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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Talkpa's Effort on Both Sides of the Ball Helps Hun Football Edge Lawrenceville
By Bill Alden
After making a last-minute interception to seal Hun's hard-earned win at Lawrenceville last Saturday, Wellington Talkpa stumbled to the bench and fell to the ground in a heap.
Lying prone on his stomach for a few minutes, the 6'1, 235-pound linebacker-fullback hyperventilated and periodically pounded his fist on the ground in exultation.
As the final gun sounded, Talkpa sprang to his feet to join his teammates and fellow students in a raucous on-field celebration triggered by the Raiders' 10-0 triumph at Lawrenceville.
For Talkpa, those few moments on the ground were among the sweetest of his high school football career. "Absolute joy," said Talkpa, when asked what was going through his mind as he lay there. "Last year Lawrenceville came to our field and beat us. Everybody wanted this real bad. We worked too hard to lose this game."
The burly Talkpa, who rushed twice for 14 yards and caught a pass for 14 yards on offense, had a premonition in the last sequence that he was destined to make an interception.
"I was talking to Jas Lee Rouson and I said I've got to get myself a pick," recalled Talkpa, who is also a star player for Hun's baseball team.
"I saw the kid run at me and I knew the quarterback was going to throw it. I picked and I just couldn't run any more. It was my first pick ever and it came in the biggest football game of my life."
Talkpa wasn't the only player on the Hun defense that was exhausted by the end of the hard-hitting contest which featured several bone-jarring hits.
"Everybody gave their all," said Talkpa, in reflecting on a day in which Hun improved to 3-1 overall and 3-0 in Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) play.
"The young kids stepped up when they came in. Everyone was swarming to the ball. I give it up to the coaches for preparing us so well. We wanted to take his (Lawrenceville quarterback Brad Casalvieri) routes away. We wanted to force him to move in the pocket."
Hun coach Dave Dudeck had high praise for how his relentless defense executed the game plan. "Our defense has been playing great all year," said a grinning Dudeck, who was sporting two welts on his head from having been head-butted by star running back/defensive back Myron Rolle in the post-game celebration.
"We make goals of shut-outs and sometimes you think it might really happen. My hat's off to them, they played tremendously. They showed true heart and desire. I'm real proud of the way they shut Lawrenceville down."
In Dudeck's view, Talkpa has emerged as a stalwart of Hun's stifling defensive unit. "Welly has stepped up as a true senior leader," said Dudeck, whose club led 3-0 at the half Saturday and tacked on its score on a Rolle touchdown run of 15 yards that came after Talkpa's interception.
"I'm so proud of him, he has come so far. He plays two ways for us. He'll play linebacker, he'll play fullback, tight end, H-back. He does anything you ask. He's an emotional leader on the field. I'm so proud of how he has matured."
The Hun squad has shown a collective maturity as it has gotten deeper into the season. "After the last couple of weeks our guys decided to come together as a team," said Dudeck, whose team had fallen 20-6 to Penn Charter on October 2.
"They decided they wanted to take the ball and just shove it down somebody's throat. We wanted to come out today and run the ball. We shut down their running game and I think that was a big blow to them.²
By all standards, the Raiders produced a suffocating defensive effort. In addition to shutting the Big Red out, Hun held Lawrenceville to a paltry 111 yards total offense, made four interceptions, and had one fumble recovery.
On offense, Hun rushed for 139 yards led by the 109 piled up by Rolle. Star quarterback Dom Natale went 3-of-10 passing for 42 yards as the Raiders concentrated on using their ground attack to control the game.
Hun's intensity was whipped to a fever pitch by its desire to topple its nearby nemesis Lawrenceville. "This rivalry is a true rivalry,² said Dudeck, whose club faces another rivalry game in its quest for the MAPL crown that has eluded it when it plays at defending league champion Blair on October 16.
"We go at it. Before the game and at halftime, we said that we needed to have a tremendous, tremendous amount of energy to pull down everything that was inside of us, from the guys on the bench to the players on the field to the coaches. They stepped up to the challenge and showed a lot of heart."
Talkpa believes that the Raiders gained something deeper than just a win last Saturday. "We have heart, we have the bond," declared Talkpa. "The coaches have been talking about how we need to come together as a team, that there have been too many individuals. We just wanted to show them that we could be a team."
