IS BUYING CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
Pat Balmores and football go way back. Well, at least his desire to play it.
At age 5, he remembers, he happened to turn on the TV and saw the Eagles playing the Packers.
"I loved the physical nature," he said. "I was saying, 'I have to try that.' I didn't even know the players wore pads. I thought they were all just naturally big."
Today in South Philly, the 5-7, 190-pound Balmores, a senior at Ss. Neumann-Goretti, is feeling gigantic. Emerging as the late-game hero in a Thanksgiving rivalry will do that for a guy.
N-G yesterday bested Southern, 12-8, at the South Philly Super Site as Balmores bulled 1 yard for the winning touchdown with 42.9 seconds remaining.
N-G leads the series, 52-19-3, on Thanksgiving, 52-20-3 overall.
The deciding drive, which began with 4 minutes, 22 seconds left, covered 85 yards and Balmores' contribution featured 19 yards on four carries. Two of those bursts netted first downs. With 1:05 left, he powered for 8 yards on third-and-6, moving the ball to Southern's 3.
"Never stop going. That's always my approach," he said. "Maybe you're not going to hit the home run, but you can get a first down.
"When coach [Rich "Moose" Carfagno] came out on the field, he said we were going to go with all runs and if we didn't do the job he was going to turn over the game to Mike Huff for a try at a field goal."
That moment came shortly after Anthony Mastrando hit John Snyder for a 46-yard gain.
"John's a baseball player. He's got good speed," Balmores said. "I thought he was going to take it to the end zone. When that didn't happen, it came down to rushing. It meant a lot to me that the coaches put their trust in me."
And it no doubt will mean a lot to these guys that Balmores mentioned their names.
On the game-winning play, he said he followed the path between center Mike LaFauci and guard Sal DiFrancesco. The Saints were in a pseudo-wishbone formation, he added, so backs Faheem Williams and Jesse Kinsey also did their blocking part.
The game's other scores occurred in the first quarter as Southern's Sean Allen returned an interception 52 yards (followed by his conversion catch from Shaquille Gaskins) and Mastrando ran 24 yards. Mastrando and Mark Stinsman added interceptions, while Kenny Johnson (twice), Gaskins and Allen turned that trick for the Rams.
Balmores carried 15 times for 70 yards. He was the only Saint rusher not to be tossed for a loss.
A full-blooded Filipino, he moved to Philly at age 4. He has twice returned to his home country, but not since age 9. Little by little, his family, based at 17th and Moore, has developed a taste for football.
Balmores' N-G grid history goes like this: tackle-linebacker as a freshman, fullback-LB as a soph, center-LB as a junior. When Carfagno took command of the program, he lined up all the players and asked for their positions.
"I told him fullback and linebacker . . . Yeah, I kind of lied," he said. "I love running the ball. I'm the kind of guy, if the play should go for 5 yards, I'm going to try to make it 8.
"As a soph on JV, we ran from a pro set. All the fullback does is block. I had maybe 15 carries all season. This year we used a wing-T and the fullback gets good chances. To have things go like this in my last game . . . awesome."
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