Abi and Ubi Archibong have spent the past few years learning football. So, too, has their father.
The twin brothers, both freshmen on the Fallston football team, often get asked the same question by their dad who makes most of their games despite a busy work schedule. Why does Abi, the Cougars’ starting varsity running back, always go straight into the crowd of offensive and defensive linemen, his father asks. It’s a critique anyone who’s watched a game with a football novice has heard before. This 14-year-old isn’t immune.
“It’s hard to tell him that’s where the blocks are,” Abi joked.
Over time, though, the brothers’ father is learning the game. So are his boys, the soul of a Fallston team dealing with injuries and departures and looking to remain competitive in Harford County. Abi, the Cougars’ leading rusher through two games, boasts potential that is obvious to all. Ubi, beginning the season on junior varsity, is in his first year of football but possesses similar physical traits that has coaches and teammates enamored with what he could be.
Together, they’re the future of Fallston football. Right now, they’re just soaking this opportunity in.
“It’s a lot of fun,” coach Derrick Krumholtz said. “And at the same time, it can be frustrating. I’ve known Abi since he was 11 years old. I’ve only known Ubi now for a couple of months. But even at 11 years old, Abi was so unbelievably physically gifted, but he was then where Ubi is now. But they’re such good kids that it’s hard to be mad at them. You almost want to be frustrated — ‘why didn’t you do this,’ or ‘why didn’t you do that?’ — but they always smile and say ‘yes, sir’ or ‘sorry, coach.’ They’re almost impossible to be mad at.”
Abi, who has played football since he was 11, dominated the Fallston youth level circuit that Krumholtz also coached. But while his brother excelled on the field, Ubi watched from the bleachers. It took more convincing for him to give football a try. Their family immigrated from Nigeria a decade before they were born. The sport was foreign to them. After years of nagging from friends and coaches, he gave in.
“I was trying to visualize how it works,” Ubi said. “Then, I started coming.”
Fallston is 1-1 through two weeks. Abi eclipsed 100 rushing yards in the season opener against C. Milton Wright, but the Cougars’ self-inflicted mistakes cost them the game. They responded with a commanding win over North Harford.
Leading Fallston in the backfield, beside Abi, is junior quarterback Mikey Griffin. He started last fall as a sophomore but added two inches and 30 pounds since then. He was already a dynamic runner with a live arm and is hoping to assert himself as Harford County’s best quarterback in his second season as the Cougars’ starter.
Zach Loewe is Griffin’s top target. The quarterback boldly said he’s “the best receiver in the county.” They’re the only two players in the program that Krumholtz said are more athletic than the Archibong twins.
“It’s very impressive. Nobody’s ever done that here,” Griffin, who gives the Archibongs rides home from practice, said about Abi starting on varsity as a freshman. “I feel like he can really do it. He’s got a lot of potential.”
“I just can’t imagine what he’s gonna be like by senior year,” Loewe added.
It’ll be a rebuilding year of sorts for Krumholtz, in his first season as coach after spending the past few as the defensive coordinator. But with Griffin and Loewe, they’ll always be in contention. Every team deals with departures and injuries, but perhaps none more so than Fallston. Krumholtz’s team has already lost several starters to season-ending injuries, and two starting defensive linemen, Oliver Reuckert and Oladipo Imode, transferred away over the offseason.
One of those injuries was a running back who Abi would have battled for the starting job. Opportunity arises from those losses, a reality the brothers are aware of and humbled by. When asked what football means to them, Ubi, doing all of this for the first time, takes a moment to respond.
Nothing in his life has been linear. This sport, he’s realizing, is the same.
“There’s highs and lows in life, just like in the game of football,” Ubi said.
Abi, similarly, is grateful.
“I didn’t think I was going to get pulled up as a freshman,” he said. “It’s just God. He gave me the opportunity.”
Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.
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