By Havenfootball.net Staff
The football gods were working against us when we played Haverford two Friday nights ago. Haven played reasonably well but had one terrible three minute run where the Fords returned an opening second half kick-off for a touchdown and then a bubble pass turned into an 85 yard scoring play. This past Friday night karma was returned to the Panther side as Penncrest fumbled the first two kick-off receptions turning the ball over to Haven and giving the Panthers a 14 point advantage in the first six minutes of the game with the Lions not even having had a play from scrimmage. The Panther defense kept up the pressure and Haven just continued their romp to seal their third victory of the season.
If momentum is a key to victory the Springfield Cougars will be coming into George L. King Field this Friday night with the incredible momentum of a 6-0 season. Until they took on Ridley last week there were lots of conversations about how good the Cougars might be. They had won five games but against the weaker teams in the Central League. Ridley would test their mettle. Both teams fought to a 14-14 tie and then Springfield pulled out a miracle they hadn’t managed since 1994…………long before any of the players on either team were born.
The Cougars are led by #2 Johnny Fanelli who was 14 of 25 for 181 yards and two touchdowns last week. He runs as well as he throws and can extend plays and drives to exhaust the defense. His favorite receiver is last week’s hero #9 Joe Kennedy who not only caught most of Fanelli’s passes but made the key interception in overtime to seal the victory for Springfield. Watch for #13 Ja’Den McKenzie to open up big running gains. No doubt that Springfield is on a roll and are looking at coming into Wallingford for their seventh victory.
Haven has a bit of momentum of their own. Even with multiple injuries the Panthers have managed to play well. Haven has been in every game they’ve played and probably should have won the Interboro and Haverford games. A little better tackling, a couple of completed passes and a little stiffer defense could have given us W’s in both those games.
The Cougars defense is improving every game. They stopped Ridley cold in the second half. The Panthers will have to keep the Cougars off balance with a more balanced attack. Different formations, short passes and other tactics to keep Springfield from packing the box is going to be critical if Haven wants to pull this one off. This has all the makings of a great game. True, it could get ugly if Haven loses control but so far they’ve played some good teams and stayed with every one of them.
Kick-off is at 7:30 PM at George L. King Field. If you are coming to the game don’t forget to bring your portable FM radio and tune it to 88.0 to hear our full play-by-play broadcast right in the stadium. If you can’t make the game you can always listen to our broadcast right here at havenfootball.net. Our broadcast will begin at 7:15. The game will be available on our archives as soon as the game concludes. You can also check in on Twitter for score updates.
