Salesianum running back Colby Reeder carries the ball in the third quarter of No. 2 Salesianum’s 30-13 win over No. 1 William Penn at William Penn Saturday.
Salesianum running back Colby Reeder carries the ball in the third quarter of No. 2 Salesianum’s 30-13 win over No. 1 William Penn at William Penn Saturday.
Salesianum running back Colby Reeder fends off a tackle by William Penn’s Chichi Amachi. The second-ranked Sals defeated the No. 1 Colonials 30-13 on Saturday.
NEW CASTLE Colby Reeder is a big young man, and he made a big difference on Saturday.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound senior rushed 20 times for 173 yards and three touchdowns. He stripped the ball and returned a fumble 30 yards for another score. And he went sideline-to-sideline from his safety spot to wreak havoc on William Penn’s running game.
When Reeder and his Salesianum teammates were finished, the Colonials’ 19-game winning streak was left in tatters. The No. 2 Sals dominated the top-ranked, defending DIAA Division I champions 30-13 at Bill Cole Stadium, and there will be a new No. 1 team when the next rankings are released Monday.
“He’s an exceptional football player,” Sallies coach Bill DiNardo said of Reeder. “In your biggest game, your biggest kids have got to play. He made some big plays today.”
Yes, he did. Reeder was noncommittal when asked about his college plans after the game, but he surely opened the eyes of even more recruiters with his performance. His older brother, Troy, had three tackles and a 44-yard interception return in Penn State’s 39-0 victory over Illinois, so Saturday was a pretty good day for the Reeder household.
“It’s a huge win,” Reeder said. “We’ve struggled sometimes, and we’ve played amazing sometimes. Today, we came out and executed and we looked great.”
A 55-yard punt return by John Andreoli kickstarted the Sals’ first scoring drive. Reeder converted a fourth-and-3 by inches at the Colonials 31. Then fullback Zach Jarome gashed the middle for 16 yards, and Reeder covered the final 15 off left tackle for a 7-0 lead with 7:31 left in the second quarter.
Then William Penn decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 30, and quarterback D.J. Johnson dove into the pile on a sneak. All of a sudden, Reeder popped out of the scrum with the ball and raced 30 yards the other way for a 14-0 lead.
“The quarterback was stuffed up in the line, and I saw the ball,” Reeder said. “So I went in and ripped it out and just ran for the end zone.”
But the Colonials recovered quickly, marching 80 yards in 12 plays. Chichi Amachi made a beautiful, over-the-shoulder catch on Johnson’s high-arcing pass for a 29-yard touchdown to pull William Penn within 14-7 with 1:34 remaining in the first half.
The Sals (7-1) appeared content to run the clock out, but a 13-yard run by Reeder to the Sals 49 changed DiNardo’s mind. Reeder zigzagged for 32 more yards to the Colonials 19 with 13.8 seconds left, and Pearce Bartlett’s 36-yard field goal curled just inside the left upright for a 17-7 halftime lead.
Jarome starred on Salesianum’s next scoring drive, ripping off gains of 32 and 39 yards. Reeder’s 8-yard burst up the middle made it 23-7 with 5:52 to go in the third quarter.
“I give all of their backs credit,” William Penn coach Marvin Dooley said of Reeder and Jarome. “They ran hard, they ran downhill. I think our running backs didn’t run hard today. It’s going to be tough yardage, and they got tough yardage.”
A short punt set up the Colonials at the Sals 36 midway through the fourth quarter, and they took advantage. Johnson threw a short pass to Amachi, and the 6-4 senior broke a tackle and went 34 yards for a touchdown. A two-point conversion would have made it a one-possession game, but a pass fell incomplete to leave Salesianum up 23-13 with 5:49 remaining.
Then Cole Smithson recovered an onside kick for the Sals, and Reeder put it in the icebox on the next play. The big senior hit a seam off right tackle, then cut to the middle and outraced the defense for a 55-yard TD.
“The big boys up front were working the whole game,” Reeder said of his offensive line. “I like to reward them with some nice runs, because they’re blocking great for me.”
The loss doesn’t hurt William Penn (7-1) in the grand scheme of things. The Colonials will be huge favorites in Blue Hen Flight A games against Charter of Wilmington and Delcastle before going into the playoffs to try to defend their Division I title.
“They outplayed us,” Dooley said. “We got beat in all phases. … But this is the regular season. We’ve got to win the next two games, and then we’ve got to get in the playoffs, and then we’ve got to beat whoever we get in front of us. And hopefully, we’ll get another shot at them or a shot at someone to win a state championship.”
Jarome added 126 yards on eight carries for Sallies, which completed only 1 of 9 passes for 10 yards. But the Sals rushed 39 times for 305 yards, and held the Colonials’ 39 runs to 99 yards.
Sallies will travel to No. 6 Sussex Tech (7-1) next Friday before wrapping up the regular season Nov. 12 against St. Mark’s at Delaware Stadium. That, coincidentally, is the site of the DIAA championship games on Dec. 5.
“This is our best game of the year, absolutely,” DiNardo said. “But you know, we’re going to enjoy this the whole way home and the whole weekend, and then on Monday we’ve got to get back on the horse because we’ve got to go to Sussex Tech.”
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ