Back before Holy Spirit ventured out to Malvern Prep in early September, a lot of so-called experts doubted the Spartans ability to achieve anything close to the success they had over the past half-decade.

After graduating more than half of their starters from a year before, that belief wasn't outrageous. The only people who didn't doubt it were the young men who put on that gold helmet last night in Delran.

Going into the game, Holy Cross looked like the smart pick. The Lancers won the West Jersey Football League Liberty Division title, were the top seed in the Non-Public Group 2 bracket, they hadn't lost yet this season and hadn't let up a touchdown since October 24th. But all that changed when the Spartans came to town.

It was a pretty evenly matched battle heading into halftime, with Holy Cross up 28-27, but the second half was all Spirit and senior signal caller Andrew Light, who scored three rushing touchdowns in the second half including two in the 4th quarter.

Light finished the game with five touchdowns, four in the ground and one through the air, while basically carrying the Spartans into the finals.

After knocking off top-seed Holy Cross, the Spartans now face two seed DePaul Catholic, which edged Immaculata 34-33 in overtime. DePaul defeated Holy Spirit 35-16 in last year's state Non-Public Group 2 final.

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