Junior Nik Dolan. / Photo by: Sue Moss
The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team dropped its 109th Thanksgiving Day game with Abington, 27-14.
For Abington High football head coach Jim Kelilher, there is no bigger game than Thanksgiving.
This is his 52nd season as a part of the Green Wave’s Turkey Day game against Whitman-Hanson. The rivalry turned 109 this season.
So, despite punching their ticket to the Div. 7 Super Bowl, there was no way Kelliher was going to sit his starters, as some other Super Bowl-bound coaches did across the state. He had too much respect for the rivalry.
“It’s a football game and we play our starters each and every Friday or Saturday,” Kelliher said. “We weren’t going to do any different today. You’ll remember this one (game) the most.”
And the Green Wave’s starters shone. Senior captain Will Klein scored two of his three touchdowns in the second quarter to give the Green Wave a 14-0 lead en route to a 27-14 victory.
A 57-yard pitch and catch from Colby Augusta to Drew Donovan pushed the Abington (10-2) lead to 21-0 before the half. For a team that lost its starting quarterback in its first game of the season, the Panthers (2-10) proved to be scrappy, pulling within 21-7 right before halftime on a 60-yard touchdown run by Nik Dolan.
Klein was just too much, though, scoring his third touchdown of the game in the third, ballooning Abington’s advantage to 27-7. W-H countered late with a 40-yard strike from Andrew Cloutman to senior Colby Garden, but it wasn’t enough.
W-H still leads the all-time series with Abington, 60-46-3.