Bullock scored his 18th touchdown of the season in the 35–14 loss and is now 110 yards away from his second consecutive 2,000-yard season.
If only sounds of encouragement could have translated into some success on the field.
Keep your head up. Don’t get down. Somebody needs to make a play. This thing isn’t over. There’s still a lot of football left.
Indeed, throughout Saturday afternoon’s Catholic League AAA championship at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, Archbishop Ryan’s coaches and fans continually cajoled the Raiders to ignore the elements against an opponent that had not lost to a division opponent since 2007.
But words weren’t enough.
Scoring touchdowns on its first four possessions, Wood triumphed by a misleadingly close score of 35–14. The Vikings’ dominance against league foes thus continued. They have now won 39 straight games, seven consecutive league titles and 14 straight playoff games.
“We knew what we were up against,” said senior back Samir Bullock. “We didn’t play as well as we needed to play.”
The game itself wasn’t particularly memorable, and, to be frank, the result was arguably predictable. Wood, the defending PIAA Class AAA state champion, had dispatched its four division foes with relative ease during the regular season, and that included a 47–14 win over Ryan on Sept. 26.
As in their earlier meeting with the Raiders (5–6), whenever the Vikings (10–1) took possession, they methodically moved up the field via short throws and lots of dynamic running by Jarrett McClenton.
The senior tailback, who would ultimately become Archbishop Wood’s all-time rushing leader after gaining 125 yards on only 12 carries, scored three touchdowns on the ground and added a fourth on a highlight-reel punt return early in the third quarter to help Wood snare a 35–0 lead. That tally allowed Wood to enjoy the benefits of a running clock and made a miracle Ryan comeback virtually impossible. It also provided Wood coach Steve Devlin, an Archbishop Ryan alum, enough of a cushion to take out most of his starters.
A few minutes after the Vikings’ rather subdued on-field celebration and post-game handshake, two-way Wood lineman and first-team All-Catholic selection Ryan Bates extolled the Raiders for their game-long fortitude.
“One of the things we never do is take any team lightly,” Bates said. “They have a lot of talent and a great playmaker (Bullock). I know a lot of people talked about us winning easily, but we didn’t listen to that. We respect Ryan.”
The Raiders were able to muster a modicum of joy when sophomore quarterback Matt Romano connected with Cha Cha Gary on a 45-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter. Following a fumbled kickoff that was recovered by Gary, Ryan again found the end zone on a 19-yard jaunt by Bullock to cut the deficit to 35–14 with 10:08 remaining in regulation. From that point on, Wood consumed most of the clock.
Bullock finished with 85 yards on 16 carries. Now with 1,890 rushing yards, Bullock needs 110 more against George Washington’s staunch defense on Thanksgiving Day to reach the 2,000-yard plateau for the second straight season. He became just the 11th player in city history to reach that mark in 2013.
Bullock, however, wasn’t in the mood to discuss personal statistics after the stinging loss, which came a week after Ryan had won its first playoff game since 2004, a 27–14 triumph over Bonner-Prendergast.
“We win as a team and we lose as a team,” Bullock said. “We expected to win this game. We beat them last year (22–7), so we had already proved what we could do.
“We just didn’t play well. That’s the bottom line. Wood won because they just came to play. We did not play as a team, or as Coach (Frank McArdle) would say, ‘as one.’ We left too many plays on the field and we just did not give 100 percent. We have a great group of guys, but we were just not ready.”
Romano agreed.
“We made some mistakes and they didn’t,” Romano said. “It’s disappointing, but I think this is a learning experience for us. We have a lot of underclassmen coming back, so this will be valuable. This will help us next year.”
Romano said he didn’t receive much relief when Ryan broke the shutout.
“It’s always nice to score, but they were playing with their second team in there,” Romano said. “When we scored again, at least it made it a little interesting.” ••
Charles “Cha Cha” Gary scored the first of Ryan’s two touchdowns.
Samir Bullock (far left) and his Archbishop Ryan teammates could only look on in dejection as Wood marched to its 39th straight league win and seventh consecutive title. MICHELLE ALTON AND BILL ACHUFF / FOR THE TIMES
