Gratz gets second playoff win in school history
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Yeah, but what if it is? And what if the thing that's broken is a football play? And how are you supposed to feel confident about trying to fix it if 11 ornery guys are trying to prevent that from happening?
"You can't worry about that," Khalil Brown said. "You have to stay calm. Still make things happen."
Brown, a 5-10, 170-pound junior at Simon Gratz High, uttered those words Saturday night at the Bulldogs' Marcus Foster Memorial Stadium.
As he did so, about a dozen youthful members of the Nicetown Titans' football organization stood nearby, wide-eyed and completely quiet as they hung on his every word. A short time earlier, fireworks had zipped skyward right outside the stadium to celebrate a special moment in the Bulldogs' football history.
Gratz is an 81-season Public League member. It has now doubled its playoff victory total.
With Brown, the quarterback, enjoying Mr. Clutch involvement in a pair of broken-play touchdowns, the Bulldogs bested Roxborough in a Class AAA semifinal, 12-6.
Their only previous postseason win had come in a 2002 overall quarterfinal. Though they won the league title in 1949, that achievement came strictly via regular-season activity. Also, though they won two extra games in '81, those occurred in an open-to-all tournament after a lengthy teachers' strike scrapped most of the season.
And then came this one...
Brown, who talked his way into a partial QB shot earlier this season, finished with 162 yards of passing and rushing. One hundred and 14 were traceable to two plays.
Gratz trailed, 6-0, deep into the third quarter when Brown took a shortgun snap and then, oops, dropped the ball onto the artificial surface. Not only was he able to regain possession, he did so without having to flop. No one smothered him. See ya. Fifty yards down the left sideline to the end zone.
"I made a bad play. Had to make up for it," Brown said, simply. "I was glad it worked out like that.
"The first thing you think is, 'Pick it up and don't get tackled for a loss.' When no one's tackling you and you can see open field, you're thinking you can get to the end zone. That happened one other game, against Boys' Latin, when I put a handoff on the running back's hip and the ball hit the ground. I picked it up and scored on that one, too."
Barry Jones dropped Brown on the conversion run, so more heroics were needed from somebody, anybody.
Gratz took over on its 36 midway through the fourth quarter and coach Erik Zipay called for a screen pass to speedster Aaron Rice.
"They say if I don't like what I see, I can call 'check' and run what I want," Brown said. "I went with a run. They were coming after me. I kept hoping Aaron would turn around, so I could throw it to him. He waved his hands and I threw it."
See ya (again). Sixty-four yards to the end zone.
"When he caught it , there was lots of open field," Brown said. "When that happens, there's no telling what he's going to do. Most of the time it's score."
As he launched, Brown was very close to the sideline. So close, in fact, that years from now, judging by the expression on his face when the subject was broached, he might actually say he nicked it.
For now he's maintaining, "Another step and I would have hit it."
Brown, who also plays defensive end, began the season as a tight end/wideout combo. He kept playfully nagging Zipay for the chance to try some QB, his ol' position with the Titans, and earned shared-QB status with Montrell Stewart for game No. 3, vs. Communications Tech, when he helped good-buddy Stanley Baylis break the Pub record for receiving yards in a game (224).
With Stewart out the last four games (broken wrist), Brown has accounted for seven TDs.
Brown's quick-burst heroics overshadowed an outstanding game-long effort by Roxborough scatback Akmed Greene, who rushed 26 times for 131 yards and caught two passes for 19.
Greene turned a bomb from Antonio Murrell into a 59-yard TD with 2:10 left, but a no-doubt motion call (two backs were moving) erased it. Curtis Hunt clinched the win by intercepting Murrell on the Gratz 24 at 26.3.
Murrell had scored the Indians' TD in the second quarter on a 1-yard, right-side keeper, capped by a stretch-out-the-ball dive into the end zone.
Brown, who lives on Hicks Street, footsteps from the stadium, headed home with a present. As Brown lingered on the field, enjoying his hero status while talking with the Titans, Zipay emerged from the locker room and yelled to get his attention.
He explained, "I forgot to give him the game ball."
