Aces start season 2-0 for first time since … ?

LOWER MERION — CJ Morgan got to the goal line Friday evening, turned to look to his quarterback and then it all went quiet.

All the Lower Merion tight end could hear, see or feel in that moment was the ball leaving Mekhai Smith’s hand. Knowing he’d shaken his defender, on second-and-goal on the first possession of overtime, for that brief moment there was nothing but Morgan and the ball.

“When the ball is in the air, there was silence,” Morgan said. “No one was talking, no one was yelling. And I was like, ‘I’ve got to bring this ball in.’ Just having it in my hands for that touchdown was amazing.”

Morgan secured the catch in a moment of offensive execution that was the outlier in the face of two stingy defenses, and an interception on the ensuing possession by Zion Gray sealed a 14-6 Central League win for Lower Merion over Upper Darby.

All else was in the past by the time Morgan ran his drag route to the field side on second down from the 14 in overtime. The 29 combined offensive possessions in regulation, the 15 punts, the 30-some incompletions and four turnovers in a game where the defenses dominated the offenses for nearly three hours – all of it went quiet for Morgan.

The offensive highlights won’t take long to summarize. Smith found Gray for a 28-yard score on a corner route that he feathered into the wideout’s hands at 5:18 of the first quarter. Smith also found Thomas Burke for a 59-yard pitch-and-catch on a busted coverage in the fourth. Smith broke off a 25-yard run in the first quarter, then ran for minus-25 yards after halftime.

Upper Darby’s score came via Jaylen Johnson on a two-yard run at 5:32 of the third, though that was the entire drive thanks to a defensive play.

Otherwise, not much. Upper Darby (0-2, 0-1 Central), which dropped a 14-6 decision to West Chester Henderson last week, got a 13-for-18 day for 104 yards from Joseph Sarjoo, including six catches for 53 yards from Milan Jernigan.

But they rushed 27 times for 26 yards. Sarjoo exited in the fourth quarter with an arm injury. Still trying to execute its short passing game, backup Josmanny Martinez went 3-for-14 with a pair of interceptions.

Hence the eight punts, though Martinez did average 41.4 yards.

Smith was 14-for-32 for 194 yards. Ben Booker (three catches for 48 yards), Gray (three for 31) and Declan Mack (three for 21) were his favored targets. Booker pounded the ball 15 times for 40 yards.

If you wanted to see plays made on Friday, though, you had to look to the defenses. And each team’s edge rushers made them in abundance.

For Lower Merion, that meant Booker and Andrew Cook. Each had two tackles for loss in the first half, Booker dropping UD’s Jabir Hanton for a loss on fourth-and-4 in plus territory in the first half. Booker’s sack of Sarjoo ended UD’s longest drive of the opening half at the 38.

“I think it was pretty critical,” Booker said. “We were able to blitz gaps, get right into the backfield, get tackles for loss and disrupt plays.”

Defense is becoming the Aces’ thing. Off to a 2-0 start for the first time since before anyone on the sideline could recall Friday, they have allowed six points, after a 6-0 shutout of Bensalem.

“We work all week on doing your assignment,” Booker said, “and I feel like all of our players have been doing their assignments really well.”

UD’s score might as well have come from the defense. With defensive end A’Zeem Spicer draped all over Smith, Kaleel McLaughlin blew up a screen play, finding the ball in his mitts behind the line. He rumbled 10 yards down to the 2, setting up a score from Johnson.

“I’m going back to the QB, I see the ball in the air, I was happy to grab it,” McLaughlin said. “I didn’t know if I was going to get it. I’m sitting there, boom, caught it, and I wanted to score. I was two yards away from scoring. That was the first interception of my career, and it felt wonderful.”

Spicer, just a sophomore, and senior end Kamar Perlote were in the backfield at will. Perlote and Zahir Robinson combined to drop Booker for a loss on fourth-and-1 in the first quarter, then McLaughlin stood up Booker on fourth and short in the fourth. Spicer and Perlote had 3.5 tackles for loss each, with 3 for McLaughlin.

The senior interior lineman is excited about the direction of the UD defense.

“The whole game, we held them to six,” McLaughlin said. “Last week, we had a great defensive game. It’s just little mental errors that we need to fix as a team. It’s only the second week. We have eight weeks to go. We’ll get this going. We’ll get this offense fixed, and we’ll get our defense together.”

Lower Merion took away plenty of points where it could improve. But the defense is doing so with a 2-0 mark on the ledger, which was reason to celebrate at the final whistle.

“We’re definitely looking to change that mentality” on defense, Booker said. “Six points in two weeks, that’s a good record for a defense.”