MILLTOWN – On one of the ultimate nights of old-school football, it was appropriate that a school founded in 1748 won.
Wilmington Friends slogged through the mud and wind just a little better than Saint Mark’s on Saturday night, grinding out a 14-0 victory in the semifinals of the DIAA Class 2A Football Tournament.
There was no other way to do it. The conditions wouldn’t allow for any flash.
“It was really rough,” said Ishmael Dobson, the 6-foot-6 tight end who caught a 6-yard pass for the game’s first touchdown. “So muddy.”
When it was over, the first thing Quakers coach Rob Tattersall gave his team was instructions on how to launder their jerseys.
There was plenty of mud to remove, and third-seeded Friends (12-0) will wear those same uniforms at 6 p.m. next Saturday against Caravel in the 2A final at Delaware Stadium.
The Quakers almost scored twice in the first half, but were turned away on four plays inside the 10 and on fourth-and-12 from the 19 with 15 seconds remaining.
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So it stayed 0-0, and Friends went three and out on the first drive of the second half. Then the Quakers got a huge break, recovering a fumbled punt at the Spartans 25.
Nine plays later, on third-and-goal from the 6, quarterback Robby Tattersall rolled right and threw to Dobson, who was wide open in the end zone.
“I’m just praying that I catch that ball, because I knew it was a giant momentum shift if I caught it,” the big tight end said.
He did, and Alessio Cristanetti-Walker’s extra point made it 7-0 with 4:43 left in the third quarter.
“That’s a play we work on in practice every week,” Robby Tattersall said. “I saw Ish right there and I tried my best to put it right on him. He made the play, I just gave it to him.”
Saint Mark’s next punt gained just 16 yards into the fierce wind, setting up the Quakers at the Spartans 36.
Four plays later, Robby Tattersall faked a pass and took off up the middle, dodging Spartans along the way for a 20-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0.
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“It was a designed run, and it just so happened to work out,” the QB said. “They were keying on me a lot all night. They were all over me all night.”
He was the man to key on, as the 6-5 senior rushed 31 times for 114 yards and completed 10 of 20 windy passes for 82 yards.
The second-seeded Spartans (10-2), meanwhile, were stuck in the mud on offense. Their only first down for the first 3½ quarters came on a pass-interference penalty on their first drive.
Saint Mark’s started its final possession – with 6:42 left – with just 7 yards in total offense. Chase Patalano excited the home crowd with three completions for two first downs, but the Spartans’ comeback hopes were dash when Friends’ Hudson Zawadzkas intercepted with 3:31 to play.
It will be the Quakers’ third trip to the championship game in the last six years in what is now the state’s middle division. But Friends will be shooting for its first title since 1984. The Quakers returned 11 seniors from an 11-1 team that lost to Woodbridge in the 2A semifinals last season.
“We’ve got an old team,” Tattersall said. “We’ve got a lot of seniors on our team. We went through it last year, we know how to stay composed. We all believe in each other.”
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ
