Imhotep’s Rahmir Stewart gets the ball as #4 Sam Milligan gives chase. Photo by Jim Quinn, BQPictures.com
By Matthew DeGeorge
The nervous laugh that Anthony Crawford stifled was equal parts exhaustion and resignation.
Yes, the Strath Haven junior running back agrees, Imhotep Charter does have some big guys up front. About the biggest the Panthers have seen this season. About the biggest you’d want to encounter on a high school field, particularly for a veer offense that prizes faint slivers of space between the tackles behind an undersized offensive line that has punched spectacularly above its weight all season.
Friday was different, as Crawford recognized in the moment and as hindsight will surely embellish. Yet Crawford walked off the field at Ridley High School, beneath a scoreboard that read 36-0 in Imhotep Charter’s favor in the PIAA Class 5A football semifinal, with pride in the fight Haven had put up.
“It’s not easy,” said Crawford, who bruised his way for 58 yards, none of them easy. “You’ve just got to keep pounding. Our linemen aren’t the biggest, but they kept grinding every time. Even when the line is banged up, they kept grinding, doing it for the team.”
