Photos courtesy of Rick Martin
SPRINGFIELD, PA — It was far from memorable. At least the way the game itself was played. What will hold a lasting thought is that every player on the field at Cardinal O’Hara on Thursday night competed in their last high school game in the annual Hero Bowl.
The game had some drama, with the Team Red All-Stars, comprised of the Central League and Delco Christian, outlasted the Team Blue All-Stars, made of the Del-Val League, along with Monsignor Bonner, Cardinal O’Hara and Sun Valley, 14-9, on a touchdown pass with just over four minutes to play.
Springfield (Delco) quarterback Jake Rama was the Team Red offensive MVP, while Garnet Valley’s Joe Checchio was the defensive MVP. Academy Park’s Terrence Oliver, who scored Team Blue’s lone touchdown, was the Team Blue offensive MVP, and Chichester’s Eyan Thomas was the defensive MVP for Team Blue.
In an interesting twist, Thomas terrorized the West squad all night, including Rama, whose two touchdown passes were the difference. Rama and Thomas will be future college teammates at St. Francis. Checchio, whose far larger than his listed 185, is heading to Susquehanna, and Oliver will be going to Lycoming.
“Just playing with all my teammates the last time was special and just getting to know all of the guys from the area was fun,” Checchio said. “The last three weeks were pretty amazing, practicing with these guys. We had some wars with Upper Darby and Ridley, and I remember getting cracked by those guys. I found out they’re all great guys and playing with them for the last time was fun, and now I’m heading to college.”
Rama was running from Thomas most of the night.
“It was fun, and it is kind of sad a little bit, knowing this was the last time I wore a Springfield helmet, but we all went out with t bang, we all went with the ‘W,’” Rama said. “The last two minutes were good to cap off a high school career like that. I could tell you playing with a lot of the guys I went against this year was an awesome experience.”
Finally, Oliver was tough to stay with all night.
“It feels great to play football, when you’re playing football, everything else goes away, problems, things on your mind, it all leaves,” Oliver said. “I didn’t care what our record says and how this turned out, we played and had fun. I came into this game with a mission and I completed it. I plan on training my butt off before I leave for Lycoming.
“This was family I played with for four years at Academy Park, and they’re always going to be family.”
The game was sloppy at times, with myriad personal foul calls and offsides, and holding, but when it came into crunch time, the contest took a serious turn. The West team drove to the five with less than five minutes to play, when Rama hit Radnor’s Amir Byrd crossing through the end zone with 4:28 to play.
Team Blue tried mounting a comeback, but couldn’t get anything going in the final minutes, as the final seconds ticked away on everyone’s high school career.
Scoring Summary
Team Blue 2 7 0 0-9
Team West 0 7 0 7-14
1st Quarter
TB – Safety, 8:24
2nd Quarter
TR – Paul Jackson (Ridley) 8 pass from Jake Rama (Springfield) (Tim Comers (Garnet Valley) kick), 10:50
TB – Terrence Oliver 11 run (John Nolek (Sun Valley) kick), 3:20
4th Quarter
TR – Amir Byrd (Radnor) 5 pass from Rama (Tim Styer (Strath Haven) kick), 4:28
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.
