The North defeated the South in Thursday night’s 38th annual Bucks County Lions Football Classic. To view photos of all the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
LEVITTOWN - Some games are physical enough to get chippy. Unfortunately on occasion, that can lead to trouble on the football field.
In the case of the 38thannual Bucks County Lions Football Classic on Thursday at Harry S Truman, that came to fruition. The normal hard hits turned into words, and ultimately, a number of personal foul penalties, the last of which brought an end to a 35-9 decision in favor of the South before the final horn had sounded.
On that play, North quarterback John Pileggi broke contain and wound up scrambling seven yards into the end zone for a score. He was sandwiched, though, in a helmet-to-helmet hit that left him injured on the ground and led to another penalty flag. At that point, the referees called the game and began walking off the field. After both sides gathered for team huddles, no handshakes were exchanged at midfield.
“Absolutely, I feel terrible,” North coach George Banas of Quakertown said after the game. “This is nothing compared to when I played [in this game] back in 1994.”
For Pileggi, it was a tough ending to a brilliant performance on his part. Despite being chased around for much of the affair, the Central Bucks South senior managed to attempt 25 throws and completed 16 of them. While he did throw a pair of interceptions, Pileggi finished with 259 yards through the air, including six completions of at least 25 yards. His efforts were rewarded with Most Valuable Player honors for the North side, but Pileggi was struggling after the game was called.
“That’s how it’s got to be in an All-Star game,” said Pileggi, who will attend James Madison University this fall. “To be completely honest, I don’t even remember the beginning of the game.”
The ugly ending took away from an otherwise great performance by the South team. On its second drive, South turned to Pennsbury running back Shawn Pepper for a spark, and he delivered to th
e tune of a long pass attempt off a direct snap in the direction of Bensalem’s Donnie Reed. The ball was underthrown, but that led to a defender falling down and thus a wide open Reed, who made the catch, a cut, and outran the North secondary for a 77-yard touchdown.
A two-yard completion by Kevin Hopkins to Anthony Bullaro on a fourth down fade route in the second quarter sent the South into halftime with a 14-3 lead.
On South’s opening drive of the second half, Reed struck again. Several other deep fade routes for him fell incomplete in the opening quarters, but he ran down this one and scampered the remaining distance untouched to the end zone to make it 20-3.
Reed, who will continue his career at Kutztown University, finished with 168 receiving yards on four catches and also ended a potential North drive with an interception in the third quarter, all of which allowed him to be named the South’s Most Valuable Player.
“It’s a great feeling. It means a lot,” said Reed about the award. “
“We knew that they were playing inside technique,” he added about the third quarter touchdown. “Kevin [Hopkins] just had to deliver the ball.”
Bensalem teammate Hopkins had plenty of practice in the regular season doing so, and he finished with 77 yards and a pair of touchdowns on a 6-for-11 passing evening. Backup Tony Donovan of Pennsbury added 26 yards passing and 16 on the ground. Pepper, meanwhile, threw only the touchdown toss to Reed but added 50 yards rushing in the victory. Teammate and fellow Falcon Ryon Muse was brought into the South backfield in the second half and scored on a brilliant 24-yard reverse that he broke open with a great move.
“It was our last high school game, so all of us were going all out,” said Council Rock North running back A.J. Nielsen, who finished with 13 yards on the ground on the night and plans to walk on at the University of Delaware this fall. “We just wanted to go out with a bang.
“They were falling apart, but we kept our composure, stayed cool.”
Other contributors for the South team were running backs Nate Hall, Sykeem Steward and Chaz Cason. A Neshaminy senior, Hall gained 64 yards on 10 carries, while Steward, another Pennsbury back, added two yards. Cason, who’s from Conwell-Egan, had 16 yards and scored his team’s last touchdown on a 14-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.
“I knew coming out here we had a great chance of winning,” Reed said. “It was weird playing against kids that were our rivals. We all got really cool.”
The South’s defense was especially stout as it forced two turnovers and sacked Pileggi seven times in the victory. That helped it hold the North to a net of just six rushing yards, including none in the first half.
Even so, North’s passing game was effective at times. Pennridge wide receiver Kyle Bigam pulled in three catches for 97 yards while CB South’s Cale Mosher contributed 83 yards on the same number of receptions. William Tennent’s Jeff Ledford added 17 receiving yards and CB East’s Vince Careghini another four.
“I obviously left it on the field,” said Ledford, who plans to play at Widener University next season. I got my gloves to stay dry, so it was easy to catch.”
Quakertown’s Mike Sawyer had 27 yards on the ground and added 38 receiving. Pennridge’s MacKenzie Crawford chipped in seven yards rushing and 26 on catches and CB East’s Vince Thompson, Jr. added eight rushing yards.
The win was the second in a row for the South in the series and eighth in the past 11 meetings. It still trails the all-time series, which dates back to 1972, by a 22-16-3 count.
Box Score
North – 3 0 0 6 9
South – 7 7 14 7 35
Scoring Summary
1stN – FG Nick Visco 43 yds.
1stS – Donnie Reed 77 pass from Shawn Pepper (Max Pedinoff kick)
2ndS – Anthony Bullaro 2 pass from Kevin Hopkins (Pedinoff kick)
3rdS – Reed 57 pass from Hopkins (Pedinoff kick)
3rdS – Ryan Muse 24 run (Pedinoff kick)
4thS – Chaz Cason 14 run (Pedinoff kick)
4thN – John Pileggi 7 run (kick not attempted)
Team Stats
North South
Rush 6 192
Pass 259 180
Turnovers (All Ints.) 2 1
Sacks 0 7
Penalties 8 for 110 yards 12 for 96 yards
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