Spartans make one final football memory together

You might say Amory Thompson had a rather busy week.

There were the PIAA Track at Field championships in Shippensburg Friday and Saturday, where he won three medals and helped Wyomissing win a Class 2A team championship.

There was victory parade for the state champs shortly after that Saturday evening, then a graduation party that night, and then prom on Sunday evening.

It might’ve been nice to sleep in Sunday morning after all the running and jumping at Shippensburg, spend a lazy day basking in the aftermath of all that glory on the track.

Nope, no time for that. Thompson was back at it Sunday morning, heading to Harrisburg to play in the annual PSFCA East-West Small School football game at Bishop McDevitt High School.

“No matter what, I was playing in this game,” Thompson said determinedly.

It didn’t turn out the way Thompson and his five Wyomissing teammates – Nevin Carter, Rory Filoon, Tommy Grabowski, JaMhi Jackson and Julian DiMao – might have hoped.

The West senior stars dominated from the opening kick, scoring touchdowns on five of their first six possessions en route to a 49-14 victory at Rocco Ortenzio Stadium.

Carter, Filoon, Jackson and DiMao, who started on defense, saw the West up three touchdowns in the second quarter alone.

Only one team scored that many points against the Spartans in an entire game last season, and that team was Southern Columbia, which rebounded from its only loss of the season (42-21 to Wyomissing) and went on to win a PIAA Class 2A championship.

Sunday’s final score won’t be remembered years from now; what will is the special bond these guys had, growing up together playing football, from youth leagues to high school, where they strung together three consecutive District 3 championships and made back-to-back appearances in the state title game.

None of them will ever forget that; neither will anyone who knows them and watched them play the past three seasons.

“It felt great to be with them one last time for real before we all get going to college,” said Grabowski. “It felt good having them play on the field with me one last time.”

All six are headed off to play college back in the fall. Carter and Thompson, bookend cornerbacks the past three seasons and keys to the Spartans’ championship defenses, will be teammates again at California University of Pennsylvania.

Grabowski, the Spartans leading rusher last season, will play at Susquehanna University. Filoon’s headed to Bloomsburg, Jackson to Kutztown, DiMaio to Wilkes.

They made a huge impact on Wyomissing’s program. Sunday . . . not so much.

Nobody on the East defense could stop Bedford quarterback Mercury Swaim, who completed 13-of-20 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 89 yards and three touchdowns, a lot of it on improvised plays escaping the pocket.

He scored on runs of 11, 1 and 15 yards in the first half, threw a 49-yard TD pass to Keith Charley of Windber and a 22-yarder to Griffin Larue of Richland.

Thompson and Grabowski each got a few touches out of the backfield, but they didn’t amount to much. Jackson, a defensive end, picked up a short kickoff and rumbled 28 yards with it, dragging half the West coverage unit with him. Thompson caught two passes.

Late in the game East coach Wally Hall of North Schuylkill went to his ‘Wyo’ package, put in just for this game, because he had so many Spartans on his roster.

Grabowski, Jackson and Thompson were lined up together in the backfield. Thompson got the carry, an attempted sweep right. He didn’t have the blocking he and Grabowski had grown accustomed to, and the play went for no gain.

“It was all messed up,” said Grabowski.

Still, of all the plays that went wrong for the East, that moment will remain a good memory.

“It was a nice experience coming out here, playing with everybody from different teams, different backgrounds,” said Thompson, “teaming up and playing a nice game of football.”

Thompson easily could’ve passed on the opportunity; he never considered it.

“It was for the experience,” he said. “It was great to meet everybody, through practices, (meet) different coaches. It was a change – even the offense was a change. Defense was a change. It was just fun.”