Abington Football Roars to Win Over Neshaminy

ABINGTON — When the laugher shifted to an "uh-oh" for the Abington football team, Ray Schreiner and Bryan Osei turned into leaders.

Pressure? What pressure?

The two Neshaminy touchdowns scored within 90 fourth-quarter seconds brought focus and determination.

"There wasn't concern," Osei said. "We knew we were shooting ourselves in the foot. They weren't really beating us, we were beating ourselves."

When it mattered most in this Suburban One National Conference opener for both teams, the Galloping Ghosts grinded out an 11-play, 85-yard drive that ended with a Schreiner 6-yard run and dive into the end zone, grabbing the momentum back in a 35-21 win.

"I wasn't scared because it's happened before," Schreiner said. "It happens to us a lot. We were mentally prepared. Our O-line really created the holes. Without them, I wouldn't have gotten those big runs."

The game between the two dominating teams was played Monday night at Schwarzman Stadium because severe rains created poor field conditions on Friday night. The two extra days gave Schreiner more time to rest a sore left leg.

 Neshaminy (3-1, 0-1 SOL) led after a first-quarter, 8-yard run by Ulmer, but the Ghosts answered with a 20-yard touchdown by Schreiner. They took the lead for good less than a minute later, Ruhl picked up loose ball after a forced fumble, and ran in from 10 yards.

 Tom Kennedy, who combined with Ryan Epps to jar the ball loose, hurt his left knee on the play and missed the rest of the game.

 Abington pushed the lead to 28-7 after an 8-yard run by quarterback Ken Cropper and a 66-yard dash by Schreiner, who raced for three touchdowns and 240 yards.

 Schreiner ran for 25 of those yards during the game-icing drive. Cropper rushed for another 13 yards, but made his key contributions with his arm.

Cropper first hit Josh Lee down the middle to enter Neshaminy territory, then connected with tight end Chris Ruhl for 26 yards to the Redskins' one on a crucial 3rd-and-12.

"Neshaminy really had us reeling,” said Abington head coach Tim Sorber, whose team moved to 4-0. "We had to find a way to stop all that momentum. We did that with a big drive, and it was all about our offensive line."

During his postgame meeting with his players, Sorber called the sequence a "championship drive."

"When Ray comes in and hits some long runs, your heart goes from your stomach back to the middle of your chest," Sorber said.

Not done, Neshaminy marched to the Ghosts’ 10-yard line with less than three minutes to play thanks to gritty runs by Sean Ulmer, who totaled 164 yards on 27 carries and three touchdowns.

After a touchdown run by Justin Andrews was called back for holding, Redskins quarterback Joe Bianchino dropped back from the 15-yard line.

Osei overpowered his man and slammed the QB for an eight-yard loss.

"I'm glad he's on my team," Sorber said, "especially in crucial moments. I watched that one sack at the end. He beat the kid off the line of scrimmage, made one little swim move and that was all she wrote. He probably played about 110 plays and he sucked it up and made a play like that ... amazing."

Abington took over on downs after an incomplete pass and ran out the clock for the win.

"They came to play," Neshaminy head coach Mark Schmidt said. "The biggest disappointment was that they handled the line of scrimmage. When we were able to maintain the line of scrimmage, we made plays. They certainly have a couple of guys who are very dangerous. Give them credit, they were the better team tonight."

Thanks to a "championship drive."