Back for its ninth season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features the ‘Game On’ crew: Drew Markol and Todd Thorpe. To view this week’s show, click on the following link: http://www.theintell.com/videos/hsgameon/ To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer http://www.theintell.com/sportsand Bucks County Courier http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-schoolsweb sites.
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Check out this week’s picks by our panel of experts: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/football-forecaster
SuburbanOneSports.com: Truman saw its successful season end with a heartbreaking 24-22 loss to Downingtown West. Your comments.
Todd Thorpe: “I said in my story and on Game On that this is a game that I’m sure Truman really thinks they let get away. They were in good position to win this game right off the bat when they dominated the first half astronomically and put up two touchdowns in the first quarter but had a couple of drives stall in the second quarter. Coach LaPalombara said after the game – he thought they should have been looking at probably 28-0 at halftime instead of 14-0 because of the way they dominated.
“Downingtown West - which is playing without their standout quarterback Will Howard, who was injured, for the rest of the year - really struggled. They had two yards of total offense in the first half, and they were just completely outplayed. Truman goes into halftime up 14-0. Downingtown West comes out with a new game plan. They put a couple in the end zone, one was thanks to a turnover, and then there’s just a crazy play in the fourth quarter on a punt by Truman where the ball ends up being pitched into the end zone, and Downingtown West falls on it. All of that and now Truman’s losing. They come back and score a touchdown with 30 seconds left in the game, go for two and make it. They think the game is won again, and then Downingtown West completes a pass, kicks a field goal and they win. It was just an amazing game.
“Downingtown West had to be so fortunate to be putting their shoulder pads on for practice on Monday. They had to count their blessings because there is no way you could predict it would happen like that. They deserved it because they made the play at the end, but it’s a real tough loss for Truman. I think they’ll keep it in perspective, to some extent, in that they did accomplish more than any other Truman team has ever accomplished. It’s something to build upon, but it’s definitely a bitter loss for them.”
Drew Markol: “You take a look at the Truman/Downingtown West game. Truman goes down there as the fifth seed playing the four seed whose only loss was to Coatesville this season. Truman had a 14-0 lead at halftime. I know it’s a four-five game, but that would have been an enormous upset for a Truman team that had won its first ever district playoff game the week before, and now it looks like they’re going to go down and knock off one of the district powers, and doesn’t Downingtown West come back and they take a 21-14 
lead on Truman, but Truman doesn’t give up. They score a touchdown that makes it 21-20 in the last minute of the game, and to their credit, they go for two and they get it. Their thinking is – what do we have to lose? If it goes into overtime, you never know what can happen there. You need to have a reliable kicker, and a lot of things can go wrong. I guess they figured - let’s just try and win it here or lose It. They played that way all season. When there was opportunity and you had to take a chance, well, they took the chance, so they stuck to their guns and took the chance, and they get the two-point conversion. You’re thinking this game is over, but after they get the conversion, they get hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. People who have covered Truman a lot have said their one Achilles heel is they get some dumb penalties. It doesn’t get any dumber than that. You can celebrate all you want on your own sidelines, but you have to do it on your own sidelines. You know the officials are looking for that, and they get hit with an unsportsmanlike, so instead of kicking off from their own 40, they’re now kicking off from their own 25. They’re playing in the rain and wind. It doesn’t help the kicking game. What does Downingtown West do? They return the ball to near midfield, they get a pass into field goal range, and to their credit, their kicker kicks a 39-yard field goal, which – on a dry day – is not an easy thing for a high school kid to do. On a horrible night with wind, rain and pressure, the kid goes and makes a 39-yard field goal. All of a sudden, boom, Downingtown West wins and Truman is done. Would Downingtown West have gotten into field goal range without the unsportsmanlike on Truman? I don’t know, but they didn’t have to. It’s 15 yards you handed them. Does that make the 39-yard field goal a 54-yard field goal try? You can’t do it that way, but you can’t give them a chance. The game has to be over at that point, but they gave them a chance. A tip of the hat to Downingtown West for doing what they did. It was amazing, and they did it and that’s a credit to them.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Downingtown West – without quarterback Will Howard – will take on North Penn on Friday. Your thoughts.
Todd Thorpe: “Downingtown West moves on as a four seed with its win over Truman. I kind of thought they were a dangerous four seed, a team that could beat North Penn or beat Neshaminy in the semifinals, but without Will Howard, their quarterback, I’m not sure how they’re going to match up with North Penn. North Penn doesn’t score a ton of points, but North Penn’s defense is pretty good. A guy you really want to watch out for is their wide receiver and place kicker, Danny Byrnes. He’s really good for Downingtown West.
“North Penn turned in a really great effort against Neshaminy defensively, holding them to six points, and in a battle of defenses, they survived. I give them a ton of credit for getting to the semis. I think now North Penn is the favorite to win the game on Friday night. I expect a low-scoring game – I expect that three touchdowns will win this game. It will be interesting to see, and the fact that they’re playing on the turf at Wissahickon maybe favors Downingtown West because they’ve played their whole season on turf, but North Penn has probably played eight of their games on turf anyway, so it’s not really that big of a difference. It’s something to consider. All these weeks where North Penn has the home field advantage and has to play their games off campus really bangs the drum for the turf field call going out among a lot of coaches over there. This is helping – the fact that they have to rent out Wissahickon. Good for Wissahickon allowing them to do it. I know Souderton and CB West have helped out in the past. A grass field – you hope you can maintain it, but unless you really have the right conditions and the right amount of people working on it every day, it’s tough. Give them credit for being proactive and going and getting Wissahickon, which is a nice field and enough seating to fit the crowd. It will be interesting to see the district final there next week if it’s there against Coatesville because that will be a huge crowd. I’m not even sure Wissahickon can handle that crowd. But first things first, North Penn has to win, and Coatesville has a very tough game itself against Garnet Valley that just crushed Quakertown last week.”
Drew Markol: “You have a Downingtown West team advancing to the semifinals that will go play North Penn. North Penn beats Neshaminy 13-6 in the quarterfinals – the second game in a row North Penn moves to Wissahickon to get away from the grass and mud at Crawford Stadium. Again, North Penn is 12-0, and Dick Beck has never lost a home district playoff game. Everybody will say Neshminy ran all over them, especially in the first half, which they did, but they did not take advantage. They missed a field goal, they missed an extra point. There were times when they needed to score a touchdown and they didn’t do it.
“North Penn just hangs around and hangs around. Late in the game in the last minute, junior Evan Spann intercepts a pass and runs it back for a touchdown, and North Penn is in the district semifinals. They’ve done it so many times this season – Neshaminy in double overtime in their opener, CB East a really close game, Council Rock South in overtime. The one constant is they’ve won all those games. Call it what you will. Is there a mystique around them? Maybe there’s something, but they’re also playing smart football and playing good defense. You don’t just keep getting lucky and lucky and lucky. Could that come to an end against Downingtown West. Downingtown West clobbered Neshaminy in week three when they played. Now that was a long time ago, but you look comparatively – North Penn beats Neshaminy in double overtime and then they beat them 13-6. Downingtown West beat Neshaminy 35-14, but that was with quarterback Will Howard. I think at this point in the season I’m not putting too much stock in that. I think you have a North Penn team that just seems destined to get to the final. If they get to the final, they’re going to play Coatesville or Garnet Valley, and neither one is a picnic. But again, who knows? They’re 12-0. How much confidence must they have? It has to be through the roof. The North Penn offense doesn’t really score a ton of points, but their defense keeps giving up fewer, and that’s how you win.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown saw its season end against Garnet Valley. Your comments.
Todd Thorpe: “Quakertown was in that game for the better part of the first half and then fell off late in the second quarter and Garnet Valley pulled away. I think Quakertown went in with the right game plan, but they were overmatched in the end. Those things happen, and now the four best teams in the district are the four best teams remaining, and that’s how it’s supposed to be, but for those who call the 16 games too many could argue that the fact that the four best teams are the ones standing is true proof to that point, but it’s been an exciting tournament so far, and I certainly expect that these two semifinal games will be competitive in their own way. We’ll see how it plays out.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin defeated Cheltenham in a Class 5A quarterfinal game. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “The 5A doesn’t get as much attention in this area. We have so many 6A programs, so the spotlight shines on them more. With Upper Dublin in 5A, they played Cheltenham, a team they’d played in the American Conference season and won a close game. Well, now they get them in the playoffs and the Cardinals just blow them out. That’s what good programs do. They just keep on rolling along. Bret Stover – it seems like almost 10 years that Upper Dublin is always there, and they are. It’s not a grand tradition of football success at Upper Dublin, but since Bret Stover showed up – you look back to when Stover’s son Ryan was there and they won a District 1 4A title by beating North Penn before they did the reclassification. You wondered if once the son moved on to college would they drop back or whatever, but the exact opposite happened. They just kept going, and now they’re at a point where they’re good every season. They’re in a spot where they’ll lose players to La Salle, they’ll lose players to Germantown Academy and they’ll lose players to St. Joe’s Prep based on the location, but now if you’re a football player in the Upper Dublin School District – what the heck, I’m going to stay here and play for Bret Stover, and they’re doing it.
“This week Upper Dublin is home and gets number 11 Unionville. I don’t put a ton of stock in the seedings because of the methods that are used to seed the teams, but I don’t have a better method. I would have eight teams in the field and not 16, but I’ve been beating that drum for way too long. Regardless, they do it with 16 teams in 6A and 5A, so you look at that and say number two Upper Dublin is playing number 11 Unionville and say – sight unseen, you pick the number two seed at home. I’m sure Upper Dublin isn’t looking past anybody. Now we’re in the semifinals, and Unionville has to be pretty decent to get this far, but you have to like what Upper Dublin is doing, and the next thing you know they’ll be in another district final probably playing Penn Wood. That’s another game they could win. They could be winning another district title. Penn Wood has a good quarterback, but that team is kind of a one-man band. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but it’s a credit to Bret Stover – they’re not only a good team but a good program and there’s a big difference.”
Todd Thorpe: “I think that was another real good win for Upper Dublin beating Cheltenham. There was a team they’ve played before obviously, and they know very well. I’m not sure how much they know about Unionville, but I think this is a game Upper Dublin is favored to win again. I anticipate Upper Dublin versus Penn Wood in the final. Good for Upper Dublin. All they do is win. A district title would be a big feather in their cap, especially after winning a couple of years ago with Ryan Stover and that team. This is 5A, but we’ll see. Take care of Unionville first, but I think Upper Dublin is in a very good spot right now. They had a good draw getting Cheltenham. I think having a team you’re familiar with helps. I’ll be curious to see how things play out with that one because I expect them to be in the final next week.
“Bret Stover is an excellent coach. He is really an elite level coach. To get a school that size into the state semifinals in 4A a couple of years ago with the teams you have to beat to get there – you have North Penn, Pennsbury. They beat all of the heavyweights and much larger schools. To me, even though he had a stud team that year, that’s still a huge accomplishment because the numbers all point to the bigger schools. The fact that they’re back again without any stars – that’s an elite coaching staff that you could put into any of the big schools and have huge success. It’s great that he’s staying there. There’s no reason why Upper Dublin can’t continue to be a power in 5A. They’re not a huge 5A school.
“When you look the way the state bracket is set up, Archbishop Wood – if they emerge this week against Simon Gratz, which I can’t see that not happening – will now have to go through the teams in Western Pennsylvania. Even though it’s not a cakewalk, the winner of District 1 has a real good chance to find themselves in Hershey. That’s an interesting parameter there. Wouldn’t it be funny if Archbishop Wood played Upper Dublin in the state final? I do think both those teams have a long, long way to go to get there, It would be great to see Upper Dublin make a run. Who knows?”
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