On a cool and beautiful “Football Night” in Langhorne, the ‘Skins entertained an always tough Abington club to start off Suburban One League play. Still, and despite the importance of the league opener, the two teams looked out-of-sorts almost the entire 48-minutes of the less than attractive game.

With the home team receiving, Quilan Arnold just about went the distance before the kicker made the saving tackle. With Arnold then looking hot, he did the heavy lifting as the Redksins took it down to the 20 before their drive stalled out. With Seth Jeffries missing on the field goal try, the ball then went to the Abington. The Ghosts couldn’t do much with their possession either and, after the punt, the home team went right back down to the red zone before that ‘Skins drive stalled as well. Another 3-point try by Langhorne was also short and the first quarter ended as it had started, 0-0.

With Abington handling the ball to start the second period, they looked like they were going to find the back line before Chris Boland picked off an Abington pass in the red zone. Unfortunately, as the Redskins failed to do much at all on the ensuing drive, Mike Wynne was forced to punt it away. With the Ghosts returning it to the Moleskinners’ 40, Abington looked to be in business. But after moving some 20 yards down the field, they couldn’t convert on 4 efforts at the Redskins’ 19. Then maintaining the game’s pace, Langhorne was soon punting yet again. Abington followed by burning the clock after the exchange and, breaking for the half, both teams and their fans were clearly hoping for some positive adjustments during the break.

With the Ghosts receiving to start the final two quarters, the third-period picked up right where the first two had left off. With neither team able to mount any kind of sustained offense, it was scoreless for the next 12 minutes of the game. And although there were a few plays that deserved note, it was clearly not a contest for those fans that enjoy high scoring shootouts (actually, proponents of defense had been the “ones” with the most to cheer about through the first three sessions).

Rolling into the final period, it was the Creek Kids finding themselves in possession of the ball. Not sure whether they wanted to go forward or backward, though, that Indian drive also ran out of gas with just about 8 minutes to go in the stalemated struggle. Electing to punt on fourth down, the Wynne kick rolled dead at the Abington 6. But it didn’t stay there long as a few Ghostly plays took it out to the 30 before that Abington drive ended flat as well. With the punt that followed rolling around, it was Bryan Dean who picked it up and returned it to the Abington 39-yard line as the ‘Skins had their best starting spot of the game. But that’s right where it ended as the Blue and Red gained 0 yards on three offensive plays; however, the Wynne punt was just perfect as it was downed at the visitor’s two-yard line with 3:39 left in the fourth. And not gaining a first, Abington punted away from their own end zone with just under two minutes left in the game. Catching a huge break, the short and high Ghost punt was returned by Dean to Abington’s 16-yard line.

With Arnold then getting the handoff on three straight plays, it was soon first and goal at the 4 with 16 ticks on the clock. And finally relieving the stress, the play action pass from Brian Titus to Devon Reedel was good for 6 big points. Keelan Adams nailed the PAT and the scoreboard read 7-0 in favor of the Redskins as they lined up to kick off to Abington. With Jeffries booming it away the ball was returned to the Ghosts 24-yard line with 7 seconds left in the contest. Two attempts by Abington came up short before the final gun called the curtain down on the evening’s festivities.

So as we like to say: Game to Redskins! And while the offense didn’t put up as many points as the fans are used to, the defense did all that was asked. In fact, through four games the “Big Dee” hasn’t allowed a second-half point while giving up just an average of 7 points a game. Plus overall the Langhorne bunch has improved to 3-1 as they are now 1-0 in SOL play with the win over the previously undefeated Abington club. So let’s all wipe our brows and let out a big sigh of relief because after all, a win is a win.

See you at the game.