CLAYMONT – Archmere is the latest football team in Delaware to find out that Caravel – the defending state champion in Class 2A – is very, very good, perhaps better than they were a year ago, when they won the DIAA Class 2A state championship. The Buccaneers came to Coaches Field on Sept. 28 and left with a 42-6 win, handing the Auks their first loss of the season.
The backfield duo of Josh Roy and Brock Rhoades proved to be too much for the Auks. Each scored two rushing touchdowns and generally wreaked havoc with the defense, although that has been true of each of Caravel’s opponents this season.
The Bucs got started early on the damp morning. They received the opening kickoff and unleashed Roy on the ground, occasionally giving Rhoads the carry. Archmere did as much as they could to slow the duo down, with several tacklers converging on them, but they could stop them only so often. Roy rushed for 8 yards on second down to put the Bucs at the Archmere 10, and from there, it took four more rushing plays before Roy went off right tackle for a 3-yard score. The extra point was no good.
After forcing a punt, the Bucs took over at their own 47. Quarterback Matt Rice kept the drive alive with an 11-yard pass to James Steel on third and 5. Roy then picked up 20 yards to set Caravel up at the Auks’ 17. Roy covered 14 yards on two carries before Rice took it in.
Archmere’s best offensive chance in the first half began after Jack Bradley intercepted a pass in the end zone. The Auks used nearly six minutes while driving from their own 20 to the Caravel 24, primarily on passes from quarterback John Orsini (St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Glen Mills, Pa.). Including a 22-yard gain on a screen pass to Ryan Hagenberg (St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Glen Mills, Pa.). The drive stalled, however, and the Auks turned it over on downs.
An Archmere turnover early in the third resulted in a Bucs touchdown. From the Auks’ 20, Roy ran for 11 yards and Rhoades covered the remaining 9 for a score. Caravel’s defense, as potent as its offense, forced an Auks punt, and Rice capitalized with a 28-yard scoring pass to Tisyn Witcher.
The Auks did find success on their next drive. Orsini tossed a screen pass to Wyatt Beekley, who ran down the left sideline for 72 yards and a touchdown midway through the third. The Bucs added two more touchdowns, one late in the third, the other in the fourth.
Orsini completed 14 of 22 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown. Hagenberg caught six of those for 49 yards. Defensively, Hagenberg had 13 tackles, while Christian Wittmeyer (Holy Family Parish) had 8. The Auks (3-1) are home on Oct. 5 against Delaware Military at 11 a.m.
Caravel (4-0), which has outscored its opponents this season, 127-12, is home on Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. against Elkton (Md.).
Photos by Mike Lang.
