The Haven varsity football team (4-0) faced off against the Radnor Raptors (2-2) on September 12.
The Panthers entered the game on a hot streak, but it didn’t affect their mentality.
“Our motto has always been one week at a time… We’re happy about tonight, and then we just have to build and get better,” head coach Kevin Clancy said.
The Raptors came out strong on the first drive, gaining multiple first downs, but got stopped on a fourth-down goal-line tush push by the Panthers. The Panthers scored two touchdowns before a Raptors touchdown, in which they missed their extra point conversion.
In the second quarter, the Panthers’ defense took control, not letting up a score for the rest of the game.
“There’s a lot of team mentality in it, we got to get together, usually we just need to adjust after the first drive or two. We were lucky enough to get that goal-line stop. We had a couple of good plays by the defense,” senior Grayson LaFrance said. LaFrance took an interception back for a touchdown in the third quarter.
Apart from the defense, the offense played a high-scoring, big-play game. Multiple running backs made long runs throughout the game, sometimes scoring, or going down with a big yard gain on the field.
“I’m happy to get back because I didn’t score any touchdowns in my last game,” junior Landon Barlow said. Barlow scored three touchdowns against Radnor. “Shout out to my O- [offensive] Line, they blocked for me.”
Barlow would come out of the game later on, giving room for the Panthers to show off the immense depth at the fullback position. Sophomore Connor Kelly, junior Yosef Ali, and junior Derek Bradley would all make significant plays later in the game.
“Derek [Bradley] gets better every week, he’s really coming on, and we’re starting to get more and more confidence to be able to use him on varsity, both on offense and defense,” Clancy said.
Next week, the Panthers will match up against the Haverford Fords (3-1) on September 19, 7:00 p.m. at Cornog Stadium.
“We have a real tough Haverford football team over there,” Clancy said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
