Phalon, 9/2023
The Blair Academy Buccaneers overwhelmed KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy in a 51-6 blowout in their home opener September 16 but a week later fell to Germantown in a game of attrition 24-10.
The victory over Cooper Norcross was particularly notable considering the Bucs the previous week, in a case of scoreboard whiplash, had bowed 40-0 to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy resulting in an overall 85-point improvement in one week.
“We said all week we wanted to take steps and get better,” Greg Bowman, Blair head coach, said after the Cooper Norcross game.
Bowman said he made no significant changes to their game from the previous week. Rather, the team focused on tightening their existing game.
“We didn’t change really anything. We just tried to focus on getting better at the fundamentals and getting better at execution of the basics, blocking and tackling,” Bowman said. “We weren’t very good in either of those things, the hard to win football game if you don’t block and tackle,” he said about the Springside Chestnut Hill game.
Blair jumped out to a 44-0 lead before halftime, including passing touchdowns from quarterback Micah Balzarini to Yaniek Gellego, Noah Abbott, and Brayden Phinney, who scored two touchdowns in the first quarter.
Carson Bowman ran back an interception 33 yards for a touchdown, and Abbott capped off his day with a touchdown run of 24 yards and an 80-yard punt return. The following week, the Bucs lost some of that mojo in a 24-10 loss to Germantown Academy.
“We had some costly penalties and they made plays when they needed to make plays and we didn’t help ourselves with the penalties,” Bowman said after the Germantown game. “To their credit they executed and made plays.”
Both teams held the other to a single field goal, Jack Armbruster booting one for Blair in the second quarter. That score held for the first half and most of the third quarter when Germantown scored with just minutes left. They quickly racked up two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Blair answered with a fourth quarter touchdown of their own with an 18-yard pass from Balzarini Luke Dale.
Joe brings decades of journalism experience to the Ridge View Echo, covering everything from local school boards to the U.S. Supreme Court. A former National Law Journal editor and Columbia Law School press officer, he now enjoys telling community stories in Blairstown, where he lives with his wife, Rose, and their two dachshunds.
- Joe Phalon, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/joe-phalon-contributing-writer/
- Joe Phalon, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/joe-phalon-contributing-writer/
- Joe Phalon, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/joe-phalon-contributing-writer/
- Joe Phalon, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/joe-phalon-contributing-writer/
