By Yvonne Dennis(246)
It was a good day, Friday Oct. 21 was for Lancers football.
Gerrit Roscioli rushed for two touchdowns and Kei-shon Graham rushed for three.
Their senior classmate Blake Schwartz scored a touchdown on his birthday.
Fellow 276er Collin Washington made some outstanding plays on both offense and defense, including swatting down an opponent’s pass for an attempted two-point conversion.
And the team–from offensive and defensive lines, defensive backs and special teams–battled together to complete the first UN-DE-FEATED regular season anyone can remember in modern Central history, climbing to 8-0.
At times it was close, but in the end Rich Drayton’s Lancers dealt Coach Frank “Roscoe” Natale‘s South Philadelphia High School Rams their fifth loss of the season by a score of 42-22 to send them to 3-5.
Southern will head to the playoffs, just as Central did last year with a slightly better regular-season record. But this year the Lancers were clearly a different squad.
“Our team, it’s like a brotherhood,” said Drayton (246). “They’re not just friends. They hang out with each other every single weekend. And it didn’t start during the season. It started in the offseason. That’s how tight they are. And they want to play for each other. You can’t force that.”
They’re tight because most of them have been playing together for years. At the end of the season, 21 of them will be continuing on to higher education and possibly higher-level play. Kei-Shon Graham, with a 3.9 GPA and 1210 score on his SAT, is the subject of interest at over a dozen schools, including Princeton. Tight End/ linebacker Skylar Jahn is considering Drexel and other top local universities. Collin Washington has committed to Temple. The list goes on.
At halftime Friday, Drayton and his staff, including volunteer mentors and former players/friends of his, brought parents of the seniors onto the field so their kids could give them small gifts and Drayton could thank the parents for the opportunity to shape these young men for four years.
On hand to watch Drayton and Co. reach the 8-0 milestone were a few of his former teammates–Philadelphia All Public and Delaware State Hall 0f Famer John Barber III and District Attorney Seth Williams, both of the 244. Drayton’s classmate and teammate on Central’s 1985 Public League Championship team Kenneth Lomax provided defensive insight from the sidelines Friday, as he has done all season. Alumni parents in attendance as usual included Sklyar’s father, Peter Jahn, also of 244; Duke McGonigal, (251) father of wide receiver/defensive back Ryan McGonigal (276); and Jerry Truxell (238), father of offensive and defensive lineman Walt Truxell (277).
When the final clock ran out, the team, parents and friends enjoyed a meal of spaghetti, baked chicken and other goodies made by the parents as part of the senior-day tradition.
The Lancers hope to have your support Friday Oct. 28 when they host Kensington in the first round of the playoffs at 3 p.m.
