Lower Merion High School | Archive | November, 2013

FOOTBALL: Lower Merion doesn’t stop battling Radnor in loss

Posted on 13 November 2013 by bcookpa.

As the 28 Lower Merion football players walked off Prevost Field following
their 33-14 loss to Radnor Saturday afternoon to end their season, several
seniors were teary-eyed.

On the sidelines, Aces’ head coach Dana Keith praised the character of his
winless squad, who battled the Red Raiders closely for the first three
quarters.

“I couldn’t ask for more effort and commitment from our seniors,’ said Keith.
“Considering all [the adversity] they’ve been through the last four years, I
don’t know if I could persevere the way they have.’

On Saturday, the outnumbered Aces trailed only by a touchdown (21-14) with
3:14 left in the third quarter.

The day before the 117th annual matchup between Lower Merion and Radnor, the
Aces had an emotional day, attending a pep rally at the school in the afternoon
and enjoying a team dinner later that evening.

So Saturday’s loss was a bitter pill for the Aces, particularly the seniors,
to swallow.

Radnor head coach Tom Ryan said, “From what we saw of [Lower Merion] in the
films during the week [before the game], we could see that they were a scrappy
team that never, ever quit.’

Even in the closing moments of the game, the Aces (0-10) were working on a
sustained offensive drive from deep in their own territory toward midfield.

The Aces got off to a good start Saturday, scoring just three minutes into
the game. After the

 

Aces used some alert play on the opening kickoff to get into good field
position, senior quarterback Andrew Kerber hit junior wide receiver Miles
Michnowicz for a 25-yard gain. From the Radnor 6-yard line, LM running back Ari
Wilen, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior who was one of the Aces’ chief contributors
Saturday (14 carries for 69 yards), scored to give the visitors a 6-0 lead that
held up through the entire first quarter.

In the second quarter, Radnor’s running game began to roll behind senior
Jimmie Blake (134 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries), sophomore Jack
Wilson (15 carries, 95 yards) and a solid Red Raider offensive line. Radnor
(3-8) scored three touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 21-6 lead.

But Lower Merion fought back one more time before halftime. Junior wide
receiver/defensive back Malik Ward returned a kickoff 57 yards. Kerber then hit
Ward for a 38-yard touchdown pass, and the Aces trailed by only 21-14 at the
half.

While the youthful Aces started eight sophomores this year — one of the
players Keith praised for his performance Saturday was sophomore end/linebacker
Michael Berg (6-2, 205), it was the LM seniors that Keith particularly wanted to
remember one last time — 12th-graders such as Wilen, Kerber, linebacker/running
back Jack Garton, offensive lineman/linebacker Billy Buckman, wide
receiver/defensive back Nate Goodwin and receiver Kristian Anderson, who made
contributions to the Aces’ effort this fall despite the adversity of a winless
season.

 

 

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Silent but deadly: Freshman wing Johnson brings reserved personality to SU bench

Posted on 07 November 2013 by bcookpa.

By Trevor HassAsst. Sports Editor
Published November 6, 2013 at 3:28 am

B.J. Johnson stood firmly in place with his hands behind his back on the outskirts of the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center gym during media day on Oct. 18.

From his standard, squeaky-clean white, size 14 Jordans up to his No. 2 jersey and orange headband, everything was traditional. No Ron Patterson wacky hair. No DaJuan Coleman outlandish tattoos. No Jerami Grant irreversible grin.

His mother Sharon Dash watched intently from two feet to his right. Johnson’s aunt, uncle and cousin surrounded her. Dash listened as her son mentioned that he can’t swim, his favorite villain is the Joker and he loves any kind of rice.

She knew all of that. But a more challenging question stumped her.

“What’s the most fascinating thing about B.J.?” a reporter asked.

She seemed puzzled by the question. She said she misses her “sweetheart” dearly while he’s at school. When she first opened the door to the Melo Center, she said, “Where’s my son? Where’s my son?” And she loved going to every one of his games at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania.

But she couldn’t pinpoint anything that stood out about him.

“He’s just such a plain kid,” Dash said. “Baby, you’ve got to get interesting.”

Then Johnson flashed a golden smile, revealing a slight gap between his two front teeth. He swayed back and forth, clearly uncomfortable by the entire situation. Johnson, who’s only 17, is as quiet as they come, according to his relatives. But his reserved nature and tendency to fly under the radar made him lethal in high school and may help him earn a spot in the Syracuse rotation.

The banter continued. Dash and her sister Michelle Scott quipped about just how quiet Johnson is.

“I think he talks too much,” Scott said.

“Noooo,” Dash responded, incredulously looking at her sister, taking a step back and jerking her head downward in disbelief.

“I was being facetious,” Scott responded wryly.

But Johnson’s father Bobby Johnson, who played professional basketball in Portugal and Germany, is the antithesis of quiet. When Bobby grew up in South Philadelphia, the culture was completely different. Jawing and trash talk was incessant. It was the expectation. You had to go out there and play and shut those people up, Bobby Johnson said. If you didn’t, you’d never come back on the floor again.

Johnson and his father used to wake up at 6 a.m. and head to Lower Merion to work out for an hour. Johnson was dedicated throughout, Bobby said, but he didn’t always show enthusiasm on the court.

“At one point in time I thought you had to stick a pin in him to get him to wake up,” Bobby Johnson said. “He was always laid back, and I would always tell him, ‘When you come out on the floor, we don’t need that cool sh*t.’”

He didn’t hear his son swear until he was 15 or 16.

“I think the first time I actually heard him yell out the four-letter word he was playing at one of the practices and he was like ‘F*ck!’” Bobby Johnson said. “I was like, ‘OK, you do care.’”

Before Lower Merion’s state championship game against Chester (Pa.) High School, Johnson and his father drove to the rehabilitation center because Johnson had sprained his ankle and needed treatment. Bobby tried to elicit some sort of enthusiasm out of his son —to make sure he was ready for the biggest game of his high school career

After losing to Chester three years in a row, Johnson and the Aces were out for revenge. But Johnson was calm, unfazed by the pressure of the situation.

“I got ‘em, dad,” he said coolly.

“He got ‘em!” Bobby said. Lower Merion beat Chester 63-47, ending the Clippers’ 78-game in-state winning streak. Johnson finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. But the fire was never fully there.

When Bobby Johnson first watched his son play at Lower Merion, he sat there wondering if the other fans would get riled up like he did.

“When I first went to the games, the Lower Merion people are sitting there like it’s a cricket match,” Bobby said. “I remember being like, ‘What the — ain’t anybody going to get the guys going?’”

Months later, removed from one of the most dominant stints at Lower Merion since Kobe Bryant’s hey-day, Johnson comes to SU as the No. 17 small forward in the class of 2013. Yet on media day, few reporters come his way. He stands far from the center of attention as reporters crowd around stars C.J. Fair and Grant.

Most people don’t expect Johnson to play much this season. He may not. But his quiet confidence will help prepare him if he does. He’s not a blue-chipper, 5-star guy, Bobby said, but he works every day.

“Sometimes it’s better to be that guy that comes in under the radar and just does what he needs to do,” Bobby said. “Then all of a sudden everybody’s saying, ‘I knew he would be that guy.’”

Bobby Johnson recalls asking his son a question back in high school.

It was funny because I asked B.J., ‘Suppose this summer you really blew up and had Roy Williams knocking on your door. Would you want to go to North Carolina?“And he was like, ‘No.’

“I said ‘If Coach K was knocking on your door, would you want to go to Duke?’

“And he was like, ‘No.’

“He had a plan, and it’s what he wanted to do.”

Now Johnson’s ready to live out the dream he has had since seventh grade: star at Syracuse. Jim Boeheim said Johnson has surprised the coaching staff up to this point. He’s young, but he can ball.

“I’m just really excited to be here and for the season to start,” Johnson said. “That’s pretty much all I’ve been waiting for and now it’s here.”

 

 

 

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FOOTBALL: Lower Merion-Radnor rivalry rich in historic names

Posted on 04 November 2013 by bcookpa.

Lower Merion vs. Radnor, believed by many to be the oldest continuous public
high school football rivalry in the United States, has featured some pretty
impressive names during the past century.

 

Ted Dean, who scored the winning touchdown for the Philadelphia Eagles in the
1960 NFL championship game, competed for Radnor in the 1950s. The late Emlen
Tunnell, who was the first African American selected to the Pro Football Hall of
Fame, played for the Red Raiders in the 1940s.

 

The 117th meeting between these two teams will kick off Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. at
Radnor High School.

 

Lower Merion holds a 56-49-11 advantage. One of the reasons is the coaching
of the legendary Fritz Brennan, whose Aces beat the Red Raiders every year from
1945 to 1956.

 

In the last decade, Radnor has held the upper hand. The Red Raiders posted a
record 10-game winning streak that came to an end in 2010, when the Aces’
prevailed, 20-7. Lower Merion also won the 2011 contest, 21-14.

 

Last year, Radnor broke a two-year, 20-game losing streak with a 35-7 victory
at Arnold Field. Led by junior running back Jimmie Blake (167 yards in 24
carries), Radnor controlled the ball most of the day, grinding out long drives
that ended in touchdowns. Blake, who was named the game’s Most Valuable Player,
passed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season.

 

Lower Merion-Radnor is not the oldest public high school football rivalry in
the United States. That honor goes to Needham and Wellesley High Schools in
suburban Boston — this rivalry began in 1882, but has not been held every year
since.

 

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In fact, according to Wikipedia.org, the oldest public high school football
rivalry in the United States is Boston Latin School vs. English High School of
Boston, which have faced off annually since 1887.

 

When the inaugural Lower Merion-Radnor game was played (Oct. 26, 1897),
neither team wore uniforms. Players cut the grass and lined the field before the
game. Lower Merion (then known as Ardmore High School) won, 10-4.

 

One of the attendees at the 1897 contest was Barney Fischer, who came to
every Lower Merion-Radnor game until the late 1970s. Every year, he performed a
ritual in which he rubbed a silver horseshoe on the shoulders of players and
coaches to bring them luck.

 

By 1912, the Lower Merion-Radnor game was taking hold – more than 1,000 Lower
Merion fans paraded down Lancaster Avenue that year to watch the game in
Radnor.

 

In 1915, admission was charged for the first time (25 cents). The game ended
in moonlight — police had to clear the field.

 

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rivalry was stronger than ever,
attracting 10,000 fans. The game was moved to Villanova University’s new
football stadium (built in 1927).

 

Marquee names began to appear on both rosters. Tunnell, the first
African-American player elected to the Pro Football of Fame, played for Radnor
in the 1941 contest.Life magazine included a photo of the 1943 Lower
Merion-Radnor contest, which showed Lower Merion players emoting after the Aces
scored the game’s only touchdown.Dean starred for the Red Raiders in the 1955
contest (although Radnor lost, 27-6).

 

In 1996, the centennial contest attracted national attention. In front of
6,000 fans, Lower Merion’s Kevin Dixon intercepted a pass in the end zone with
15 seconds left to preserve a 27-20 Aces’ win.

 

 

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