PHILADELPHIA — It’s happening again. Those pent-up expectations in September that go burst in December for Imhotep Charter each time the Panthers reach the PIAA state finals.
There is, however, an underlying flow that this year’s version looks and feels different—far different. While the western half of the state may smirk in dark corners at Imhotep’s usual September success with pessimism, there is a growing surge that these Panthers refuse to fold, like some Imhotep teams have in the past.
Saturday, under dreary, low skies, and in a game that survived a lightning delay of over an hour, Imhotep Charter logged another spike into its December march beating previously undefeated Archbishop Spalding (Md.), 21-17, at the Germantown Super Site to improve to 3-0 for the first time in Panthers’ coach Devon Johnson’s four-year tenure.
This was a victory in September that will no doubt pay huge dividends for Imhotep in December.
It’s not just that Imhotep is winning, which is expected. It’s how the Panthers are winning, like on Saturday, when they came back from a halftime deficit and stopped Spalding not once, but twice, on sterling plays in the game’s waning minutes. Once by Penn State-bound Kenny “Sweet Feet” Woseley, the other time by rising sophomore safety Willie Norris, who has now three interceptions in three games.
Imhotep’s Army-bound quarterback Mikal Davis completed a career-best 20 passes in throwing for 248 yards, the Panthers’ Penn State-bound Tyseer Denmark caught a career-best 12 passes for 90 yards, and Imhotep’s Georgia-bound tailback Jabree Wallace-Coleman scored all three Panther touchdowns.
The game, one of the biggest in the Philadelphia area, and one of the biggest in the state, inexplicably had no working scoreboard or clock. The time and score were kept on the field.
Though the scoreboard was blank, everyone watching knew the time and score when the Cavaliers were driving halfway through the fourth quarter when Norris read a sideline pattern and jumped a route intercepting a pass and what looked like a sealed Panthers’ victory.
But Imhotep could not move the ball deep in its territory and when Spalding got it back at the Imhotep 45, things looked in jeopardy again for the Panthers.
This time, with less than a minute to play, Woseley defended Spalding’s Jameson Coffman, who had scored the Cavaliers’ two touchdowns, and batted the ball away in the end zone on third-and-one at the Panthers’ five.
But instead of the ball landing on the turf, it ricocheted up off Woseley’s helmet, came down on his right thigh pad, and fell between his legs as he was falling in the end zone for an interception.
From there, the Panthers ran the time out—and everything flew into the air, footballs, helmets, hands, arms, anything in black and red.
“I thought I had the ball when it hit the top of my helmet, and flew up in the air, hit my thigh pads and I caught it between my legs,” Woseley said. “We lost to Spalding on a last-second play last year. We weren’t about to let that happen again. I am a three-year starter and being on a team that lost the last two state championships, we are a hungry team. We have more invested. We are more of a player-led team now.
“We were down 7-0 at halftime and we scored 21 points in the second half. We all focused on the next play. We did not always do that. We would dwell on mistakes. This game showed we can fight through adversity.”
Woseley playfully calls Norris “Savage,” because he plays with fearlessness, no matter what the situation.
“On the interception, I knew I had to make a play,” Norris said. “This win meant a lot to us. Coach Dev never won a third game in a season. Each year since he has been coach, we would lose the third game. We stayed steady. We stayed calm. We had no high emotions. I wasn’t phased by this. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.
“This is the best team I’ve seen at Imhotep so far. We have a team full of dogs. We know no one on this team is going to fold.”
Each previous season, Johnson’s jinx fell on the third game. Maybe the Spalding victory snaps that. All superstition set aside, what’s fact is for the first time, Johnson’s Panthers have started a season 3-0. Before the season began, Johnson addressed the team, putting it on them to take control and charged them with ending the state title drought.
The pieces are falling together nicely in the first month of the season.
“This is my first graduating class and how I am judged falls on how these seniors respond to adversity, and the success that they have had, and this is their legacy,” Johnson said. “This is all about the seniors and the leaders taking ownership of this team—and they have. They have always been special. My coaching staff knows that. It is time everyone else finds out.
“I’ve been to the state finals my first two seasons (not counting the COVID-19 season) and we knew this would be a championship-level game. I’m so proud of how we fought through it. So many times in the past when we were down, we gave up, or we weren’t able to claw back. I didn’t say anything at halftime and during that delay. I heard them without saying a word.”
Davis, Woseley, Wallace-Coleman, Denmark, Jah’Sear Whittington, Nile Brown, Yahsir Satterfield, Andre Cooper, and Zahir Mathis all impacted the game in one way or another.
“It’s a group that believes in one another and then you have guys coming up like Willie Norris, whose heart is as big as his body, constantly making plays for us,” Johnson said. “I made a deal before the season that he wouldn’t get six picks this year. We’re into our third game and he has three.
“Then you have Kenny Woseley, who is a four-star, Penn State commit and he plays like it. I trust putting the game in those guys’ hands, Kenny, Mikal, Nile, Jah’Sear, Willie, and I can go on. I’m proud of those dudes.”
Imhotep Charter’s state title bubble continues to balloon. Come December, with this group, it may not burst this time.
Scoring Summary
Archbishop Spalding (2-1) 0 7 7 3-17
Imhotep Charter (3-0) 0 0 14 7-21
2nd Quarter
S – Jameson Coffman 2 run (Cooper Welch kick), 6:26
3rd Quarter
IC – Jabree Wallace-Coleman 4 run (Kenny Woseley kick), 9:25
S – Coffman 8 pass from Malik Washington (Welch kick), 6:50
IC – Wallace-Coleman 48 run (Woseley kick), 4:05
4th Quarter
S – Welch 29 FG, 10:21
IC – Wallace-Coleman 4 run (Woseley kick), 6:00
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.
