By the second drive, you find out why Liam Taylor is the best show in Southeastern Pennsylvania high school football. A quick opening, and Taylor blows through for a 14-yard touchdown. A sliver of daylight, he roars 91 yards for a touchdown.
Taylor, Haverford High’s one-man show, rushed for 200 yards on 17 carries and scored four touchdowns—all in the first half—leading the Fords to their historic first home District 1 Class 6A playoff victory in program history, pummeling No. 12 seed Quakertown, 56-0, on Friday night.
This season, Taylor has already smashed the Haverford single-season rushing record. He added more crazy video game numbers Friday night, carrying 17 times for an even 200 yards, scoring from 14, 91, 12 and 9 yards. This season, he has rushed for 2,486 yards on 332 carries, averaging 7.4 yards a carry and 226 yards a game.
He entered Friday night’s game with Quakertown as the No. 10 rusher in the country. He is quick to point why, beginning up front with left tackle Sean Leahy, left guard Quinn McGloin, center Emmet Gillespie, right guard Alex Klee, right tackle Chase Russell and wideouts Jake Lisicki and Jimmy Fusaro who do some heavy lifting down field when Taylor breaks one.
Entering the tournament at the No. 5 seed, Haverford (10-1) will play the winner of Saturday’s No. 4 North Penn and No. 13 Ridley game.
As a team, Haverford scored on seven of its first eight drives, and by second half, it was a junior varsity game.
One sequence changed everything: Up 7-0 and being pushed back by driving Quakertown, Haverford’s Jimmy Fusaro made a diving interception at the Haverford nine with 1:30 left in the first quarter. Fourteen seconds later, Taylor ripped through a hole on the left of the Panthers’ defensive front and off he went.
“Blocking for Liam, you do your assignment, he’s going to make stuff happen,” Gillespie said. “No one is going to catch him the open field. Winning here is the greatest time of my life.”
Especially for Taylor, the grandson of retired Springfield (Delco) legendary coach Rick Taylor and son of Eric Taylor, Rick’s son who played at Haverford, and the cousin of Kevin Stefanski, the former St. Joe’s Prep and Penn star, and now the Cleveland Browns head coach.
“I have great athletes on both sides of my family, but I definitely didn’t get the speed from my dad,” said Taylor, laughing. “I’ve done this thanks to my offensive line. We say you have to find the wave and it will open up. My offensive line is nasty. They get off the ball like no other team in our league.
“Once we get going, you can’t stop us. I see big dudes in front of me, and see an open hole and I hit it. We critiqued some small stuff in the offseason with our motions and our blocking. We’re breaking records left and right and we have another playoff game to think about.”
And another team to concern themselves with stopping Taylor, who carries a 4.7 GPA.
Quakertown did not help itself. The Panthers were flagged five times in the first quarter for 25 yards. They knew to be successful they would have to sustain long drives to keep Taylor off the field.
“The interception killed us, and we were penalized five times in the first quarter,” said Quakertown coach George Banas, who played his junior varsity the entire second half. “Taylor is good. But you have to give their offensive line a whole lot of credit. The way they cover you up, get up to your linebackers and roll them off, that’s what makes that offense potent.
“When we drove to the 10, we thought we would tie it up. We threw the interception, and shot our ourselves in the foot there, and then (Taylor) burst one, and it was like the flood gates opened.”
Scoring Summary
Quakertown (6-5) 0 0 0 0-0
Haverford (10-1) 14 28 7 7-56
1st Quarter
Hav. – Liam Taylor 14 run (Vincent Cunningham kick), 5:35
Hav. – Taylor 91 run (Cunningham kick), 1:16
2nd Quarter
Hav. – Taylor 12 run (Cunningham kick), 11:28
Hav. – Jimmy Fusaro 75 punt return (Cunningham kick), 9:18
Hav. – Shane Durkin 49 run (Cunningham kick), 3:17
Hav. – Taylor 9 run (Cunningham kick), 1:57
3rd Quarter
Hav. – Nils McCallion 5 run (Cunningham kick), 2:44
4th Quarter
Hav. – McCallion 1 run (Cunningham kick), 5:49
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.
One Response
Great article! The offensive Line is just as much of a beast as Liam is as a running back. Haverford has a high quality kicking game, Punt and kick off returns as well as the Xpts and FG. Haverford did an excellent job in the secondary — breaking up passes. This is a high quality team effort in all areas of the game plan! Excellent coaching and practices by the players in order to achieve 10 victories.