The football gods just keep shining down on Lower Bucks County high school grid fans as the rainy weather held off just long enough Friday night to get another game in at Heartbreak Ridge. And what a night it was as Neshaminy welcomed Upper Dublin to Langhorne - after a 50-year absence - for the first round of the District 1 playoffs (you might recall the Flying Cardinals last tangled with the Red and Blue in a home-and-away series in 1956 and 1957). Getting “Back to the Future”, though, this contest came in a little different than had been expected as the Flying Cardinals showed they belonged in the playoffs with the best of them. And coupling Upper Dublin’s heads-up play with the host’s lackluster first and second periods, it certainly made for some nail biting moments for fans of the Creek Kids.

Winning the toss, the ‘Skins elected to receive the opening kickoff. Then starting at their own 30, Langhorne looked out of sorts early on, as it took a pass from Justin Kinney to Paul Carrezola to move the ball out to Upper Dublin’s side of the field. And although moving down to the visitors 31, Neshaminy stalled on four downs and turned it over to the Cardinals. Punching it out of the hole with some nice runs and passing - and the help of a penalty - the Birds quickly moved the ball out to mid-field. Keeping up the pressure, the Cardinals drove it down to the ‘Skins 7 and were knocking on the door in a big way when Gary Renson made a big pick in the end zone which stopped the Birds cold.

Taking over on their own 20 after the theft, Neshaminy moved it out to mid-field before once again stalling out. Forced to punt, the boot put Upper Dublin back in business on their own 23. Not looking much better, the Red Birds delivered a three and out and punted away - but not very far as Neshaminy caught a break and took over at the 50-yard line. Deciding that running was taking too much time, Kinney found Jason Ulmer for 20 up top which took it down to the 30-yard line. Stumbling around a bit, it then went to 4th and 3 at the 24. With the game having clipped along, and just about 2:00 minutes left in the game at that point, the ‘Skins called a timeout to think it over. Going for it on a pass play, it fell short. And just like that it was Red Birds with the ball – yet again; however, now in script with Langhorne, Upper Dublin went nowhere and punted away with a minute to go.

Keeping up the miscues, a penalty stopped a nice return by Renson and brought the ‘Skins back to their own 40. With only a minute on the clock, Langhorne finally woke up and punched it in on a drive that featured a beautiful pass by Kinney to Ian Capanna for a first down at the Cardinals 18-yard stripe. Lining up in a hurry, and with just four seconds left in the half, Kinney went back to Capanna again as he found him in the end zone for the first score of the night. With Seth Jeffries converting, the Redskins went into the locker room leading by a slim 7-0 margin.

With Upper Dublin receiving to start the second half, they started on their own 22. A couple of running plays were not very successful and on third and ten, Justin Kinney grabbed a tipped ball and returned it down the sideline to the Birds 18 where the ‘Skins set up shop. Ulmer started that drive by ripping it loose to the 4-yard line for a first and goal. A few plays later it was Ulmer who punched it in. The PAT missed and the clock read 13-0 for Neshaminy early in the third period. After the kickoff, the next drive saw the Cardinals starting on their own 20. Using simple running plays it looked like a drive was in the making until it fell apart at about mid-field. Setting up to punt on fourth down, Dave Daino busted through the middle, blocked the punt and covered it up. With Greg Martell starting it off with a nice run out of the fullback slot, it was Ulmer who iced the short drive with his second touchdown of the night. As the ’Skins decided to go for two, Ulmer did the honors and Neshaminy went up 21-0.

Beginning to settle down a bit, Langhorne tee'd it up and kicked it away. Then with Upper Dublin fumbling almost immediately on that offensive possession, it was suddenly first and ten for Langhorne at the Cardinals 25-yard line. Not wanting to take much too much time to open this one up, it was Ulmer who took it in on two plays with Renson throwing a key block to spring the Redskin star on his 10-yard run for the score. Jeffries didn’t miss and the scoreboard rolled to 28-0 as time was running down in the third.

With the ball back to the Birds on the exchange, it appeared that their playbook read simply “three and out” as their offense just couldn’t get in gear. With Renson then handling the punt, Neshaminy took over just shy of mid-field. Now hitting on all eight cylinders, it was very quickly 35-0 as Ulmer bolted in the last 21 yards of that drive for his fourth score of the night. Mr. Automatic, Seth Jeffries, then nailed the PAT.

With the Mercy Rule activated, and Coach Schmidt resting the first team defense, it didn’t help the struggling Red Birds at all as second-unit defensive back Devon Reedel looked like an All-American as he stole a Cardinal pass and almost went the distance before going down at Upper Dublin’s 9-yard line. With next year’s starters coming in on the offense, they showed their stuff very nicely too. In fact, hardly breaking a sweat it took just one play for quarterback Brian Titus to hand-off to Quilan “The Mini-Bus” Arnold for the score. With the PAT good, it was 42-0 with the clock moving in the fourth period. With the ball back in the hands of Upper Dublin, and the clock still moving, the game wound down quickly but not before the Cardinals finally put one on the board; however, that was it for the night as the final score came in at 42-7 for the Creekmen. And as we love to say: Game to Redskins.

The Tip of the Hat of the week goes to the Redskins defense which once again had a stellar game in stopping the opposition and forcing turnovers. With Chris Gettis leading the way, the 'Skins defense put up a wall that the Cardinals could not penetrate and every time the birds thought they were making a little offensive progress, Neshaminy's defense came up with a big turnover. The Redskins first 28 points of the game were all a direct result of the defense forcing turnovers in the form of two interceptions, one blocked punt, and one fumble recovery.

With Neshaminy thus receiving a passing grade on its first test of the playoffs, we’ll be looking forward to watching them again next Friday night as they host North Penn in a quarter-final game. That is certainly one game that should be as exciting as it gets for the Knights will be bringing their always tough team back to Harry Franks Stadium for the second time this year. So make sure you’re here early as it will be a packed house.

See you at the game.
 

 Photos courtesy of Jesse Garber