O’Brien, Wilkins help Hun run
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The Hun School football team began the season looking for its identity.
The Raiders have found it while reeling off three straight Mid-Atlantic Prep League wins that surrounded a last-second loss to Penn Charter.
”No. 1, we’re playing very, very tough defense,” said Hun head coach Dave Dudeck, whose team is 3-2 overall. “We’re becoming a more physical, rugged team. We’re able to run the ball with some consistency. Every once in a while, we pull the ball and throw a clutch pass, but we’ve developed into more of a smashmouth team. Other teams see that and they’re pounding eight or nine guys in the box, but so far we’ve been pretty successful with it.”
Senior offensive linemen Matt O’Brien and Drew Wilkins have helped the Raiders establish that identity as they head into a 2 p.m. game at Peddie on Saturday. The two helped clear the way for 195 yards of rushing from Brendan Morgan and another 69 yards and three touchdowns on the ground from Colin Weingrad in a 20-13 win over Blair last Saturday.
”We knew what they were going to do, and they knew what we were going to do so it came down to a battle in the trenches, and we ended up pulling it out,” said O’Brien, a West Windsor resident who is in his first full season starting at left guard. “We’re getting better every game. You can see it, all our linemen are getting better. It shows in the yardage we’re getting in the backfield.”
The two played together in several games on the left side last year, but Wilkins said they worked even harder over the summer to solidify their side.
”We knew we needed to work because the team was going to lean on us and we needed to be make sure we could run to both sides,” said Wilkins, an Elkins Park, Pa. resident who is in his second year of starting at left tackle. “Early in the season, we only ran to the right. Now they started coming to my side, and we started putting some points up.”
The two are part of a veteran line that includes four-year starter John Law at center, second-year starter A.J. Zuttah at right guard and post-graduate Sean Ferguson at right tackle. Jonathan Simmons is the tight end and Shane McCullough, a senior, can fill in for any of the lineman capably.
”They’re a veteran group that we had high expectations of coming into the year,” Dudeck said. “They progressed nicely.”
In the win over Blair, the line proved critical in helping Hun drive from its own 1-yard line 99 yards for a touchdown to open a seven-point lead in the second quarter. The Raiders offense built off that drive when it opened the second half with another drive to provide the winning margin.
”It was key to the game because if we didn’t get down to score that time, it would have been a tie game,” Wilkins said of the 99-yard drive. “We really started blending as a team and started pushing each other. We put together a good drive and it changed the momentum of the game.”
The Raiders hope to continue putting together successful drives in Saturday’s 2 p.m. game at Peddie. It will be a chance to go to 4-0 in MAPL play with just the Hill School left on their conference schedule Nov. 6.
”We have to keep getting better every week and keep working,” Wilkins said. “We have to come out with the same intensity we had against Blair. We don’t look at any team saying, we should beat them. We come in knowing that every team is going to try to give us a challenge, so we come out hard and we try to give as much as we can.”
The Raiders last won the MAPL title in 2007, before Wilkins arrived at Hun and when O’Brien was a sophomore. Hun went 9-0 that season.
”The MAPL championship is something we always strive for,” O’Brien said. “At the beginning of the season, we wanted an undefeated season. After our first loss, we knew that wasn’t going to happen. But we always had that MAPL goal, so beating a MAPL team is always that much sweeter because you know at the end of the road, there’s no playoffs. It’s MAPL championship or nothing.”
Added Wilkins: “Every week we’ve had to play a MAPL team, we always come out strong. We always have a good week of practice. For the seniors, we know we want that ring. Last year, we didn’t get that. We had a big loss to Blair and we weren’t going to let that happen.”
Hun has seen its team grow from its opening-game loss to Wyoming Seminary to a hard-fought win at Mercersburg and the last-second loss to Penn Charter. The Raiders have knocked off Lawrenceville and avenged last year’s 49-20 loss to Blair in successive weeks.
”The victory on Saturday was huge for us as a team,” Dudeck said. “It seems as each week goes by, we’re getting better as a team, we’re playing with more confidence and it shows in our play. I think we’re developing an identity as a team.”
Weingrad’s pounding runs started to steer the Raiders toward a running juggernaut, and Morgan has been able to find big yardage through the holes being opened by a veteran offensive line.
”We’re just starting to get in our groove now,” O’Brien said. “We’re coming together all the time and hanging out, eating together all the time — obviously big linemen love to eat. Getting in here and lifting with each other. It’s huge. We have to bond as a team and find our identity. Coach keeps saying, we have to find our identity. I think it starts with the line.”