Football: Springfield’s title march came with no caveats

HAVERFORD >> When Chris Britton was handed his team’s fall schedule last February, the math teacher part of his persona wondered how he’d get a team full of new starters to the mouth of a gauntlet starting in Week 7.

Even if the football coach portion of his consciousness might have been tempted to indulge the wonderment of a Week 8 trip to Garnet Valley or the dream of Week 10 with a title on the line under the lights at Haverford, Britton erred on the side of modest practicality.

On the other side of those trials, Britton and his unscathed Cougars — the undefeated Central League champs, thanks to a 31-17 win over Haverford Friday — is a little more willing to ruminate on the magnitude of the challenge. And the mountain looks just as big from the summit.

“I think a lot of them, they’re two-year players and a lot of them have that motivation inside,” Britton said of his charges. “They had expectations and I think getting to Week 8 and then people on the outside saying, ‘They can’t do this,’ or, ‘Wait ’til they finish the season; they won’t win the last three,’ we hear it from all different people. And that just keeps them going. They’ve got something to prove.”

The Central League, with its mathematical disparity of 11 opponents for nine conference contests, is ready made for controversy; the schools that are not written on your schedule each year often generate as much intrigue as some of the ones that are. Yet Springfield’s path to an outright and unimpeachable crown skirted no one, by choice or by fortune. And with the last three installments booked on the road — at Marple Newtown, at Garnet Valley, then at Haverford — there can be no quibbles as to its credentials.

Take a gander at the Central League standings after Friday night:

• Second place: Garnet Valley, which Springfield toppled, 14-7, in Week 9.
• Third: Haverford.
• Fourth: Marple, trounced by Springfield in Week 8, 42-19.
• Fifth: Upper Darby, a 20-8 road win in Week 3.
• Sixth: Ridley, demolished in the Week 5 statement that the Cougars were for real, 42-7.
• Seventh: Strath Haven, blitzed 41-13 in Week 4.

Not until you get to eighth-placed Radnor do you see a team Springfield didn’t directly overcome.

It’s been a while since a Central League title has been so tidily compiled. Last year, the trophy split three ways; two of the tri-champs, Springfield and Marple, didn’t play, and Springfield beat the third, Ridley. Marple Newtown was also spared the fate of playing Garnet Valley, which beat Springfield. It’s enough to generate plenty of games of “what if?”

In 2015, Haverford’s Thanksgiving Day triumph over Upper Darby was eclipsed only by the fact that the Fords played neither Springfield nor nine-win Marple that season. Springfield’s last outright title in 2014 avoided a showdown with Ridley. All that context is to say that no caveats shall be applied this year, to these Cougars. And the back-loaded schedule even came to pay dividends.

“I think we try to get as many of the kinks out earlier in the year,” defensive end Kevin Deal said. “The last two weeks of practice have been spot on. We’re really mentally focused trying to do our best, put our best out on the field.”

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Springfield’s Chris Finizio celebrates his touchdown catch during second quarter against Haverford at Haverford High School. (Special to the Times / ERIC HARTLINE)