CLAYMONT — You’ll pardon the Archmere football team if they don’t want to see the Tattersall family any time soon.
Ryan Tattersall opened the scoring with a 29-yard pick-six, and older brother Robbie ran for two touchdowns and threw for another as Wilmington Friends defeated the Auks, 34-9, on Oct 1 at Coaches Field.
‘The Auks found their footing on offense in the second quarter. Quarterback Chris Albero helped get hist team on the board when he connected with Gavin Lee on a 25-yard scoring strike. Archmere took the lead late in the first half, beginning a drive on their own 20.
Albero hit Ryan Hagenberg for 34 yards to the Quakers’ 31, followed by a pass to Ben Mongare that set the Auks up at the Friends’ 8. But the drive stalled, and Albero kicked a 24-yard field goal for a 9-7 lead that held at the half.
Archmere punted from its own end zone four minutes into the third quarter, and Friends took advantage of the great field position. They needed just one play, a 25-yard pass from Robbie Tattersall to Jaden Willie, to regain the lead.
As happened in the first half, the Auks hurt themselves with turnovers. The Quakers recovered an Auks fumble of a lateral pass at their own 46. Tattersall completed passes to Ishmael Dobson and Hudson Zawadzkas to get down inside the Archmere 5. Andrew McKenzie finished the drive for the Bulldogs with a 1-yard plunge with 1:29 remaining in the third, increasing the lead to 20-9.
The Quakers’ defense harassed Albero all day, forcing a number of punts, including one at the end of the third. Starting at their own 40, Tattersall picked up 10 yards on the first two plays of the drive, then ran 50 yards up the middle for his first rusing touchdown of the day.
Any doubt about the outcome was erased midway through the fourth quarter. Tattersall rumbled 46 yards down the right sideline on second down for the afternoon’s final score, and the Quakers sent another message to the Delaware high school football community that they should not be overlooked as a contender in Class 2A, of which the Auks are defending champions.
Robbie Tattersall finished with 176 yards rushing on 26 carries, and he completed five of 14 passes for 91 yards. Defensively, Philip Crock and Colin Harron each had six tackles to lead the stingy defense. Friends (4-0) hosts Glasgow next Saturday at 2 p.m.
For the Auks, Albero threw for 157 yards, 58 of which belonged to Mongare. Aldan Bellew led the defense with 10 tackles. Archmere (2-2) has a showdown at Saint Mark’s on Friday at 7 p.m.
All photos by Jason Winchell.
