UPPER DARBY \u2014 Yuron Villanueva didn\u2019t exhale Saturday until the clock had struck zeros at Upper Darby.<\/p>\n
The Ridley defense had held Upper Darby to 117 yards of offense. Yet the Royals were somehow in the red zone with a chance to go ahead and two seconds remaining in a Central League tilt.<\/p>\n
Villanueva put his hand in the ground and headed upfield after quarterback Wac Kuol Wac. He turned and held his breath when the junior QB released a pass across the middle. It wasn\u2019t until linebacker Kevin Farley swatted it to the ground that Villaneuva felt safe rejoicing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked. I held my breath,\u201d Villaneuva said after a wild 17-13 victory. \u201cBut I knew there was three people around it. I\u2019m like, my teammates have got it. And when he deflected it, it\u2019s a great feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final score was closer than the records indicated, between a Ridley team that won its fifth straight and an Upper Darby side dropping its fourth in a row. But the Royals\u2019 defense frustrated Ridley enough to lead heading into the fourth quarter, only a 7-yard rushing touchdown by Kirkland Plummer with 53 seconds left giving Ridley (5-1, 5-0) its first lead.<\/p>\n
The swings of momentum in the first half were chaotic. Ridley\u2019s first nine offensive snaps marched into Upper Darby territory, where it looked like the Green Raiders would take an easy lead. But a loss on second down and two penalties led to a punt.<\/p>\n
Upper Darby\u2019s first three offensive snaps went nowhere. They even punted out of fourth-and-17 \u2026 until Ridley roughed the punter, the first of a pile of mistakes in a sloppy performance. Five snaps later, Wac heaved a prayer that fell into the arms of Zy\u2019Kerian Reid for a 66-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead in the final minute of the first quarter.<\/p>\n
With how Ridley had moved the ball, that score seemed a momentary annoyance. Until Jamar Savoy fumbled on the next series, UD nose tackle Michael Hoyt smothering it. Then quarterback Jackson Solomon had the ball pop out stretching for a first down at the 13 to curtail a 14-play drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustration, anger,\u201d Plummer said. \u201c\u2026 Just keep a level ahead, motivates your guys, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just when the irritation was in danger of cresting, Upper Darby offered a gift.<\/p>\n
On the first play after Mustapha Daboh recovered Solomon\u2019s fumble, UD hiked it over the head of Wac and into the end zone, Ridley lineman Nate Tsafos hopping on it for a touchdown and a 7-7 game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t really get anything at that time,\u201d Villaneuva said. \u201cSo when we got that touchdown, it give us good momentum to keep pushing, that we weren\u2019t out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ridley was ready to propagate the advantage by forcing a stop and getting the ball back in plus territory. A Solomon hookup with Plummer for 21 yards set up Tim Calamita to attempt to 30-yard field goal \u2026 and watch it get blocked by David Okolosi and returned 80 yards for a score and a 13-7 UD lead at half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just thinking to push the guard back as far as possible and jump,\u201d Okolosi said. \u201cAnd I did it. But once I blocked it, I didn\u2019t see anybody laying on the ball, so I just took it. \u2026 I just thought, I should go score.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upper Darby (1-5, 1-3) entered the locker room with 55 yards of offense, 66 from one snap. It finished the game with 13 yards rushing and 117 yards total. Outside the Reid\u2019s touchdown and a 37-yard connection between Wac and A\u2019zeem Spicer that was a pretty clear drop, UD\u2019s other 34 plays went for a grand total of nine net yards.<\/p>\n
Wac was 3-for-11 with an interception. Safiy Salley, the fourth QB to get snaps in six games, was 1-for-2 for six yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings happen. You get unlucky,\u201d said Villanueva, who had two pass deflections and a sack. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got to do their job. Some days it\u2019s good, some days it\u2019s bad. You just can\u2019t blame anybody. Everybody\u2019s got to play as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet still, Ridley couldn\u2019t capitalize. After a short UD drive to open the second half, Ridley went 15 plays covering 49 yards in 9:58. Calamita kicked a 34-yard field goal, after his first attempt was nullified by a UD penalty and a second by a Ridley penalty.<\/p>\n
That kept UD up 13-10 with 10:45 to play. The teams traded punts, and when Ridley got the ball back with 3:52 left, backup Joey Carroll was under center.<\/p>\n
Solomon was not bad (9-for-12 for 79 yards; 10 carries for 36 yards) but nor had he visited the end zone. Carroll ran for three on third-and-3, then hit Logan Bubb for 11. Plummer, who finished with 26 carries for 104 yards, carried four times, the last a 7-yard score.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to look for something,\u201d Plummer said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to look for any type of way to score, if that\u2019s doing some weird play or just doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upper Darby got one last crack, aided by the Spicer reception that was clearly trapped for 37 on fourth-and-3. But Ridley\u2019s front jostled Wac enough to let Farley make a play and preserve a nervier than expected win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to trust each other,\u201d Villaneuva said. \u201cWe\u2019re down and we start falling apart not trusting, we\u2019re never going to win. It\u2019s teamwork. We trust one another.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPPER DARBY \u2014 Yuron Villanueva didn\u2019t exhale Saturday until the clock had struck zeros at Upper Darby. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,305,725,28,726,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":{"0":"post-110654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upper-darby","8":"tag-delaware-county","9":"tag-high-school-sports","10":"tag-pa-prep-live","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-top-stories-dtd","14":"tag-upper-darby","15":"tag-upper-darby-headlines","16":"tag-upper-darby-news","17":"tag-upper-darby-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}