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Back for its 13th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writer Drew Markol. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (http://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school/) and Courier Times (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/) web sites.
Join Jeff Nolan and Kevin Cooney for the WPHT High School Football Scoreboard Show as they recap the night of high school football on Friday at 10 p.m. on 1210AM/WPHT and the Audacy app.
SuburbanOneSports.com: CB West defeated CB East last week, and on Friday night, the two rival schools meet again in the opening round of the District 1 6A Tournament. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “That was a really good game last week. The place was packed. It was the first night of the World Series, and that didn’t hurt the crowd at all. Especially, CB East’s student section was absolutely mobbed. They really turned out.
“West did a couple of different things. They went back to their wing-t, and it wasn’t just all Eli Boehm running the ball. Vinny Cherubini was a big part of the 
backfield last year, and they got him going against East, and he had a hundred yards with the winning touchdown and really played well. West’s quarterback, Ganz Cooper, normally looks for Conor McFadden, and that’s his sole target. He was spreading the ball around. Jack Williams caught a couple of passes. They were really diverse.
“It was 14-14 in the second half, and Ethan Shine – CB East’s all-everything running back and linebacker – got hurt, and he’s really good on both sides of the ball. He got hurt on fourth down pretty deep in West territory. East went for it, and for the first time since he’s been there and this is his third year at quarterback, Ganz Cooper played free safety too, which is not ideal to have your quarterback playing defense, but he’s very hard-nosed, and he came up and met Shine, stopped him short of the first down. He got hurt on that play, didn’t come back in, and that really took it out of East. He’s a tremendous offensive player, and he may be a better defensive player at linebacker, but not having him in there took away so much from their offense. I question whether or not he’ll be able to play this week in the rematch. It was night and day when Shine left the game. You had the feeling it would take some sort of trick play for East to score, and they ran a double pass that they almost scored on. There was a receiver open downfield, but it was a little bit underthrown. Conor McFadden, the wide receiver, also plays in West’s secondary, and he’s very, very fast. He’s able to run them down and stopped a touchdown. East without Shine is a different team, and West gets another shot at them.
“After the game, West coach Rob Rowan said to me – ‘Will we see you next week? We might be back here,’ and the way it unfolded he was right.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: There will be another SOL rematch when North Penn travels to Pennsbury for an opening round game Friday. Pennsbury defeated North Penn 44-33 in the first meeting. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “There was such a buildup the first time these two teams met – Pennsbury hadn’t beaten North Penn in 400 games and everything - did it go back to 1996? Galen Snyder had never beaten Dick Beck and the whole thing. Then Pennsbury does in fact beat North Penn, but it was 44-33, which just goes to show you that North Penn had some offense going. That’s interesting the way things work out. Let’s say North Penn beats them – you could say Pennsbury won the battle, but North Penn won the war. Pennsbury’s favored and should be, but North Penn with a quarterback like Ryan Zeltt has been playing unbelievably, especially the past couple of weeks. He’s throwing three, four, five touchdowns a week. He’s winging it all over the place, and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous. During Friday’s game, the temperature’s going to be in the mid-60s, so if your team has to throw, which has not been North Penn’s MO in the past, but it might be now, you’re going to have a perfect night to do it.
“It’s just interesting – you had 16 teams make the district, and it just happens that CB East plays CB West again and North Penn plays Pennsbury again. It’s just crazy. Pennsbury will do what they do – they’ll run the ball with Galamama Mulbah. The way he ran in the last game – he had 49 carries. He’ll get the ball a ton. That’s what they do – they try and shorten the game by hanging onto the ball. I don’t think they’re going to change much. You’re 9-1 – what are you going to change? You lost your first game of the season, but you lost to a Coatesville team that – if not for a game they had to forfeit because of an ineligible player – they’d be undefeated. I just think Pennsbury will run and run and run some more. North Penn hasn’t really had much of a running game all season, so they’re going to rely on Zeltt to throw it. That’s what it will come down to. Will we see 77 points again like we did when they played a couple of weeks ago? I doubt It, but that’s just a very interesting first round matchup.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: In another all-SOL matchup, CB South will travel to Souderton for an opening round game Friday. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “CB South has been playing very well. They started out 3-0, then they’re 3-3, and now they’re 7-3. They won four in a row. They had a nice win over CB West two weeks ago. How much confidence do they have? They found their running game led by Jack Carver, and Brett Szarko, their quarterback, can throw. Tommy Donnelly is a very good receiver. They’ve won four in a row, and it’s not like you’re playing a Perk Valley or a team like that, you’re playing a Souderton team you’re relatively familiar with. If I’m South, I have a ton of confidence. The same goes for Souderton too. Why wouldn’t you?
“It’s been quite the transformation with South. I saw them early in the season, and it was throw, throw, throw, and then they switched it up, and now they have a mix. Carver and Anthony Leonardi ran for 275 yards between them. If they do that again against Souderton, they’re going to win. That’s an intriguing game because Ryan Sadowski, the junior for Souderton, seems to be getting interceptions, he’s falling on blocked punts. That game you almost flip a coin.
“Souderton has been without Chris Kerns, an impact player on both sides of the ball, but regardless of level, I don’t like to use injuries. That’s part of it, and we talked about it with CB East. This is now the district playoffs. It is not supposed to be easy. You have to fill in the gaps, and that’s hard. I get it – it’s very hard at any level to do that, but you have injuries – it’s football. People get hurt. If you can stay relatively healthy over the course of the season, you have a chance to do something.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Springfield Township is playing a Pope John Paul II team that only has one loss in the PAC. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “You look at a shorthanded Springfield Township team with a ton of injuries, and against Wissahickon, Dylan McKenzie has 354 yards rushing, he’s doing the kicking, he’s playing safety. You talk about a kid who does it all – well, there you go. You look at Pope John Paul that’s part of the Pioneer Athletic Conference, which is not exactly world beaters when it comes to sports. Granted, they’ve had good teams, but I’ve seen a lot of PAC teams in the past that had a flashy record, but it might be because they’re playing other PAC teams. You have to give Springfield a puncher’s chance in that one, despite all the injuries. I wonder when you look at the games like North Penn/Pennsbury and East/West and you’re the coaches – would you rather play somebody you played, or would you rather play somebody new? I don’t know, but personally – as cool as it is to have these rematches, come playoff time I kind of like to see teams playing teams they haven’t seen.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin is playing #16 Academy Park. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “We all talk about – you never know, a 16 can beat a one. Well, that won’t happen this week. Upper Dublin is so good. Their big game is going to be when they get out of the district and play the Roman Catholic/Imhotep winner. That will be the de facto state championship game, which will, I believe, be in the state semifinals. They’re just so good. We’re way past the point of – we were semi-shocked when they beat North Penn a bunch of weeks ago early in the season, but they laid it on a good Souderton team, they laid it on a good Quakertown team. They’re a 5A program, and they’re just steamrolling everybody. They’re going to be a tough out, and they’ll be playing next week.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Moreland, which had a tough loss to PW last week, will be facing Great Valley. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “All season the games have been tight for them. They managed to win a lot of them. Plymouth Whitemarsh gave it to them pretty good the other day. Obviously, you don’t like to go into the playoffs on a ‘down note’ like that, but you have to forget about it. Now you’re playing Great Valley, you have to drive to Malvern on a Friday on the bus. There are other things you’d rather do than that. Adam Beach has taken his teams at Upper Moreland to the playoffs. I don’t think he cares where they play. Would he rather play Willow Grove? Of course, he would. Stephen Broderick has been pretty good in all the games at running back, so they’ll rely on him a lot. Those 8-9 games are toss-up games, and they make for the best games if the seedings are done properly. Upper Moreland should be in a tight game, and the fact that they’ve won a bunch of those should help them.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Plymouth Whitemarsh is the four seed in District 1 5A and will face #13 Sun Valley. Your comments.
Drew Markol: Plymouth Whitemarsh has only lost two games, and their two losses have come to the ninth seed in 6A in Ridley and the 10th seed in 6A in CB South, and they’ve put up big numbers on a lot of teams, including Upper Moreland this past week. They’ve got it going. They’re playing Sun Valley this week, and they’ll be playing again next week.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown has the unenviable task of traveling to top-seeded Garnet Valley. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You look at Quakertown – they got in the tournament. I’m not a fan of moral victories, but that was a young Quakrtown team that George Banas has. Last year, when they won a school single season record 13 games, they got all the way to the district semifinals, and who did they play? Garnet valley. Now they go in as the 16th and final seed, and they have to go all the way down to Garnet Valley to play the defending district champions. Okay, you got in. Is it a mountain to climb? Yes, it sure is, but you’re in, you give it your best shot. Can that help them next year? Yes, and they can say – this is the start of things. No one thought we’d make the district playoffs, and we did. I remember speaking with Quakertown head coach George Banas, and I forget what year it was – he had such a young team as far as starting sophomores. That team won one game. This team has won five games, and they got in. Good for them. That bodes well going forward.
Markol’s Picks (Winners in bold)
(Last week: 11-3)
Quakertown @ Garnet Valley
Central Bucks South @ Souderton
North Penn @ Pennsbury
Central Bucks West @ Central Bucks East
Academy Park @ Upper Dublin
Upper Moreland @ Great Valley
Sun Valley @ Plymouth Whitemarsh
Springfield Twp @ Pope John Paul II
New Hope-Solebury @ Bristol