Blog Post

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Central Bucks West 28-14 in one of last week’s biggest games. Your comments.


Drew Markol: “In North Penn/West, you had an undefeated North Penn team playing a one-loss West team. As West coach Rob Rowan said after the game, it was just very difficult in the early stages for West to get used to North Penn’s speed. They tried to practice against it, but until you face it, it kind of surprises you how quickly they’re moving. Khalani Eaton, the senior running back, ran for 240 yards on 20 carries or something crazy. He’s averaging over 10 yards a carry for the season. Think about that. It’s kind of hard to stop an offense when the player’s averaging more than a first down every carry.

SuburbanOneSports.com: The big story in the SOL this week was the announcement that Hatboro-Horsham will not be playing its remaining football games. Your thoughts about that situation.


Drew Markol: “We look at Hatboro-Horsham and what’s going on over there. They forfeited the first time a couple of weeks ago their game against Council Rock North, and the following week they played Council Rock South and got pretty much walloped by a team that hadn’t won a game (48-13). The following week the Hatters forfeited again, this time to CB West and really fueled the speculation about what would happen with the rest of the season. What we found out the other day is that Hatboro-Horsham has cancelled/forfeited – whatever you want to call it – their final three games of this season. So the teams they’re supposed to play – Quakertown this week, Souderton the following week and then Upper Dublin,and those are all forfeit wins for the teams they’re supposed to play and obviously forfeit losses for the Hatters, but it’s much deeper than that.

SuburbanOneSports: Quakertown won its SOL Continental Conference showdown against Souderton 36-14 in a game that was much closer than the final score suggests. Your thoughts.


Drew Markol: “Quakertown is looking to win a conference title and get a high seed in the district tournament. It was a good game for three quarters. It was tied going into the fourth quarter, but Quakertown put up three touchdowns, including a big TD by recovering a botched kickoff. They grabbed the ball, and they were [Click and drag to move] able to score in a 36-14 win. As Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said afterwards - it was one of those games where the score was truly not indicative of the way the game went. It was a good game from both sides, a good 309 Bowl rivalry game.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown won its SOL Continental Conference contest with Upper Dublin 31-0. Your thoughts about the Panthers heading into this week’s showdown with Souderton.


Drew Markol: “When you look at that Quakertown/Upper Dublin game, I was there, and you can point to Quakertown got a safety when Upper Dublin snapped the ball out of the end zone, and they scored a touchdown right away before the half to go up 16-0. That wouldn’t have mattered. That game was a total domination from start to finish by Quakertown. They were 4-0, and people wondered if they were legit, but they absolutely are. They held Upper Dublin to eight rushing yards in the first half, and Upper Dublin could do nothing against them.

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Upper Dublin last week and will take on Pennridge this week. Your thoughts.


Drew Markol: “The North Penn/Upper Dublin game – a very good 6A against a very good 5A - kind of went to form. North Penn has just too much. They just wear you down, and that’s their goal, and they’ve been able to do it. I’m not surprised it was a 15-point game. Upper Dublin is legit, but that’s one of the differences between a 6A and a 5A. Plus you’re looking at a 6A in North Penn that’s a serious District One title contender along with Coatesville, Garnet Valley and Downingtown East. In order to win a district title at the 6A level – you can get away with it at some of the much lower levels, but you need to have both options of a running game and a passing game, and they do with Khalani Eaton, the senior all-state running back from last year who’s well on his way to all-state again this year, and quarterback Ryan Zeltt, who is a three-year starter and is a very good player.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Drew, you covered the Neshaminy/Pennridge game. Share your observations about that game and those two teams.


Drew Markol: “Pennridge has played very well defensively all season, but in this one, Neshaminy – which has been battered by injury after injury – hung tough against Pennridge and kept it close. The score was tied at the half, and it was tied after three quarters before Pennridge scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Pennridge is doing a lot of ground and pound. Tyler Wetzel – a junior running back – is the best back in the bunch, but head coach Cody Muller is spreading the carries around. There’s not much of a passing game for Pennridge. They’re going to rely on the run. Neshaminy hung in there with a pretty young team – they did a nice job. Their senior quarterback, Nunzio Zydzik, was running for his life sometimes, and he took a pounding against a good Pennridge defense led by Phil Picciotti, the all-state linebacker, but Neshaminy – as Cody Muller said to me after the game – is the best 0-3 team in the state.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West notched a bounce-back 28-20 win over Central Bucks South. Your comments.


Drew Markol: “CB West was coming off a loss to a very good Coatesville team, and CB South had beaten Plymouth Whitemarsh in week one. West just took it to them. They ran up the middle at will and finished with 333 yards on the ground. Donte Mancini had a huge night, and Eli Boehm also had a huge night for the Bucks. They had a third quarter scoring drive that ate up over half the quarter, just pounded, pounded and pounded. Nothing fancy but they were able to do it and picked up a 28-20 win that wasn’t as close as it sounds.”

SuburbanOneSports.com: Drew, you covered the Souderton/North Penn game. Your thoughts.


Drew Markol: “This was one of the marquee games in the state at North Penn’s brand new field and track. It looks beautiful. I talked to Souderton coach Ed Gallagher before that game, and one of his biggest concerns was just getting worn down because he said in previous years they haven’t beaten North Penn – and still haven’t - since 1989. He said, ‘I’m afraid they’re just going to wear us down like they’ve done in the past. We might have a lead early in the game and we can play with them for a half or three quarters and then all of a sudden, they pound, pound, pound. They have a runner like Khaloni Eaton who can just do that to you.’

SuburbanOneSports: Share your thoughts about the SOL National Conference entering the 2021 season.


Drew Markol: “Starting with the SOL National Conference, you have to look at the best teams from a year ago. Last year was an odd year that hopefully we’ll never see again with some teams playing two games, some teams playing 10 games, some teams playing five. It was just a mess. The best team in the conference last year was Pennridge. They were undefeated in National Conference play and made it all the way to the district championship game before they lost to one of their rivals in Souderton. I look at Pennridge as the team to beat for now. They lost some key people, but coach Cody Muller always has some good players back, so we’ll start with them as the top team.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Souderton handed Pennridge its first loss of the season, winning the District One 6A title with a 31-17 win. The Indians will face St. Joe’s Prep in Saturday’s PIAA 6A state semifinal game. Your thoughts.


Drew Markol: “The 6A game last week was kind of a surprise. I thought Pennridge was a little bit better than Souderton. It turns out Souderton came out and played tough right from the get go, took every punch that Pennridge threw at them and beat them 31-17. They were able to run the ball. Jalen White, the senior, and junior running back Braydon Porter were both terrific. White was really good and had a huge touchdown run where he broke a bunch of tackles. Souderton just pounded away on the ground. If it was third-and-one, they got two yards. They held onto the ball and just really had a nice offensive game plan.