Blog Post

SuburbanOneSports.com: A big game in the SOL National Conference was the CB East at CB South game. You were there – share your thoughts.

Drew Markol: “As far as the 6A schools, CB East is the only unbeaten team left, and we’ve only played four weeks, which is kind of hard to believe. I guess parity is better than not, but to have only one unbeaten team is just odd, and we still have two more weeks in September to go. You have to give them credit. Souderton , which is a pretty good team, came in for the first game under the lights, and East beat them. Then East has to go over to South, which is a rivalry. I was talking to some of the East players, and it’s not as big as East versus West, but it’s still more of a rivalry than other games they play.

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SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin staged a remarkable comeback to stun North Penn 32-28. Your comments.

Drew Markol: “What Upper Dublin has done – when they beat CB West 35-7 in their second game, they opened people’s eyes. It was the real test against North Penn, which opened the season as a top five team in Class 6A, and Upper Dublin – which moved all the way up to two in 5A only behind Imhotep Charter – goes out and beats North Penn 32-28. The Upper Dublin program has been good for a long, long time. Now as a 5A school, they have quarterback Colin O’Sullivan – CB West coach Rob Rowan was just raving about him – how he’s calling formations at the line of scrimmage, changing plays. When you have that trigger, there’s a kid who started as a freshman at Hatboro-Horsham, and you knew he was pretty good.
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SuburbanOneSports.com: Souderton defeated Pennridge in a rivalry game. Your thoughts about that game and Souderton’s upcoming game at Central Bucks East.

Drew Markol: “Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said afterwards – at the end of the third quarter when they’re up 24-6, he was like, ‘Okay, maybe I can put the headset down and relax a little bit.’ The next thing you know – Pennridge is just fighting and fighting, and they get themselves right back in the game. They make it 24-21 and Souderton’s got to recover an on-sides kick and have their quarterback, Jared Zimmerman, run out the clock by running backwards on fourth down, so they don’t have to punt and the game’s over. It was good fight shown by Pennridge with first-year coach Chuck Burgy. They never stopped playing, so it’s a lesson learned by Souderton. I’m sure the coaching staff at Souderton was letting the players know that if you let up – this is what can happen. I don’t expect them to do that again.
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SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn fell to La Salle in one of opening night’s marquee matchups. Your thoughts since you were at that game.

Drew Markol: “A good opener although the end result wasn’t what North Penn wanted, but that was two really good teams playing each other. Obviously, I haven’t seen all the teams across the state, but if those aren’t two of the top 10 in the state, I’d like to see the ones I’m missing because they were both really good.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Looking at the SOL, which team has the potential to be playing the longest this season?

Drew Markol: “North Penn was 11-1 last year. They lost in the district quarterfinals in overtime to Ridley 56-55 in obviously a wild game. They come back this year led by their four-year starter at quarterback, Ryan Zeltt. He has a pretty good target in a kid called Yazeed Haynes, who transferred to North Penn over the winter from Neumann Goretti. Haynes, a senior, is about 6-2, 175. He ran a 4.39 (in the 40-yard dash) at the Penn State summer camp, and he committed to the University of Georgia, which won the 2021 National Championship. To give Zeltt a target like that – the last Georgia signee we had in this area was Mark Webb who went to Archbishop Wood a couple of years ago and is now in the NFL,

SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown saw its district run come to an end in a District One 6A semifinal game at Garnet Valley, falling to the top-ranked Jaguars 58-39. Your thoughts about that game.


Drew Markol: “Quakertown – they get to the semifinals at 12-0, and they have to play Garnet Valley, which has just been a juggernaut all season, and Quakertown absolutely threw a scare into them. They had a 24-20 lead at the half, picked up on an on-sides or squib kick to start the third quarter and had the ball pretty deep in Garnet Valley territory but couldn’t convert on third- and fourth-and-short, and the drive stalled.

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn fell to Ridley 56-55 in overtime in a classic district battle. Your comments.


Drew Markol: “I’ve been covering North Penn football for over a quarter century, and I have to go back 20 years or before that to Parkland’s Austin Scott, who went on to play at Penn State, to see a running back run the way Ridley’s Tahir Mills did against the North Penn defense. He came in – he had over 357 yards rushing against Conestoga in Ridley’s first round district game, and you thought, ‘Okay, this is a whole different animal with North Penn.’ He ran around, he ran through, he jumped over a North Penn defense that had been a little spotty all season. It wasn’t a vintage North Penn defense, but still, North Penn was undefeated, and he put up around 340 yards rushing and was unstoppable

SuburbanOneSports.com: Six SOL teams saw their seasons come to an end in last weekend’s opening round of districts with four of the six coming in all-SOL games. Two teams were defeated by teams outside of the SOL. Talk about those two games.


Drew Markol: “We’ll start with 6A –CB East had lost a couple of games at the end of the season going into the playoffs, and they had to go to Perk Valley, which is a pretty good team that you don’t hear a lot about. That Perk Valley team has a pretty nice resume this year – teams they’ve beaten, and they were just too much for CB East. They put 42 points on them, and their senior quarterback – Ethan Kohler had five touchdowns, throwing for three and running for two more.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West defeated Central Bucks East in the annual rivalry game that had playoff implications. Your comments.


Drew Markol: “CB West moved up from nine to eight in the power point rankings, so they got themselves a home game by beating CB East 35-15 last Saturday. It was a big win for West. They go into the districts at 8-2. They’ve only lost to Coatesville and North Penn who – along with Garnet Valley - may be the best teams in the district. West took care of business when they had to, and they’ve got themselves a home game. Pennridge is seeded ninth, and West beat Pennridge a couple weeks ago. It was a good game, 28-24.

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated CB East 28-21 to win the SOL National Conference but not before the Patriots rallied from a three-touchdown deficit to knot the score 21-21. Your thoughts.


Drew Markol: “I was a bit surprised with CB East. They’ve had a good season, but now you’re stepping up to play undefeated North Penn. It was a seven-point game, and that’s a good job by East. North Penn is always a mountain to climb for all these teams. That’s just the way it is. You compare yourself to them. When they played CB West, North Penn beat them 28-14. In the second half, North Penn didn’t score against West because West adapted when they had to, and they slowed them down. What North Penn has been able to do is get a lead on teams with a quick start. I don’t want to say they’re holding teams off. They’re doing what needs to be done, and they have some excellent weapons on offense. When they get deep in the district playoffs, is their defense going to hold up enough? That’s something we’ll have to keep an eye on, but for CB East, they’re going to be in the playoffs.