West Lynn Pop Warner A Squad off to Disney World

WORCESTER – For Maurice Cordy and seven members of his West Lynn Pop Warner A squad, it’s sweeter to be a repeater.Cordy was the coach two years ago when the Rams’ B team won the New England regionals and went to Disney World for the national Pop Warner championships. Saturday, Cordy and seven of his holdovers won the A squad regionals and, for the second time in three years, Cordy will take a group of kids to Orlando for the nationals.”I know I went two years ago,” Cordy said, “but this year it’s even better. I think it’s because we had to fight so hard to get here.”The West Lynners defeated a team from Mt. Hope, Rhode Island, 22-16, at Foley Stadium in Worcester to qualify for the nationals. It was a hard-fought win, made sweeter, perhaps, by the fact that the Rams seemed to have the game in hand, leading 16-0 in the third quarter, before the Cowboys came roaring back with two touchdowns, including one with 5:13 left, to tie it.And then, just like that, Kevin Heing – one of the B team holdovers from two years ago – ripped off a 75-yard run, bursting through the line and galloping, untouched as a host of Cowboy defenders chased him, to the end zone.”We’d been running that play all day,” said Cordy, “and the most we’d get out of it was one yard.”Kevin is always afraid he’s going to be brought down from behind, but he’s so fast all he has to do is just run,” Cordy said. “That time, it worked.”After a scoreless first quarter, West Lynn got on the board first after a Cowboy punt from their own 10, plus a penalty, set Lynn up at the exact same spot. The Cowboys were stout for three plays, but on the fourth, Devinya Robinson burst in from the one, with the appropriately-named Abraham Toe kicking the two-point conversion.Mt. Hope responded with a lengthy, 12-play drive that took them all the way down to the Lynn 13 before the Cowboys fumbled, with West Lynn recovering. But the Lynners gave it right back two plays later. However, the Cowboys coughed it up on the last play of the half when, from the Lynn 31, Albert Alicia picked off a pass.On its first possession of the second half, Lynn went up 16-0 when Robert Thompson hauled in an 8-yard pass from Alicia, with Toe again kicking the two points. However, he got hurt on the play and had to sit out the rest of the game.That appeared to be it for Mt. Hope, but after Jermaine Washington took the resulting kick to midfield, the Cowboys caught fire. Quarterback Emmanuel Leake and receiver Keenan Hatch heated up, completing three passes on the 8-play drive, including a 13-yarder that found the end zone. Borris Toure’s two-pointer made it 16-0. And on their next drive, the Cowboys found the end zone again, on Washington’s 2-yard plunge – setting the stage for Heing’s dash with just over four minutes to go.”This has to be the best game I’ve ever been associated with,” Cordy said. “We had some injuries, and one of our guys didn’t make the weight limit. But we stuck together.”Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].