Blog Post

SuburbanOneSports: In one of the marquee games last weekend, North Penn defeated Pennsbury 27-20. Your thoughts about that game and those two teams.

Kevin Cooney: "This continues the dominance North Penn has had, but I think if you're Pennsbury, there are some good things you took out of it. One is the fact that you battled to the end. You're in the game, you have a shot to win it. For Pennsbury, it's a bad matchup right now. I don't know if it's anything more than that at this point. All these years, we've thought - well, maybe it's the Knights being in their heads and all that. I'm not sure I buy that anymore. When you see how North Penn can beat you with the pass, they can beat you with the run, and they play representative defense, so they're able to stop the run. They're the one team that can kind of match up physically with Pennsbury, and that's what happened.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Last weekend, Pennsbury jumped out to a commanding halftime lead and then withstood a gutsy Pennridge comeback. Your thoughts about what that game means to those two squads moving forward.

Kevin Cooney: "I said on 'Game On' this week that I was all set mentally to pick Pennsbury this week. I convinced myself that this was the year - they're at home and everything. Then the second half happened, and I know in high school football there's not always a carryover effect, but if you're not thinking that's weird the way they played in the second half when they let up and let Pennridge back in the hunt, then you're not being honest.

"Pennridge now is at least through the gauntlet, and if they don't trip up, you've got to think they're going to make districts. Central Bucks South is a potential trip-up game this week, and this is probably the final hurdle in the final three weeks.

SuburbanOneSports: Upper Moreland 'upset' Plymouth Whitemarsh last week. Your thoughts?

Scott Huff: "I read an interesting comment made by Upper Moreland head coach Adam Beach about the Bears preparation for Plymouth Whitemarsh last week. He said that PW won most of its game by big margins - and that the Colonials did not have to play a full four quarters since Souderton in first week of the season.

"Upper Moreland made PW play the full four quarters and the Bears left the field with the victory. Upper Moreland did not have its best defensive outing of the season as it yielded 35 points to the Colonials - and running back Nafeese Nasir and quarterback Joe Stoberi each had big statistical games for PW.

"But Upper Moreland was outstanding on the offensive side of the football. Numbers don't lie - and the performances of both quarterback Casey Decker and running back Rodney Morgan were marvelous. Decker threw for a pair of touchdowns - and rushed for another pair of scores. Morgan rushed for 253 yards and a touchdown.

"The lone conference loss this season - and really the only loss of the entire season - came two weeks ago in a 20-13 loss to Hatboro-Horsham.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock North defeated Central Bucks East in overtime last week. Talk about the implications of that game.

Drew Markol: "For CB East, they won a surprise game in overtime when they beat Pennridge, which was a pretty impressive win. Now they're on the other end of the spectrum with a loss like that. You have to see how they respond. In a conference that's going to be tight all the way between CB East, Quakertown, Council Rock South and Council Rock North, the games are all huge, and you have to come back from that and see what you're made of. They have William Tennent this week, and Tennent has had troubles since conference play has started. From here on out, every game is a must win.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts heading into the second week of the SOL season.

Kevin Cooney: "The wild card in this weekend coming up is going to be the weather. Because you have so many teams now that run a more passing-style offense, I wonder if we get the rain that is being called for - how are they going to react. This is a strange kind of setup, and I don't think we've had it in a couple of years, maybe since (Hurricane) Sandy where weather could play such a huge, huge factor in games like that.

"It's tough. You had a couple of schools that had to push their schedules around because of the Pope's visit, and now suddenly you're looking at a pretty complicated circumstance this weekend with the weather. We don't normally have this kind of issue the first week of October. Usually you have some games early in the year that get pushed back because of thunderstorms. Now we're looking at the Pope and a tropical storm in back-to-back weekends, and that kind of messes things up. It's going to create some interesting scenarios if you're looking at short weeks next week as you get into a better schedule. Next week looks on paper like a better schedule than this week.�

SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks East is coming off a convincing win over Central Bucks South and takes a 3-0 record into its league opener against CR North. Your thoughts?

Drew Markol: "They needed that confidence after coming off a win over Pennridge. If they lose to CB South, all of a sudden that takes some air out of the balloon with the Continental Conference and Council Rock North sitting there a week away. To win that game on their new home field, they've never won the Central Bucks Cup, which they will get if they beat the two Central Bucks schools, and they're off to a good start.

"Now they'll get a test they've never really seen with Brandon McIlwain. The thing with Council Rock North is they can score, but they can't stop anybody. It will be interesting.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock North earned a come-from-behind win over Central Bucks South last week. Your comments about the Indians.

Kevin Cooney: "You're looking at what could have been a slippery slope - the way the first half went, but Brandon McIlwain strapped them on his back and led them to a win. It was a little better game defensively (for Rock North), but they're still in a spot where it seems like their margin for error is razor thin. Their quarterback is carrying them right now, and that's great in the short term, but they need somebody else to step up. They need a defender or a running back or somebody else who's going to take the pressure off McIlwain, but this is not the week I think you're going to see that.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts after week one of the football season?

Drew Markol: "There were six mercy rules and one game was two points away from a mercy rule in week one. A lot of the coaches, not all of them, are so intent on trying to get wins - you could almost compare it to some colleges playing a cupcake preseason just to get a win. You need to challenge yourself. No one will play North Penn because they don't want to lose, but North Penn will play La Salle, they've played Wood, they've played Prep.

"You look at a team like Pennsbury that would play Easton, and most years, Easton would beat them, but you talk with Galen Snyder - he'd be disappointed, obviously, but he knew in the long run, those are the teams you have to play because come playoff time, loading up on cupcakes is not a good way to do it. What do you gain from a mercy rule game when you blow out somebody, but then when you play somebody that punches you back in the nose, you have a problem.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Heading into the opening weekend, what are your initial thoughts about football in the Suburban One League this season?

Kevin Cooney: "I was on Game On today, and I said that I think there's a strong chance that no Suburban One League team makes the semifinals in District One. I have a rationale for that. If you look on paper, this will be the year of the quarterback. You look at Brandon McIlwain (Council Rock North), you look at Mason Jones (Neshaminy), you look at Mike Alley (Pennsbury), you look at Tom Garlick (Quakertown), and you look at Ryan Stover (Upper Dublin). There are some good quarterbacks across the board, and I think you're seeing offenses that are a little more college-centric. Where I worry about the teams - it seems like there are a lot of questions along the lines.

Suburban One: Size up the interesting matchup between Pennsbury and St. Joseph's Prep in the Quad-A state semifinal Saturday.

Dan Dunkin: "It's fascinating. Pennsbury's old friends at Neshaminy played St. Joe's Prep last year at the same point - the state semifinals - at the same place, Northeast High School. Neshaminy gave them a good battle. They were actually getting ready to take the lead in the third quarter before a fumble got turned into a Prep touchdown. Even with that, they kept fighting. They lost 37-21, and the margin wasn't indicative of how Neshaminy fought. They really gave St. Joe's Prep all they wanted for three-plus quarters.

"I think this is the same concept and that Pennsbury will give St. Joe's Prep all they can handle. I think Pennsbury's defense is better than Neshaminy's defense was last year. They're certainly quicker in the back - their linebackers and DB's are quicker. Offensively, Pennsbury is largely a one-dimensional team like Neshaminy was last year, a running team.