Every coach knows how important it is to have a balance of high confidence in their team and realistic expectations going into a season.
But as his team gets ready to battle for a sectional title, Delhi football coach Phil Neumann admits that this season has taken him by surprise.
“Truthfully, I didn’t think we were gonna be here,” he said. “I didn’t really see this coming.”
Where the Bulldogs are now is one win away from their first Section IV championship since 2006, as Delhi (8-2) is set to face three-time defending state champion Tioga (7-3) in the Class D final at Johnson City on Friday at 8 p.m.
“We’ve had a great week of practice,” Neumann said. “The kids are excited. I think that they believe we can win this game. We beat them once before.”
Delhi’s 41-34 victory over the Tigers back on Oct. 4 was arguably the biggest win in recent program history and the first time Tioga had lost at home in seven years.
It kicked off what is now a five-game winning streak — six if you count a win by forfeit over Oxford — in which the Bulldogs have scored at least 40 points in every game. The most recent of those was a 42-13 rout of Deposit-Hancock in the Class D Semifinals.
“Right now our defense is playing really fast, playing really good football,” Neumann said.
The offense, meanwhile, is being driven by one of the best rushing tandems around in Ian Johnson and Adam Cook.
On the season the duo has combined for 1,898 rushing yards (1,261 for Johnson and 637 for Cook) and 25 total touchdowns (14 for Johnson, 11 for Cook). They were dominant once again in the win over the Eagles, racking up a combined 290 yards on the ground and five total touchdowns, four of which were scored by Cook.
“They’re two tough backs; what a combo,” Neumann said. “They have the same style: just hard-nosed and they get extra yards after contact. Just two great kids.”
This will be the third year in a row that Delhi and Tioga have met in the Class D final. The previous two meetings haven’t been close, with the Tigers winning 55-7 last year and 42-14 in 2022.
“They’re a lot bigger than us,” Neumann said. “Up front, we’re giving up 50 pounds per guy.”
But the Bulldogs enter this year’s matchup knowing they can not only keep pace with the Tigers but beat them and Neumann said that confidence has carried over into the team’s preparation.
“We had the lead the whole game the first time we played,” he said. “Every time they scored, we answered back and we kept the ball away from them. We had long drives, which is hard to do against them, but we kept getting first downs and a lot of positive yards from our running backs. We basically outscored them by keeping the ball away from them.”
Johnson and Cook both had big games in the first meeting, with Johnson running for 161 yards and a score and Cook totaling 95 yards from scrimmage with a touchdown catch.
But while the ground game will clearly be pivotal, quarterback Zach Cornell could be the x-factor for Delhi. The senior had his most productive game of the season against the Tigers, throwing for 214 yards and two scores and running in another touchdown.
Regardless of the in-game strategy, Neumann said the motto for the team is to play fast, physical and smart.
“Our kids have got heart and they’re tough,” he said. “They battle. They give you 110% every play.”
Given the graduations of some big senior classes in recent years, Neumann came into the 2024 season with more modest expectations for his squad. But he credited the leadership of his older players and the growth of the younger ones for this season’s success.
“Our seniors are so tight and the team is tight, a very close team,” Neumann said. “They take care of each other, they look out for each other. But the seniors have played well and the young kids stepped up and every week they’re better. We’ve gotten better every week. They really surprised me.”
They’ve now put themselves in a position where they’re four quarters away from taking down a giant and making some history.