Florence players dominate BCSL Freedom Division First and Second Team All-Star squads
By: Sean Moylan
When you win 35 games in a row, as the Florence Flashes varsity football team has done, you’re bound to have a whole lot of all-star players. One could even say Florence players dominate the BCSL Freedom Division First and Second Team All-Star squads.
Let’s get the no-brainers out of the way first. Florence senior Joe Spahn made the Freedom Division First Team as a linebacker and senior Abree Jones made it as a running back.
"Spahn without a doubt is one of the best players in the state," said Florence head coach Joe Frappolli.
Rutgers University, which will play in its first bowl game in over two decades this year, is currently giving both Spahn and Jones a long look. Yeah, they are that good.
Spahn hits players so hard their numbers start to peel off. He has made 80 first hits and he has 85 assists this season. He also has made 15 tackles for a loss, which is a very impressive stat. He has done all of this even though teams will run their plays away from him. He’s also a very mobile quarterback with a strong throwing arm, who rushed for 486 yards and four touchdowns this past season.
Jones, on the other hand, is a spectacular back gifted with blinding speed and incredible leaping ability. He is so talented that he makes singular runs which would stir the interest of any college recruiter. Jones has rushed for 1,266 yards this season, which is the fifth best mark in Florence history. He has also scored 19 touchdowns and he still has a game to go. He is also game-changing defender capable of creating a turnover at any time under any circumstances.
Florence’s other First Team All-Stars are Malcolm Jenkins, a junior defensive lineman, Shaquan Virgil, a junior defensive back, Chris Salaga, a sophomore two-way lineman and Matt Belcher, a sophomore kicker.
Jenkins can hit with the best of them and he is always making one ferocious tackle after another. Virgil is a great cover guy who can do a little bit of everything on the football field. On the offensive side of the ball Virgil has rushed for 329 yards and he averages 9.7 yards per carry. He also has six touchdowns.
Salaga just dominates on both sides of the ball with his uncanny quickness. He is often the guy who recovers a fumble or makes the key block to spring a runner.
Florence was looking for someone to take some of the pressure off of Jones, who used to kick and punt, and Belcher fit that bill. Belcher has had a magnificent year kicking the ball for the Flashes. And he didn’t miss a PAT until more than midway through the season.
Fritz Miller, a sophomore offensive lineman, Irving Perkins, a junior offensive lineman, Chris Foehr, a junior offensive end, Jeff Perro, a junior defensive back, Anthony Cardone, a senior linebacker and Kevin Reeder, a junior linebacker, are the Flashes’ Second Team All-Stars.
People in Florence have known Miller would be a star lineman since his Pop Warner days. It was just a matter of his waiting his turn. Perkins, like Miller, is also a masterful blocker. Foehr is a stellar blocker too but he also ran for 111 yards and a touchdown this season.
Perro has quietly had an awesome season. He has made several interceptions and he is a very smart defender.
If Cardone, "the Little Dynamo," were six-foot-three, he’d probably be on every all-star team in the state. But even at five-foot-five, he’s still clearly one of the finest linebackers in Burlington County. And it’s a great pleasure to watch him forcefully tackle players twice his size.
Florence’s defensive coordinator Nick Lubrano has a habit of producing incredible linebackers and Reeder is yet another one. He’s a good tackler and a hard hitter.
The Flashes are a team of all-star players and coaches. Yet all they truly care about is winning tomorrow’s game versus David Brearley. They’re winners before anything else.