Ben Lippen’s Michael Traynum tries to escape Cardinal Newman’s Ayden Bradley.
Find these pictures and many more here!
The Ben Lippen Falcons broke out of a two-game losing streak in a big way beating the visiting Cardinal Newman Cardinals 44-0 in SCISA 4A football action Friday, September 12.
As part of Military Appreciation Night, the Ben Lippen community welcomed Fort Jackson’s 282D Army Band for a gripping rendition of the National Anthem and a rocking halftime show.
Adding to the pageantry was Ben Lippen 2024 graduate and current Clemson sophomore Savannah Reese as she rode her horse, Dawson, and led the Falcons onto the field. Reese and just about all of the Falcons were carrying the Stars and Stripes, and the patriotic display was as stirring as the Falcons’ performance on the gridiron.
“This is what high school football is all about right here,” Ben Lippen head coach Bennett Weigle said. “This is Friday Night Lights. It’s a lot sweeter when you win, especially by that score. All in all, a great group effort by everybody here at Ben Lippen.”
The game started a little shaky for the Falcons as they went three-and-out on their first possession and, with the help of a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing punt return, RJ Hughes set the Cardinals up at the Ben Lippen 19-yard line. However, two plays later Cooper Traynum soared for an interception in the back of the end zone getting a toe down to give Ben Lippen the ball back.
Ben Lippen’s Drake Porter tries to bring down Cardinal Newman’s Alan Rodriguez.
The Falcons stayed stingy on defense the rest of the night. The Cardinals had the ball ten times and netted 23 yards total. Six drives ended with a punt. The first ended on an interception. Ben Lippen’s Sam Catoe stopped another with a sack in the end zone for a safety with 2:55 left in the game, and time expired on the other two Cardinal drives. The Cardinals crossed into Falcon territory twice.
“The plan tonight was to go just do our jobs,” Ben Lippen senior linebacker Drake Porter said. “That’s one thing that we struggled with so far this season—just getting everybody on the same page, locked in, really wanting to do our jobs, not other people’s jobs. I think tonight we came out here obviously and executed, did exactly what we were supposed to. It was an absolute team effort. No single person did more than the other.”
Porter finished with a team-high 14 tackles with two for loss. His brother, Stone, added 12 tackles, and Ben Morris finished with ten including four for loss. Catoe had four tackles for loss with the safety, and Jonathan Berlin and Ben Cole finished with seven tackles each and combined for five tackles for loss.
Thanks to the defense, Ben Lippen’s average starting field position was its own 48-yard line with four drives starting deep in Cardinal Newman territory.
“They played with just relentless effort tonight,” said Weigle of his defense. “We swarmed the ball. We talked all week about defending the perimeter because we’ve done a really bad job of that all year, and we knew they were going to attack it, and they did, and we swarmed it. We got after it, and I’m very proud of those guys.”
As for the offense, the Falcons scored touchdowns on six of nine possessions. They punted twice and fumbled once, but even the fumble was at the end of an 86-yard drive.
After that first interception, the Falcons drove 62 yards in eight plays to Cardinal Newman’s 19- yard line. Facing a third-and-nine, quarterback Marcus Moore found Zach Swan for a leaping catch in the end zone. Zach Matthew added the extra point, and Ben Lippen led 7-0 with 4:09 left in the first quarter.
The Falcons would throw two more passes on the night because the run game was just that effective.
Michael Traynum finished with 130 yards and a touchdown on nine carries with a long of 76 yards. Jonathan Eckert had 129 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, and Zion Gaddist ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. Ben Cole added 15 yards and a touchdown on three carries.
“What we do is hard to defend,” Weigle said. “We’re very methodical with it. We try to hold the ball. We’ve got backs who can go. The offensive line played fantastic tonight. It was by far their best game. We managed the game. We had some explosive plays, but we also had some nine/ten play drives, so it was a great group effort.”
The Falcons are on the road the next two weeks with games against 3-1 Northwood and 2-2 Laurence Manning, and then they return home to host Porter-Gaud, last year’s SCISA 4A runner-up.
“It doesn’t get any easier in 4A football,” Weigle said. “We’ve got some big ones coming up. We’ve just got to keep getting better. We talk about getting better, a little bit better each day, a little better each week, till we’re playing our best football at the end of the season.”
Loading Comments