Sports

Roxborough Football Plays Through Mistakes, Defeats University City

The final score was 13-8.

The football team improved to 2-0 with its 13-8 win over the University City Jaguars on Friday at West Philadelphia High School. The Indians' coach, Mike Stanley, admitted the team could have played better, but said he was relieved to come out of the road game with a victory.

1 2 3 4 Final Roxborough (2-0) 0 7 0 6 13 University City (1-1) 0 8 0 0 8

IN SHORT
The game started slowly as both teams came up empty during their opening drives. Roxborough's defense made a stand inside its own 10-yard line to stop University City from scoring first, while an early Roxborough drive also stalled. It took some time for Indians quarterback Dre'von Williams to complete his first pass, but once he did, the team drove down the field and scored its first touchdown on a run by running back Tymere Blue. It appeared that Roxborough would go into halftime with a lead, but a roughing the kicker penalty on a punt allowed a University City Drive to continue, and after a 41-yard pass from Jaguars quarterback Karim Karamoko to Marcus Lyles, Karamoko threw a pretty touchdown pass to receiver Joshua Fenwick in the left corner of the end zone. A two-point conversion made the score 8-7 at the half in favor of University City.

In the second half, Roxborough speedster Adrian Johnson-Pope ran back a punt for a touchdown, but it was called back after an illegal block in the back penalty. Several false start penalties set the Indians back, but a pass interference call on Lyles on a fourth and long play allowed the drive to continue, and after another fourth down conversion, Williams ran the ball in for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to give Roxborough a 13-8 lead it would not relinquish.

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INDIAN OF THE GAME
Adrian Johnson-Pope
The receiver made things happen. He returned a punt for a touchdown (it was eventually called back), drew a pass interference penalty in the end zone on fourth down, and intercepted Karamoko late to seal the victory.

OTHER KEY PERFORMANCES
Josh Anderson—
The linebacker was all over the field and was a big reason Roxborough was able to maintain its advantage.

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Dre'von Williams—The quarterback kept the team moving the whole game and scored the winning touchdown.

COACH’S TAKE
“We made too way to many mistakes. We should have been able to beat this team much easier. A lot of stupid mistakes—offsides, intentional fouls, roughing the punter early. Killed us.

"The line played fairly well, I thought. I think we played (a 41-6 victory). Even though the score was so high, I think we played better with competition. Now they know what they need to come and do next week. We had a lousy week of practice this week.

"I think the talent's there. We just need work."-Head Coach Mike Stanley

THEY SAID IT
“I don't think he catches that ball even if he doesn't push him. We got lucky. Real lucky.”-Stanley, on the pass intereference call Johnson-Pope drew in the end zone on fourth down in the third quarter to keep a pivotal drive going

UP NEXT—Boys' Latin on Friday at 3 p.m. on the road.


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