sometimes causes him to pause and reflect on where he might have been if he did not encounter adversity.

“There were a lot of nights I was up and emotional, where I would question myself, ‘Why me, why is this happening to me?’” Roberts said. “I didn’t want anyone to hear me or see me like that. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself. I was not about to quit. I had people there for me, but you can only do the work and get through it yourself.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Everyone is going to see soon, everyone is going to see soon.’”

They are seeing.

Once a 5-foot-7, 140-pound freshman, Roberts found the weight room — with a little push from former teammate and current Duke freshman linebacker Will Felder, one of the Cahillites’ team captains last season.

“I couldn’t even lift 95 pounds when I started,” Roberts said, laughing. “I can hit 245 pounds for a couple of reps now. I never liked lifting. Being around Will, I wanted to put in the work and gain that confidence. I would do anything to get out lifting. I would go in there and just do leg presses and try to avoid the coaches.

“I wanted to play football and didn’t think I needed to lift. I would lock myself in the bathroom stall and get on my phone. The times I got caught in the bathroom, I would tell my coaches, I’m studying plays on my phone. They never believed me.”

He’s added three inches and 35 pounds.

In March 2024 when he was working out, he felt discomfort in his right leg. He had a torn meniscus, which could heal through rest, doctors told him.

It was another setback, after building himself up to squat 405 pounds, and power clean 265 pounds.

“Ash always had the talent, he needed to put the work behind it,” said Felder, who is getting playing time as a true freshman and carrying a 3.6 GPA at Duke. “We only live about five minutes away from each other, and I would take him to school every day. We would have long talks, and I think that helped him. Ash is like my little brother. I’m really proud of him, because he hated to lift. The biggest thing I wanted to reinforce to Ash was he’s still ‘that guy,’ and God would not put him in a situation he could not handle.

“Ash was so talented [that] he did not feel he had to lift. I stressed to him that if he got bigger and stronger, he would be a better player. I finally convinced him to do the work. Now look at him.”

Roman coach Rick Prete said he could have played Roberts late last season, but knowing he would be back his senior year, he was not about to risk Roberts’ future. Prete saw him tiptoeing around the weight room to become one of the team leaders there.

“It all came together, and a lot of college coaches are beginning to see what we knew about Ash here at Roman,” Prete said. “I think Ash is a great fit for Temple and Coach Keeler. Coming out of high school, considering Ashdan’s path, this has been great for him. Ash is on the quiet side, but with his teammates, that changes and he is outgoing. Beyond the shadow of doubt, Ash is the best wide receiver in Pennsylvania. He is bringing a level to his game that I love to see, adding something physical to the receiving room.”

That manifested in the state semifinal game when Roberts caught a pass on the sideline, lowered his shoulder and rammed through a couple of Springfield defenders during the second quarter. That showed the trust Roberts has in himself. It showed he conquered the doubts of whether he could withstand a hit. He woke up at 5 a.m. three days a week throughout the summer and into September to work out, a routine he built with Felder.

Though he sat out his junior season, Roberts was on the sideline last December when Roman lost to McDevitt in overtime. He remembers seeing the tears stream down the senior’s faces, strengthening his resolve to come back the next season and make an impact.

“I know what it is like having football taken away from me,” he said. “It’s something I took for granted. I took my talent for granted. I took my health for granted. I don’t take anything for granted anymore. With the breaks and tears, I learned something you love can be taken away from you in a split second. I want more. If I didn’t go through the injuries, I would not be as hungry as I am. I’m looking forward to working out with Will this summer. I want this state championship for him, for every senior who lost last year.

“Winning this state championship will be for them. We’re going to get the job done. We cannot let the work we put into this season go to waste.”

Roman Catholic has never won a PIAA state football championship. La Salle College High School has not won a state championship in 16 years. Both stalwart Philadelphia Catholic League programs will get their chance to make their respective marks this weekend in the PIAA Class 5A and Class 6A championships at Cumberland Valley High School.

In a rematch of last year’s 5A championship, Roman will face Harrisburg’s Bishop McDevitt, the alma mater of former Eagles LeSean McCoy and Ricky Watters, at 7 p.m. Friday. La Salle will follow on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the 6A final against Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic.

As both programs near the title game, neither Roman Catholic coach Rick Prete nor La Salle coach Brett Gordon have brought up winning a state title to their teams.

“We haven’t even mentioned the words ‘state championship’ all year,” Gordon said. “We want to stay on message. It’s been more of, ‘Let’s get into November playing our best football.’ I think we’re close. But I don’t think we’ve peaked. We hold a high standard.”

Prete has stressed constant improvement all season.

“Our message to the kids is that we didn’t play our best game in the state championship last year,” Prete said. “It bothered the coaching staff. It bothered the kids. It’s why our focus is playing a strong, clean game. We want to see what that looks like. The seniors this year want to do it for those kids who were in that game last year.”

PIAA Class 5A final

• (District 12) Roman Catholic (11-3) vs. (District 3) Bishop McDevitt (12-2)

In last year’s Class 5A championship, Roman rebounded from a 21-3 deficit early in the third quarter to tie it in regulation before losing, 34-31, in overtime. McDevitt is on a 12-game winning streak, last losing in August. The Cahillites are on a seven-game winning streak, and have been so dominant that they have not played their starters for an entire game since their 40-39 overtime loss to St. Joseph’s Prep on Oct. 10.

McDevitt has a first-year starting quarterback, junior Sebastian Williams. He has done a solid job filling the void left by the graduation of Pennsylvania’s all-time leading passer, Stone Saunders, now at Kentucky. Williams has thrown for 2,179 yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions this season. He showed considerable poise in leading the Crusaders in the final minutes to a walk-off 31-28 victory over Peters Township in the state semifinals.

Roman runs a no-huddle, up-tempo offense, ignited by Akron-bound senior quarterback Semaj Beals, who has passed for more than 12,000 career yards. He has two Temple-bound receivers in seniors Ash Roberts and Eyan Stead Jr., and a capable ground attack centered around sophomore tailback Trey Montgomery. Much will come down to the time Roman’s offensive line can provide Beals, who gets the ball out quickly.

Senior tight end Giovanni DeSimmone, senior right tackle Gustavo Gomez, junior right guard Malik Cochran, senior center Khalif McNear, senior left guard Dom Ramos, and junior left tackle Sebastian Waddell believe they have a mission to accomplish since losing to McDevitt last December.

“I know Roman is well-coached, Rick Prete does a great job, and I know they have a lot of guys back from last year,” said McDevitt coach Jeff Weachter, who has more than 300 career victories in 23 years. “They are explosive offensively, and they do a lot of different things on defense. They are physical. They run well. We have an idea what we’re up against with their up-tempo offense. They go fast. From what I understand, they are going even faster this year. That will be a little bit of an adjustment. It takes a little bit to get a feel for that. …This will be a great game.”

Prete likes the experience his team has going into the title game. Last year was a mountain of firsts for the Cahillites, who accomplished their first state playoff appearance, first state playoff victories, and first appearance in the state title game.

Roman was up 21-0 in the first quarter against Springfield in the state semifinals and was leading District 6 champion Hollidaysburg 48-0 in the first half of the state quarterfinals.

“This is a group that knows what to expect and we know how to conduct ourselves; we are not just happy getting to the state championship again,” Prete said. “Starting with the offense, we are not forcing anything. Defensively, scheme-wise, we have been good at figuring out the strengths of other teams and what our strengths are. This is a young group that is playing very maturely.”

Senior defensive back Justus Gaskin and junior linebacker Walter Hudson have been defensive standouts, and Stead has been a big contributor on the defensive side, too.

Roman’s inherent bonus is getting great preparation for this stage during the regular Catholic League season against stellar programs, like St. Joe’s Prep and La Salle.

“The Catholic League is the best in the state,” Prete said. “You have great coaches and great players, and your sense of everything is heightened. Playing great teams exposes your weaknesses. La Salle had the ball with a minute-something left down a score, with the ball in a Missouri quarterback’s hands [Gavin Sidwar] and a Notre Dame-bound receiver to throw to [Joey O’Brien]. We got a big stop. … As talented as McDevitt is, playing in the Catholic League allows us not to be surprised by the talent that we are going to see. McDevitt is a very formidable opponent, obviously the defending state champions.”

PIAA Class 6A final

• (District 12) La Salle (12-1) vs. (District 7) Central Catholic (13-1)

Neither team has won a state championship under the Class 6A system, installed in the 2016 season. La Salle’s last state championship was in 2009 (24-7 over State College at 4A) — when the Explorers became the first Philadelphia Catholic League team to win a PIAA state football championship under late hall of fame coach Drew Gordon, Brett Gordon’s father.

Central Catholic has not won a state title since 2015 (21-18 over Parkland at 4A). The Vikings are 0-4 in state championship games against Philadelphia area teams (losing to North Penn and St. Joe’s Prep three times, including a 35-6 defeat last year).

This is a rematch of the season-opening game, won by La Salle, 23-6. Gordon and Central Catholic coach Ryan Lehmeier stressed that their teams are far different from the ones that faced each other on Aug. 22. The Vikings have an offensive line that averages 284 pounds. La Salle’s offensive line averages 283 pounds. The difference is, Central Catholic has won on the ground, and La Salle wins through the air, featuring Sidwar, O’Brien, senior receiver Jimmy Mahoney, junior receiver Owen Johnson, and senior tight end John-Patrick Oates, who is now heading to Virginia Tech and new Hokies coach James Franklin.

In Central Catholic’s 32-14 win over Harrisburg in the state semifinals, the Vikings plowed ahead behind their massive front and sophomore tailback Chrys Black Jr., who rushed for 216 yards and three touchdowns. That template may be repeated, keeping La Salle’s potent offense off the field, and wearing down the Explorers’ defense.

“From an overall health standpoint, I like where we are, but what I didn’t like is that we put the ball on the carpet three times, losing two [in La Salle’s 49-14 state semifinal win over North Penn last Saturday],” Gordon said. “It is not characteristic of who we are. It is safe to say, I like where we are going into this game. We were pressed by Prep and Imhotep. Central Catholic is good at every position. I told people all year long that Central Catholic was the best team we played this season. When you turn on the film, there is no one you can look at as a weakness. ”

La Salle is receiving good interior work from 6-foot-2, 275-pound senior defensive tackle Jemel Williams, and Oates has blossomed into a quality edge rusher, where he may now play in college. Williams was disruptive in state playoff victories against run-oriented teams, including Easton and North Penn, while senior defensive end Ryan Fandozzi has been consistent all season.

Since La Salle lost to Roman in late September, Sidwar has completed 78% of his passes, with 24 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Since the opening loss to La Salle, Lehmeier said his team matured this season.

“Anytime you get this deep into a season, it means you pretty much have had success in all three phases of the game, and the point of emphasis against La Salle on Saturday is to play our style of football,” Lehmeier said. “Whether it’s the quarterback [Sidwar], or their young kid [Johnson] coming on, because I know Joey O’Brien gets a lot of press, they are pretty good. Their ability to spread the football and anytime you have a quarterback like that, it allows you to run that type of offense, which is hard to stop. They are obviously very impressive there. They do some great things on defense, too. They have tremendous football players.”

There are days when Brett Gordon is driving down Route 309 toward La Salle College High School and he’ll think about his late father Drew, the Hall of Fame coach who died on Sept. 4, 2023, at the age of 73. Memories of his dad, Brett admits, have become more vivid, especially these last couple of weeks.

The Explorers are on a special journey this season. So is their second-year coach Brett Gordon, who learned everything about football — and life — from his dad.

The only time La Salle won a PIAA state football championship was 2009, when the Explorers won the Class 4A title with Drew as their head coach and Brett as their offensive coordinator.

Drew and Brett are on the brink of doing something no father-son duo has ever done in the 36-year history of the PIAA football state playoffs — win state championships as head coaches. But first, one game stands in the way of accomplishing that. La Salle (12-1) will face Central Catholic High School (13-1) of Pittsburgh in the PIAA Class 6A final on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cumberland Valley High School.

“I know how much my father would have loved to be a part of this,” Brett said. “I think about him all the time. If my father was with us and he was in good health, he would have been around here coaching in some capacity. I wouldn’t have a choice. The thing I admired the most about my father was that it never was about him. He grew up in a generation of serving. He never cared about any recognition. He was direct. He was there to coach. He cared about the kids. That was all that mattered. That was how he operated.”

After La Salle beat St. Joseph’s Prep for the first time in 10 years for the Catholic League 6A crown on Nov. 1, Brett, 46, a 1998 La Salle and 2002 Villanova graduate, received a long, congratulatory text from former St. Joe’s Prep coach Gabe Infante, currently Duke’s assistant head coach, special teams coordinator, and defensive tackles coach. When Infante was first hired by The Prep in 2010, he was not exactly embraced by the area football community after taking over for the popular Gil Brooks.

One of the first welcomes Infante received came from Drew in a letter sent to Paramus Catholic in North Jersey, where Infante was leaving to take the Prep job.

“I know people will not want to hear this, but Drew and I were very close, even after he stopped coaching [in 2014],” Infante said. “Drew welcomed me, and that showed me who Drew was. He was a true competitor. He showed tremendous class. I was definitely an outsider who was not welcomed when I originally went down to Philadelphia. I would not be where I am today without Drew Gordon and what he built at La Salle. He raised my level, and I would like to think Prep’s success raised La Salle’s level again.

“I was in Brett’s shoes. I could appreciate what Brett is doing there. I am a fan of people who are committed to sacrifice like Brett is. True competition brings out the best in people. When Drew got sick, I reached out to him. We had a really good relationship, and it all started with a very kind, simple letter welcoming me to the Philadelphia Catholic League and Philadelphia area.”

Letters from Drew

The notes fill a shoebox in a bedroom drawer. They came in the form of either a Hallmark card, yellow legal paper, or a simple scrap of printer paper or from a looseleaf notebook. They sometimes would be sitting in an envelope on the kitchen table, tucked under a door or stuffed in a mailbox. Brett still has most of them — letters from Drew.

Father and son share a lot in common. They always took a cerebral approach to football. They always were focused and intense about the steps in the process of preparing. Brett, a two-time Catholic League champ and league MVP at La Salle, says he tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, probably more than his father, who was far calmer on the sideline and emotionally indifferent.

It’s why he communicated with his son and two daughters through letters.

Drew was a baby boomer born in 1950, the oldest of six. He was 12 when his parents separated, moving with his mother, Dorothy, and five younger siblings from Ohio to Glenside, Montgomery County. He was “the man of the house” who worked a paper route in Abington to help his mother pay the bills.

He was steeped in Midwestern stoicism and self-reliance.

“That was my dad,” Brett said. “He came from that generation when men did not show emotion. Verbal communication was not my dad’s strong suit. He had a very regimented way he did things. He built Gordon Truck Leasing from the ground up. We are similar in certain ways, and we are also very different. My dad was always about the process. I still use a lot of his old-school principles. But he came up in a different, authoritative generation. I’ll ask the players for their feedback, like what uniforms they want to wear. He would never have done that.

“The compliments he gave me came in letters. I still have a lot of them. He came from a different generation. He would put things down on paper.”

When Brett was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Villanova and La Salle, Drew left his son a letter stating how proud he was of him.

Sometimes letters were better.

After Brett threw for a Villanova single-game passing record of 460 yards (which still stands) and three touchdowns in guiding the Wildcats to a last-second 38-34 victory over rival Delaware in November 2002, he was greeted by Drew and his mother, Bernadette, outside the Villanova locker room. The first thing Drew said to Brett was, “Your footwork was horrendous today.”

“In a weird way, that was his way of complimenting me,” Brett said, laughing. “It was very hard for him to hand out compliments. I’m sure he told his buddies about the game I had. I always knew he was proud of me. I wouldn’t be where I am without him. Yeah, you could say it was the good, tough love. It is that constant reminder that there is always room to be better. That is my coaching philosophy today.”

This season is as much a homage to his dad as it is giving a group of dedicated seniors a year to remember.

An ‘emotional’ run

When John Steinmetz resigned after the 2023 season following nine years as Explorers’ head coach succeeding Drew, there was a groundswell of support from the La Salle community for Brett to take over. Brett, who was his father’s offensive coordinator from 2006 to 2014, dabbled in coaching after his father left La Salle in 2014. He joined Albie Crosby’s Imhotep Class 3A state championship staff in 2015 and helped occasionally at his alma mater.

Numerous current players were looking to transfer out of La Salle after their sophomore year. The Explorers had been competitive, though not exactly in the class of Catholic League foe St. Joe’s Prep. The Hawks had turned what once was a rivalry into a lopsided series. There is a standard at La Salle, a touchstone of success the football program had not felt since Drew left.

“It was not 100% that we were all leaving, but a lot of guys were talking,” said Gavin Sidwar, the Missouri-bound quarterback who has broken all his coach’s passing records at La Salle. “When we found out Coach Brett would be the head coach, it’s something a lot of us were happy to hear. Personally, I can’t say enough about what Coach Brett has done for me. He’s brought out a growth in me, and I am willing to put in 100% for him.

“He gave up his job for this. We know that. This run is going to be emotional for a lot of us. I know for me, being here for four years with some adversity, winning a state championship means everything. Knowing now the tradition his father has here and being the first father-son combination to ever win a state championship, it means more for all of us. We play our butts off for Coach Brett and the whole coaching staff. To get Coach Brett a state title, we are even more motivated.”

Brett received his business degree from Villanova and worked in the corporate world for 15 years, building a national reputation in the software industry. It gave him financial flexibility, he said, to do what he is doing now. He had to first check with Tanya, his wife, son, Luke, who is a sophomore quarterback for La Salle, and teenaged daughter, Grace, who follows her father everywhere.

“Tanya puts up with a lot, especially at certain times of the year like now,” he said. “In order to take on the role as coach at La Salle, I needed full support from not only Tanya, but Luke and Grace. This job impacts our entire family, so it was very important for me to have both Tanya and Grace involved so they feel a part of what we are building here.

“Tanya has gotten to know most of our players and has our son in the program, so it can be difficult being the head coach’s wife and being a parent in the program. She has done an amazing job balancing it all. Tanya and Grace often remind Luke and I at home when it is time to talk about something other than La Salle football.”

In 2009, father and son were robbed of their time in the sun, or in the Gordons’ case, that late-December Saturday, the snow. When the Explorers played State College in the 2009 Class 4A championship, the game was postponed for a day because of a raging blizzard. Luke had been born a few weeks earlier with a collapsed lung. His medical situation put the family on edge. Brett woke up at 7 a.m. on a snowy Saturday, Dec. 19 morning and had the roads to Hershey to himself. La Salle handily beat State College, 24-7, to become the first Catholic League team to win a state football championship.

The problem was Brett had no time to celebrate. He had to trek back home to be with Tanya and Luke.

Around 9 p.m. that night, Brett got a knock on the door. It was his dad, who drove through a snowstorm to get there, tossing aside the state championship celebration himself to see his grandson. He stayed in the guest room that night.

Drew never missed anything Luke or Grace did. To this day, Luke wears a silver chain his grandfather gave him.

There were more than 1,000 people who attended Drew’s funeral services, Brett recalled. It stretched over two days in September 2023.

“I saw my dad cry once, after my last high school game on Thanksgiving against St. Joe’s Prep in 1997,” Brett said. “We lost, and I remember when I saw him after the game, I told him I was sorry. He just burst open and hugged me. I remember his younger brother, my godfather, telling me years later he never saw anything like that with my dad. … It won’t be easy on or off the field. I wish I could bounce ideas off him, but I also know how much he would love being a part of this. If we are able to pull this off, he’ll be the first one I think of.”

La Salle senior quarterback Gavin Sidwar has many admirers, including a fan who asked him to autograph a $5 bill on Saturday. But Sidwar also likes to consider himself just one of the guys, as he enjoys going out to eat all the time with those big lugs on the Explorers’ offensive line.

“He could call a handoff to me, and I would be confident in him,” said Grayson McKeogh, the mighty left tackle.

McKeogh, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound senior, will throw blocks next year at Notre Dame, but Sidwar, the offensive line and all of his La Salle teammates have one more week to play football together, culminating in the PIAA Class 6A state championship game this Saturday.

Sidwar, a 6-3, 190-pound senior with remarkable composure and impeccable touch, plans to play football at the University of Missouri next year. But that can wait. The Explorers (12-1) have not played for a state title in 15 years and have not won one since 2009.

With frightening ease, they powered to a five-touchdown halftime lead this past Saturday against District 1 champion North Penn (12-3) and rolled to a 49-14 victory in a state semifinal before an overflow crowd at Central Bucks South. Central Catholic (13-1) of Pittsburgh awaits La Salle in the state championship.

The Explorers opened the season by beating the Vikings in a nonleague game outside Pittsburgh, 23-6. La Salle’s season has included just one setback: a 39-36 Catholic League loss Sept. 26 to Roman Catholic (11-3), which plays Bishop McDevitt for the 5A state title on Friday.

Since the PIAA expanded to six classes in 2016, the Catholic League champ is 8-0 in the 6A state semis against the best team in the Philly suburbs. But all seven of those previous victories were by St. Joseph’s Prep, La Salle’s archrival. The Hawks won seven state titles.

But it is, finally, someone else’s turn. La Salle, whose 2024 season ended with a 21-14 loss to the Prep in the District 12 title game — the Explorers’ only loss — has rebounded this fall to beat the Prep twice: by 31-20 on Oct. 4, then by 24-14 on Nov. 1 for the district title.

Sidwar played only the first half against North Penn, completing 14 of 19 passes for 246 yards and four touchdowns, including a 40-yarder and a 72-yarder. He spent the rest of the afternoon on the sidelines, helmet off, his shaggy black hair tousled, cheering on the reserves.

“We’re going to play teams that are good, but we’re a good football team, too,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to go out and play fast, play physical and play disciplined. Be us. Don’t press. It’s just a football game that we’ve been playing since we were kids. So play the game, not the occasion. Just go out and play football.”

La Salle is not quite unstoppable. Much to the displeasure of second-year coach Brett Gordon, the Explorers lost two fumbles against North Penn and were penalized eight times. He told his huddled team at midfield afterward, “I’m counting on you all to fix it.”

Sidwar threw a couple of passes Saturday that he’d like to have back. But Gordon said later that Sidwar has become even better after the Roman loss. In three state playoff games, he has completed 71% of his passes for 802 yards and nine touchdowns — and no interceptions. La Salle won those three games by a combined score of 129-35.

“Just when we think he’s got it all figured out, he figures out a way to continue to improve,” Gordon said. “He’s built for this, and he’s put in the work.”

It does help that Sidwar has a mountainous line and astonishingly talented receivers, including Joey O’Brien, the 6-3 senior who is also bound for Notre Dame. O’Brien, who is projected as a college safety, made two brilliant leaping catches on Saturday.

“He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and he proves it every day,” O’Brien said. “You always get a clean spiral, every time. And he doesn’t get too high or too low. He knows there’s more to be done. If we play our game, there’s nobody beating us.”

Sidwar spreads it around. His 72-yard touchdown pass Saturday was to Jimmy Mahoney, a 5-8 speedster who missed the previous two games with an injury. Sidwar flipped a short pass to Mahoney, who scored with the help of a couple of downfield blocks.

“They make it really easy,” Mahoney said of his teammates.

Mahoney said of Sidwar: “He’s making big-time plays — especially at big times. Every single game, he’s getting better.”

Sidwar has clearly benefited from working with Gordon, 46, who led La Salle to two Catholic League championships as a quarterback before playing at Villanova and serving as a La Salle assistant. La Salle has won 22 of 24 games with Gordon as its head coach.

As he told his team after Saturday’s game, “We set out two years ago on this mission, to get right here, right now.”

This team won’t get a chance to avenge its loss to Roman, which also has a terrific senior quarterback, the Akron-bound Semaj Beals. La Salle and Roman, and Sidwar and Beals, are generally considered to be interchangeable, No. 1 and No. 2 in the state.

Gordon smiled when he said of his senior quarterback, “He has set his expectations so high.”

Before he posed for photos after the game on the field Saturday with a stream of friends, family, and fans, Sidwar said, “We’re not going to leave anything unturned at this time of the year. It’s all or nothing at this point.”

He said of North Penn, “We knew they were good. We knew they had a good coach over there,” in Dick Beck. “But if we executed our game plan, we weren’t going to get stopped.”

Liam Taylor has been bracing himself for this. It whirls through his mind that this will be the last time he will wear shoulder pads. It will be the last time he will put on a football helmet. The last time he will practice. The last time he will play football.

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Haverford High School senior tailback admits he has been taking mental snapshots, trying to inhale each fleeting moment, before they fade past his eyes from light to shadow. The thoughts paralyze him sometimes.

Then he catches himself with this: He is on the verge of something special Thursday in the Fords’ traditional Thanksgiving Day game at Central League rival Upper Darby at 10 a.m. Only two players have ever rushed for more than 5,700 career yards in the long history of Delaware County high school football. Taylor is one of them. The other is former Cardinal O’Hara star Kevin Jones, the 2004 NFL first-round draft choice who now is a professor at his alma mater, Virginia Tech.

On Thursday, Taylor will need 79 yards to break Jones’ Delaware County career rushing record of 5,790 yards. Taylor enters the game with 5,712 career yards after establishing the single-season Delaware County record — previously held by Interboro graduate Abu Kamara (2,832) — when he rushed for 3,006 yards last season as a junior.

Against eight- and nine-man defensive fronts designed to stop him this season, Taylor has been “held” to 1,950 yards rushing this year.

Breaking the record will not be easy, Taylor says. Not only will Upper Darby try everything to stop him from surpassing that mark, but it also will be his last football game. He has opted, despite recruiting attention from numerous colleges, to not play football beyond Thursday.

He realizes he will be saying goodbye to a part of himself.

“That’s the hard part,” he said. “I look forward to practice. I have been playing football for 10 years, since I was in second grade. When I think about it, other than going to school for 12 years, it is the longest thing I have ever done in my life. It’s why I am looking forward to this Thanksgiving Day game. This will be like a backyard game you play with your friends after school. When we lost to Council Rock South [27-7 in the opening round of the District 1 Class 6A playoffs on Oct. 31 in Newtown], that hit hard. I know we had one more game to play. But it was a long bus ride back. We didn’t play any music.

“I love football. I’m trying to savor everything right now. Last year and this year have been a lot of fun. I decided over the spring not to play in college. I’ll miss it, and I am not fully over it. I never really gave it a thought of playing college football. It was difficult to make the decision, but I definitely would not call it an internal civil war, because I knew what I wanted. Every Saturday morning waking up after games was a very sore day. It was definitely a part of my decision. It was not a huge part of it. It’s hard to let something you love go. I’m ready for it, though.”

Taylor said posting stats such as his does not happen without help. He noted he would not be going anywhere without senior tackles Rocco Kelleher and Oliver Clune, senior guard Brendan Walker, junior guard Joe McGinley, senior center Emmet Gillespie, and rotating senior tackle and guard Liam McCloskey.

Haverford coach Luke Dougherty has been the buffer for incoming colleges interested in Taylor. Dougherty, who is in his fifth season at the helm and eighth overall with the program, had to tell coaches his star player was not interested in playing college football.

After his junior year, Taylor, who carries a weighted 4.7 GPA, was attracting Patriot and Ivy League attention. As this season progressed, Taylor has only strengthened his resolve not to play college football, Dougherty said. It gave Taylor a newfound freedom on the field, playing without feeling the scrutiny of college recruiters.

“Liam can easily play college football at a lot of places, and when we revisited his decision in early October, he told me, ‘Coach, I am dead set on my decision not to play college football. I’m loving this,’” Dougherty said. “The Patriots and Ivys all liked Liam, but it never reached the formal offering process because by that time, when he did not go to any of the college camps he was invited to, word was out. Penn came here for Liam. Cornell came in three or four times. Bucknell came to the building.

“College coaches are a little different. They can’t understand someone as talented as Liam not wanting to play college football. Coaches are still coming in asking, ‘Is Liam still not interested in playing college football?’ It was shock for a lot of these guys.

“Penn’s [offensive line coach] Kyle Metzler, who recruits our area, probably said it best when he told me, ‘There are a lot of people who go to really good schools who don’t play football and make a lot of money in this world. God bless Liam, he knows what he wants, because we have too many guys at Penn who come here thinking that they have a meal ticket to the NFL and we try to convince them that they’re here for the four-year Penn education. This isn’t a transfer portal launching pad.’”

Many schools still left their information for Dougherty in case Taylor changed his mind. Taylor has not changed his mind. He wants to go to Georgia, his the alma mater of his father, Eric.

Special motivation

Taylor comes from special genes. His father, a former Haverford star, is the son of former Springfield (Delco) coach Rick Taylor. His maternal grandfather is Jan Stefanski, the brother of Eddie Stefanski, the former Bonner-Prendergast and Penn basketball star and 76ers general manager who is the father of Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski.

In January, Eric was diagnosed with cancer. It is under control. He received immunotherapy for three months. Progress has been made. He is still receiving chemo maintenance.

Liam entered his senior year with that on his mind.

Eric did not miss a game this season.

“I was mad because this is something I couldn’t do anything about, but my dad inspires me. He inspires me every day,” Liam said. “Thinking about it, I suppose I took his mind off what he was going through. My dad loves seeing me play. He is always on my mind. If playing helped him get through this, that’s all I care about. We talk about breaking the record all the time. My whole family is going to be there. I’ll be thinking about my dad. We get to gather around a high school football game and not think about real life.

“This won’t be easy. It will be good. Hopefully I break the record, and everyone will be happy. It will be sad because I’ll be taking off a Haverford uniform for the last time.”

Eric, a 1990 Haverford graduate and longtime Upper Dublin assistant coach and special education teacher, is bracing himself for the end of Liam’s football career, too. Because of the cancer treatments, he missed Liam’s lacrosse games last spring and could not travel to see his daughter, Emma, pitch for Yale’s softball team.

“For three hours every Friday night, I don’t know who was more excited for games, me or Liam,” said Eric, who has been on a medical sabbatical from Upper Dublin. “He inspires me, seeing the things he does on a football field and how well he plays. Our whole family was able to come out and watch games. I was never able to beat my dad at Springfield when I played at Haverford, but Liam beat them his junior year. Liam wants to go south, and he wants to enjoy his college experience.

“It is tough not watching him play in college. He is so good. He could play in college. We’re going to have to adopt another kid to watch. We have had that talk. He can come home from college and play in the local softball bar league. You can’t do that with football. This is it. He’s OK with it. It was tough. There were conversations. We were looking for him to change his mind.”

But Eric and his wife, Christa, raised Liam to have a mind of his own.

“That’s why he will be great at anything he does,” Eric said. “He is kind of special. He says I’m his inspiration. He’s my inspiration, too. But where the speed comes from, I don’t know. It’s certainly not from the Taylor side. I see my wife run, too, so I don’t know where he gets it.”

Then Eric recalled a story about Liam when he first began playing football.

Eric or Christa would drop him off and pick him up after practice was over. They had to shuttle their daughters around and rarely had time to sit and watch Liam’s practices. One time Christa, who is Haverford’s field hockey coach, happened to arrive at football practice just before it wrapped up one evening. The team was finishing its sprints, and she noticed something.

Christa recalls going down to the field and asking Liam, “Are you OK?” Liam looked up at his mom and said, “I’m OK, why?” Christa replied, “Because you’re last. Listen, you don’t always have to be first, but you can’t be last.”

After that, every time Christa and Eric picked up Liam, he was in front.

He’s been front and center, it seems, ever since.

Jayden Boyd texted a group of Northeast High School football players from his hospital bed in September.

“I got shot,” he wrote.

Jeremiah Tellus read it and thought the quarterback was playing a joke. A few hours later, Tellus saw his friend on a Zoom call as Boyd told the team what happened.

Some Northeast players were sleeping at an assistant coach’s house in Frankford so they wouldn’t be late to practice on Labor Day morning. They were playing video games when they heard gunfire around 1 a.m. outside on Adams Avenue.

Boyd dropped to the floor of the living room.

“Because, you know, that’s what people do,” Boyd said.

Police said several shots were fired through the living room window, and one struck the 17-year-old.

“People always say it feels like it’s burning,” Boyd said. “But I just felt like something went in me. I said, ‘I got shot.’”

Police rushed Boyd to Temple University Hospital, where a surgeon removed a bullet that fractured the quarterback’s spine. His football season, they figured, was finished. Doctors said it could have been worse.

“One more inch to the right, and I would’ve been paralyzed,” he said. “I try not to think about that.”

Boyd told his teammates in the morning that everything would be OK and reminded them to focus on their next game. He was recovering from a gunshot wound but was thinking about his team. He’s a true quarterback, his mother said.

Boyd returned to school three weeks later but missed Northeast’s next nine games and could only watch as the Vikings lost to Lincoln in the Public League playoffs.

“He kept saying, ‘I let my team down,’” said his mother, Bahisha Durbin. “I said, ‘You didn’t let anybody down. This is not your fault.’”

But Boyd’s season did not end that night in Frankford. Doctors told him last week that he can play again, clearing the quarterback in time to join his team for its Thanksgiving game against rival Central. On the night he was shot, the teenager underwent surgery to remove the bullet. He never lost the ability to walk. After he recovered, he underwent physical therapy at Children’s Hospital before he was cleared to play. Boyd practiced Monday afternoon, wearing shoulder pads for the first time in more than two months. It was surreal, he said.

And his teammates — guys like Tellus, who prayed that their teammate was still alive until he showed up on that Zoom call — could not believe it.

Boyd made it back for Thanksgiving.

“Thankful,” he said. “Thursday is going to be very emotional. I know we’re going to score when I’m in the game, so I’m probably going to shed a couple tears.”

Football brought joy

Durbin signed up her son to play football when he was 7 years old, hoping the sport would help his ADHD.

“It was a godsend,” she said. “It’s helped out so much. I can’t thank the coaches enough.”

Football soon became Boyd’s life. That’s all he cares about, his mother said.

“I’m, like, a physical person, so I wanted to be a part of that,” Boyd said. “It brought joy to my life.”

Boyd wanted to be a wide receiver like Odell Beckham Jr. but soon fell in love with playing quarterback. He spent his first two high school seasons at Archbishop Carroll before transferring to Northeast.

He leaves his home in South Philly each morning at 6:15 and takes two buses and a subway to get to school.

“He’s a great part of the team,” said Tellus, a running back. “He’s a great friend. He has great loyalty. He always has my back. He’s a great friend to have.”

Boyd dreamed of playing college ball and studying sports medicine. That felt impossible, though, after he was shot. Schools had been in touch with him, but Boyd knew he needed to show more on the field. His junior year was supposed to be his chance to display his talent as a dual-threat quarterback — “I can beat you with my arm and legs,” he said — and earn a college scholarship.

“Football was the last thought on my mind, but he doesn’t care about anything else,” Durbin said. “He was like, ‘Life is over because football is over and I can’t play.’ I said, ‘It’s OK, Jay. It’s not like your grades are messed up and that’s why you can’t play. You can’t play because you got shot.’ He’s just so passionate.”

Boyd was devastated to not play and soon became nervous in his own neighborhood. He spent weeks with a friend in Drexel Hill as the shooting made him afraid of being in Philly. Boyd figured if he couldn’t be safe playing video games, then where could he?

He had nightmares and flashbacks about that night on Adams Avenue and now meets with a therapist. His mother asked him if he wanted to switch schools. Boyd declined.

He wanted to stay at Northeast with coach Nick Lincoln, who was at Temple University Hospital that night and kept Boyd involved with the team while he was sidelined.

“It’s not something you necessarily prepare for when you get into coaching,” Lincoln said. “But being in Philly for about 15 years, I can’t say it’s the first time that something has occurred to my players off the field. It’s always disheartening and surprising. You just try to figure out how you can best support him and his family. We want these kids to use the sport to better themselves, become men in the community, and not become products of an environment.”

Reasons to be grateful

Durbin was sleeping when her son called that night.

“Usually, when Jayden is blowing my phone up it’s because he wants something from Wawa,” Durbin said. “I’m like, ‘I’m not giving this boy any more money.’ That’s usually what it is.”

So she didn’t answer. And then her other son ran into her bedroom to tell her what happened.

“I called Jay, and I was yelling at him,” Durbin said. “I hear him, but I don’t. It’s 1 o’clock in the morning, and we don’t play in the streets at 1 o’clock.

“I said, ‘What were you doing outside?’ He said he wasn’t outside. So I said, ‘How did you get shot?’”

Boyd told his mother the story, reminding her that he was sleeping at a coach’s house.

“He was loud but calm,” Durbin said. “That’s what helped me not get hysterical. Because he was calm. He didn’t call me screaming.”

She rushed to the hospital, fearful that her son would never walk again, and then was relieved to see he was OK. Durbin worried about the teammates who were there that night.

“I felt bad for the kids who had to watch and see it,” Durbin said. “These are good kids. They’re not in the hood doing crazy stuff. All these kids know is football. The one kid was shaking so bad because the coach was telling him to apply pressure on [Boyd’s] back. He was scared.”

Earlier this month, police arrested Nasir Johnson, 26, and charged him with aggravated assault, a firearms charge, and related offenses. Police said they had obtained surveillance footage of someone wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt firing a gun on 4200 block of Griscom Street in the direction of the 1500 block of Adams Avenue, where Boyd was playing video games. Police said they recovered several items — including clothing that was consistent with what the suspect was wearing in the surveillance footage — when they arrested Johnson.

Lincoln called Boyd’s mother last week to say he wanted the quarterback to play a few snaps on Thanksgiving, just enough to give him a taste of being back on the field before next season. The series against Central, which dates to 1892, is said to be the nation’s oldest rivalry among public schools.

Boyd wasn’t able to show college coaches his promise this fall, but he still has another season of high school ball to prove himself. He can’t wait.

“We’re going to do something crazy next year,” he said.

His mother agreed to let him play Thursday but told the offensive line to “protect my baby.” She gave her son Psalms to recite before he takes the field, and she’ll be in the stands with an entire section of family and friends. Nearly three months after being shot, Boyd will be back on the field for one last game. His season is not finished.

“We’re just grateful,” Durbin said. “I’m grateful that he’s here. It’s Thanksgiving, for sure.”

It was Nick Lincoln’s first season at Northeast High School, so the football coach asked his athletic director last November if the Wooden Horse — the mahogany trophy carved nearly 80 years ago by a student — could be brought to the field on Thanksgiving morning for the annual game against Central.

The trophy, heavy and old, usually stays inside. But what good is the Wooden Horse if the players can’t hoist it after a win?

“Well, we had a little too much excitement,” Lincoln said.

The celebration ended, and the horse no longer had a tail.

“I said, ‘Dude, you’re going to get me fired,’” athletic director Phil Gormley said. “‘You’re going to be back coaching in Delaware, and I’m going to be bagging groceries at the Acme.’”

Northeast vs. Central is one of the longest-running rivalries in the country, but the Thanksgiving game is no longer the spectacle it once was. The halls of the schools don’t buzz in the weeks leading up to it, the parade down Cottman Avenue was canceled years ago, the bleachers aren’t filled, and the trophy is falling apart.

High school football in Philadelphia once meant as much to Thanksgiving as Santa Claus climbing into Gimbels. But traditions fade. Just 10 games are planned Thursday in Southeastern Pennsylvania, down from 28 in 2005. Thanksgiving games have faded for a variety of reasons: state playoffs, lack of competition, tepid attendance, and school closures.

But Northeast vs. Central — the schools say it’s the nation’s oldest rivalry among public schools — refuses to go away, even if the trophy is showing its age. The teams will meet again at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Northeast.

“I don’t think the game will fade,” Gormley said. “It’s not attended like it used to be, but I know it’s still important to our alumni. When I talk to anyone who comes back for any reason, it’s always a question that eventually comes up. I think the game, for the foreseeable future, is OK. It’s certainly something that could happen, but thankfully it’s not something that will happen anytime too soon.”

A historic game

The schools first played in 1892 and started playing annually in 1896. The rivalry has paused only twice: in 1918 during World War I and 2020 during the pandemic. They’ve played through snow, rain, and muddy fields.

The rivalry was real, as the schools were just three miles apart: Central was at Broad and Green, and Northeast was at 8th and Lehigh. The trophy came along in 1947, when Northeast’s Spurgeon Smith, using only a kitchen paring knife, carved into a block of mahogany donated by Smythe Mahogany Company.

The games often were epic and packed. More than 15,000 fans saw Central beat Northeast in 1929 at the Baker Bowl, they played a muddy scoreless tie in 1971, and they’ve braved a few snowstorms.

Philadelphia had a full slate of high school football on Thanksgiving morning, and Northeast-Central was the game for years.

“Everyone is brought on board at Central knowing that Thanksgiving is against Northeast,” said Jeff Thomas, Central’s associate archivist. “No matter how good or bad the team is that year, that is the most important game. Very similar to Army-Navy. Both teams could be 1-6, but when they play each other, it’s the most important game.”

In 1986, current Central coach Rich Drayton scored five touchdowns as the Lancers ran up the score in a 60-3 win in front of 7,000 fans. Afterward, Northeast coach Harvey Schumer refused to shake hands with Central coach Bob Cullman, and the two had to be separated at midfield. Three years earlier, Northeast didn’t let up in a 42-point Thanksgiving win. So Central was returning the favor.

The rivalry was deep.

“Wherever you go wearing your Lancers stuff, people ask for your class number,” Drayton said. “The next thing they say is, ‘Are we going to win on Thanksgiving?’ It’s a really big deal. Hopefully, the student body can notice before it’s too late how important it is.”

Hanging on

The parade of antique cars and convertibles started near the Roosevelt Mall, traveled west on Cottman Avenue, turned right on Glendale Avenue, then finished with a lap around the track that circled Northeast’s football field.

The stands were filled as more than 6,000 fans came each Thanksgiving to see which school’s trophy case would hold the Wooden Horse.

But the parade ended about 15 years ago when the school district replaced the cinder track with rubber. Students no longer decorate the stadium like they once did, and the game now attracts between 600 and 800 fans instead of thousands.

Both schools have strong alumni groups, and former students still come out. It’s a chance to wear a letterman’s jacket, see old classmates, and tell the same stories.

“We have breakfast in the gym for alumni who come back,” Gormley said. “These old guys would be in there razzing each other. ‘Well, you lost to Central. I never lost to them.’ You know how guys talk. It’s funny to hear.”

But interest among current students is tepid. Both schools draw students from across the city, and getting to Northeast Philly on a holiday morning can be a challenge.

The game has become one-sided — Northeast last lost in 2013 — and a football game doesn’t mean what it once did. The high school experience at Northeast and Central is not defined by the football teams the way it was in the 1960s or 1970s.

“We have career day, and me and the other old guys come in,” Thomas said. “At the end of each class, we’ll ask them who’s going to the game. One hand raised. I’m like, ‘OK. Well, let’s beat Northeast.’ They’re like, ‘Huh?’ It’s gone full cycle to almost no care at all.”

St. Joseph’s Prep and La Salle High School stopped their Thanksgiving game in 2006. North Catholic and Frankford played their final game in 2009 before North closed seven months later. Father Judge and Lincoln canceled their annual game last year, and Neumann Goretti and Southern won’t play this year.

Thanksgiving games drop off the schedule every year. As interest drops, could Northeast-Central be next?

“No,” Thomas said. “Well, maybe. After, say, everyone who graduated before 1985 is gone.”

High school football’s regular season in Pennsylvania started a week before Labor Day and ended a week before Halloween. Central did not make the playoffs, and Northeast lost in the first round, so neither team has played a game in nearly four weeks.

The PIAA playoff schedule has ended other rivalries as schools are either playing this weekend in the state tournament — like La Salle — or have been dormant for too long to play on Thanksgiving.

Northeast and Central found a way to keep their teams together as they wait for Thanksgiving. The coaches could have walked away weeks ago when the season ended — they instead practice a few times a week and schedule time in the weight room. They want to give their kids another game.

“I would love to be playing a PIAA playoff game and have to forfeit,” Lincoln said. “But it’s another chance for our guys to play football.”

Lincoln held his breath last Thanksgiving before he found the Wooden Horse’s tail on the field. His first win against Central wasn’t spoiled by a horse’s rear.

Gormley took the Wooden Horse to a nearby trophy shop, which repaired the tail and added last year’s final score — Northeast 37, Central 21 — to the base before it was tucked safely into the trophy case. The Wooden Horse, just like the game it represented, refused to go away.

“I’m going to try to bring it out again,” Lincoln said. “Let’s see if the AD allows me to.”

Not long after North Catholic’s building and campus were sold in 2011, an alumnus found pieces of sports equipment in a nearby dumpster. Ruby-red helmets, game-used footballs, and faded trophies were discarded carelessly, bound for a landfill, until this anonymous Samaritan fished them out.

To the seniors who were part of the school’s 1978 football team, these items were anything but garbage. They represented cherished memories, including the greatest of all: the 50th anniversary Thanksgiving Day game between the North Catholic Falcons and the Frankford Pioneers.

The “Norphans” — derived from “North Catholic” and “orphans” — are determined to keep the legacy of that game alive. For decades, it was a Northeast Philadelphia tradition. The neighboring high schools, one public and one Catholic, played from 1928 to 2009, not for a state championship or a league title, but for bragging rights.

The 50th anniversary pushed an already-intense rivalry to new heights. Eagles coach Dick Vermeil relocated his team’s practice to Franklin Field so the high schoolers could play at Veterans Stadium. Twenty-five thousand people showed up, including politicians and scores of local reporters.

The Falcons were heavy underdogs. They’d gone 5-6 that year and had lost their previous four Thanksgiving games to Frankford. The Pioneers were a bigger team, with a renowned coach in Al Angelo, who led them to a 7-1-1 record en route to a city title in 1978.

But North Catholic was gritty. And on Nov. 23, it pulled off an improbable win, beating its rival, 21-14, in the seniors’ final game together.

As the Falcons walked off the field, nose tackle John Kane imagined returning for the 100th anniversary in 2028. That became impossible in 2010, when North Catholic closed because of dwindling enrollment, rendering the Thanksgiving tradition a thing of past.

But the 1978 North Catholic seniors still have remnants of that game, recovered from the dumpster. They still have the film. They still have the memories, and they still have one another. And for that, they are grateful.

“It was the last game we’d ever play together, and we went out as a winner,” said offensive lineman Chuck Cianci. “It was our championship.”

‘Our Super Bowl’

North Catholic and Frankford occupied the same swath of Northeast Philly, about a mile and a half apart. The high schools’ proximity made the Thanksgiving game a hotly contested neighborhood event.

Kane compared it to the “Catholics and the Protestants in Northern Ireland.” Cianci said it was like “hell week.” Stories of past Thanksgiving games were passed down from generation to generation. Local children dreamed of playing in it — and quickly learned to embrace the rivalry.

Fullback Tim Keller, then a freshman, recalled taking the bus home after the Falcons lost to the Pioneers, 12-7, in 1974. As the North Catholic bus turned off Adams Avenue and onto Roosevelt Boulevard, the Frankford bus pulled up alongside it.

“The next thing you know, the windows came out, and the [North Catholic fans] were throwing the [bus] seats at them,” Keller said. “We lost the game and tore the bus apart.”

A police officer pulled the vehicle over. He allowed women and children to exit, but raucous students and adults spent their Thanksgiving at the 15th Police District on Levick Street.

“The cop gets on [the bus] and says, ‘Sit down!’” Keller said. “And we’re like, ‘We can’t. There are no seats anymore.’”

The officer took the North Catholic fans’ IDs but did not search their pockets. They smuggled a bottle of wine in and passed it from cell to cell.

Even when the games weren’t competitive, the rivalry remained intense. North Catholic was shut out every Thanksgiving from 1975 to 1977. Frankford put up a combined 65 points over that span.

But the Falcons entered the 1978 season with a singular focus. North Catholic coach Jeb Lynch started harping on the Thanksgiving game during the team’s summer workouts at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales (now DeSales University).

They practiced from morning until night, turning their car headlights onto the field when it became too dark to see.

It ended up being a lackluster season. By Thanksgiving week, North Catholic had lost four consecutive games, including a 49-11 drubbing by Archbishop Ryan.

Nevertheless, the excitement around the 50th anniversary was palpable. It was all anyone in the neighborhood talked about. Teachers and students expressed their support — some in unorthodox ways.

North Catholic slotback Dan Galiczynski took an electronics class his senior year. He was struggling. A few days before the game, his teacher, a religious brother, offered him a lifeline.

“The brother said, ‘Dan, all you’ve got to do is beat Frankford,’” Galiczynski said. “‘And I’ll give you a 72.’”

(He chose 72 because it would allow Galiczynski to “barely pass” without exaggerating his electronics savvy.)

Before 1978, the Thanksgiving game had been played at Temple Stadium (which was demolished in 1997) or Franklin Field, but to commemorate the 50th, Angelo proposed that it be moved to Veterans Stadium. The city signed off on the idea and arranged for Frankford to use the Eagles’ locker room. North Catholic was to use the visitors’.

Just before 9:45 a.m. that Thursday, the Falcons walked out of the tunnel to thousands of screaming fans. They looked up and saw friends and family in the crowd.

Frank Correll, who played on special teams, got goose bumps.

“We all came from small neighborhoods,” he said. “So it was overwhelming. Now you understand why these guys all come out for big football games running around and jumping. There’s a lot of energy. And this was, for our school, our Super Bowl.”

High school heroics

It didn’t take long for things to get contentious. Frankford fans began chanting “We don’t want turkey, we want Falcon!” Some threw whiskey bottles at North’s captains during the coin toss.

As handles of hard liquor careened through the autumn air, tailback Harry Ulmer turned to Cianci.

“He was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Cianci said. “That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good.”

Despite the hostility, North Catholic got off to a promising start. Defensive back Ray Dovell recovered a fumble on Frankford’s first possession, setting the Falcons up at the Pioneers’ 21-yard line. Moments later, Ulmer rushed for a touchdown to give North Catholic an early lead.

Frankford responded with a 60-yard touchdown drive. But a two-point conversion attempt failed, leaving North Catholic with a 7-6 lead with 10 minutes, 23 seconds left in the second quarter.

Then North Catholic got another break. Defensive back Joe McCourt intercepted a pass from Frankford quarterback Chris Yurkow, and ran 18 yards to reach the Pioneers’ 30-yard line.

With less than two minutes to go in the half, North Catholic was desperate to add to its lead. But on the next three plays, the team didn’t get any closer to the end zone; it went backward, losing 6 yards.

Now, there was only a minute remaining. North Catholic sat on the 35-yard line, too close to punt and too far for a field goal. Lynch settled on a conservative play. He wanted to run the ball.

But Cianci had other ideas. The offensive lineman jogged into the huddle.

“Coach just wants you to run the ball,” he said. “We’re not doing that. What do you want to do?”

Wide receiver Tim Weidenmiller looked at quarterback Tony Daulerio. The team had practiced a tight end out-and-up play but hadn’t used it in the game yet.

“I can beat this corner right now,” Weidenmiller told him.

“All right,” Daulerio responded. “Let’s do that.”

On fourth-and-16, Daulerio hit Weidenmiller for a 23-yard pass that put them at Frankford’s 12-yard line. Ulmer then ran it in for his second touchdown of the day, giving North a 14-6 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, Frankford blocked a North Catholic field goal and recovered the ball at its own 33-yard line. The Pioneers drove 67 yards to tie the game, 14-14, with 4:04 left in the quarter.

Ulmer exited with a sprained ankle. Running back Dave Paul replaced him and ran 26 yards for a touchdown, but the play was called back for a clipping penalty. The ball was returned to the 29-yard line.

Galiczynski walked over to his coach.

“Listen,” he told Lynch. “I’m a senior. Dave Paul is a sophomore. I ran tailback my whole junior year. Put me in.”

“Go ahead,” Lynch responded.

Galiczynski scored two plays later. The Falcons made the extra point, giving them a 21-14 lead with 10:22 left.

The Pioneers had ample time to score, but North held the line. Defensive back Paul Golden finished the game by intercepting Yurkow’s Hail Mary pass with just over a minute remaining. The clock ran out. The Falcons crowd roared.

A few players lifted Lynch on their shoulders as they triumphantly marched off the field.

“We got to this game, in this special place, and we won it,” Cianci said. “And to look around and see the fans, and how much joy they had … it was unbelievable. We were like folk heroes.”

A new tradition

After graduating, the seniors from the 1978 North Catholic team went their separate ways. Some moved out of the city, some moved out of the state. But the group stayed in touch while supporting each other from afar.

In the early 1980s, Cianci was accepted into the police academy. A few months later, he was told classes for that semester had been canceled. He had to find a new job until the academy opened up, and happened to run into Galiczynski at a local softball game in Philadelphia.

Cianci explained his predicament.

“Danny said, ‘You can work with me in construction,’” Cianci said. “And he put me to work until the academy called me back. That’s the kind of friendship we have.”

In 2018, Tommy Campbell, a senior defensive tackle on the 1978 team, fell ill. He was diagnosed with amyloidosis and a rare blood disease. His heart and liver were failing him. The North Catholic graduate spent six months on life support in the intensive care unit.

Campbell worked as a mechanic for an airline at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington. The airline’s insurance company told him it wasn’t going to cover a heart and liver transplant because of the blood disease.

His wife, Karen, began a letter-writing campaign to persuade the insurance company to pay for the operations. Multiple members of the 1978 North Catholic team joined in.

Linebacker Pat Jordan, a 1978 senior captain, took it a step further. He was a longtime plumber with Local 690. The union used the same insurance as Campbell, so Jordan decided to apply some pressure.

“He went to the international, and said, ‘Listen, we need to do something. This is one of my best friends,’” Cianci said. “‘We’re going to call the insurance company. We’re going to threaten to pull our insurance for all union members if they don’t get this approved.’”

The company reversed its decision and covered Campbell’s surgery. To this day, he believes his teammates saved his life.

“These were guys I hadn’t seen in 30-35 years, coming to the plate,” Campbell said. “Everybody should be lucky enough to feel that.”

Jordan died unexpectedly on Feb. 3. He was 63. The 1978 seniors toasted to him during a reunion last summer in North Wildwood.

This is their annual tradition now. There are no more North Catholic-Frankford games to go to. The local Thanksgiving games that remain just don’t feel the same.

So every July, the Norphans will meet at the beach before they head to Keenan’s Irish Pub. They’ll celebrate Jordan, linebacker Frank Wodjak, guard Ken McGuckin, and other fallen teammates.

They’ll wear black-and-red polo shirts with uniform numbers stitched into their sleeves and relive a day that still feels like dream.

“And we’ll toast,” Galiczynski said, “until the last of us is standing.”

All 20 players on the Belmont Charter football team were back on a school bus Tuesday, this time for practice at the South Philadelphia Super Site. It was a sweet upgrade from its usual practice field, best described as an open space in Fairmount Park.

With a male enrollment of 127, Belmont Charter is the smallest Public League school with a football team. Belmont Charter, now located in the former John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School near Logan Square, has no home stadium and has had varsity football only since 2021.

“With limited resources, we do make the best out of it,” said Cintella Spotwood, the school’s athletic director.

Belmont Charter still can do something that no other Public League can match this season: win a PIAA state football championship. The Tigers (9-1) play Lackawanna Trail (12-1), from near Scranton, in the Class 1A quarterfinal Friday night at Northern Lehigh High School, about a half-hour’s drive north of Allentown.

Since the PIAA playoffs began in 1988, no team from Philadelphia or the suburbs has won a state title in Class 1A, the smallest of six enrollment classifications. Imhotep Charter, with a Class 3A title in 2015 and a Class 5A title in 2023, is the only Public League school with a state title.

Plus, Belmont Charter is one of only 10 teams from the city or suburbs among 48 teams still alive for six state championships. The others: La Salle College (10-1), Pennridge (12-1), and North Penn (11-2) in 6A; Roman Catholic (9-3), Springfield (Delco) (13-0), and Chester (13-0) in 5A; Cardinal O’Hara (9-4) in 4A; Neumann Goretti (8-4) in 3A, and Lansdale Catholic (11-2) in 2A. Pennridge and North Penn play each other Friday, as do Springfield and Chester.

This will be only the third state playoff game in Belmont Charter history, compared with the 24th for Lackawanna Trail, which lost in the state championship game in 2019. And yet a lack of players, facilities, and postseason experience does not appear to bother the Tigers.

“They’re just like us,” Kabir Knight, a junior wide receiver and defensive back, said of Lackawanna Trail. “They’re just in our way.”

Belmont Charter, a four-year college-preparatory and career-readiness high school and part of the Belmont Charter Network, was founded in 2017 with a class of 75 freshmen. Before moving into the Hallahan facilities this year, the school was located on Belmont Avenue in West Philadelphia.

Belmont Charter is coming off its first victory in the state playoffs — a 36-20 triumph last Saturday over host York Catholic, where the Tigers rolled to a 24-7 lead in the first nine minutes. Freshman quarterback Nafis Watkins passed for 253 yards and three touchdowns.

“That’s how we should have been playing all season,” said Mason Billingsley-Walker, a 6-foot-4 and 310-pound senior tackle on both offense and defense.

The victory softened a tough 28-22 loss last year to Delone Catholic that had motivated the 14 returning players to launch training in January for the 2025 season. The team’s only loss this season was by six points last month to Central, which has a student body six times larger.

“Gotta go through the downs, but there have been more ups than downs lately,” said Terrell Brent, the Tigers’ effervescent third-year head coach.

He said of the long bus ride home from York: “Instead of going home crying, there were happy tears — and smiling.”

Brent, 26, is a health and physical-education teacher at the school. He joined head coach Ed McCabe’s staff at Belmont when Brent was still a student at East Stroudsburg University, during COVID-19, which delayed and shortened the Tigers’ junior varsity schedule.

The Tigers have made progress each season. They lost a 2023 play-in playoff game to Steelton-Highspire, the eventual state champion, but they finished 5-6 last year, beating District 1 champ Morrisville in a play-in game before losing to Delone Catholic. The Tigers beat Morrisville again this year to earn the playoff game against York Catholic.

“Our coaches motivate us, but we keep each other accountable,” said Shyneem Newsuan, a sophomore linebacker and running back. “We don’t overlook anyone. We just play hard-working football.”

Billingsley-Walker said the lack of a practice field near the school — they take a bus to the athletic fields across the Avenue of the Republic from the Please Touch Museum, not far from Belmont’s former location — can take away valuable practice time.

But still: “I like us in the long run,” Billingsley-Walker said.

Because Belmont Charter faces schools its size in the playoffs, the Tigers won’t be overwhelmed by teams with substantially larger rosters. York Catholic had 28 players on its roster, according to MaxPreps, and Lackawanna Trail has only 30.

(Roxborough High, another Public League team, played a regular-season game last month against Olney with only 17 players in uniform.)

Still, the four-weekend grind through the state football playoffs is much more punishing and treacherous for Class 1A teams than larger schools.

At a school like Belmont Charter, ranked 202nd in the state (Lackawanna Trail is 97th), there is no such thing as a depth chart, because everyone is needed to play both ways. Injuries can’t be avoided, but Brent has kept his team healthy by paying attention to training details.

“We always try to take care of the kids,” he said. “For the most part, they’re trying to get their bodies right. I believe in the staff and the abilities of the coaches to put kids in the best position possible.”

The Tigers find a way to manage. Their game against Morrisville was supposed to be held in Philly, but Spotwood said she could not find an available field in the city, so the game was played at Morrisville. The Tigers won, 19-0.

They will practice at the South Philadelphia Super Site for as long as they are playing in the playoffs. It has lights, and the open space they normally use for practice is ringed by trees. Their bus to South Philly was late, and when they got to the field, a soccer goal was on it.

The goal, fortunately for Belmont Charter, was on wheels, so two players were able to easily push it aside. But Brent already had a Plan B: If they could not move the goal, they would just use half the field — it is not as if the team is overflowing with players.

“To the outside world, we would be underdogs,” Brent said. “But we’re confident in the coaching staff and the kids to go 1-0 every week.”