Check out the results for SOL football teams in action Saturday. To view photos of the CR South/CB East and CR North/William Tennent games, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Stats used in the wraps are provided courtesy of Calkins Media. For complete high school football coverage, visit the web site www.PhillyBurbs.com<http://www.PhillyBurbs.com>.
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 46, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 40
In a game that featured close to 900 yards of total offense, CB East and Council Rock South proved that no lead is ever safe.
The Patriots sprinted to a 20-6 lead only to watch the Golden Hawks reel off 40, yes 40, unanswered points to go on top 46-20. The Patriots responded with 20 straight points of their own to close out the game.
In the end, the Golden Hawks prevailed. It was the second straight week they rallied from an early 14-point deficit.
“They did a good job,” coach Vince Bedesem said. “The thing is I’m getting tired of this coming back from 14 points down.
“We have to learn how to get up 14 and keep the lead and beyond. We did get a little lax at the end. It wasn’t indicative of what we did in the middle of the game, but East did a great job. They battled. Hats off to them.
“That’s the thing – it’s a conference game, and conference games are going to be tough all the way through. We said that this morning driving up here. In conference games, anything can happen.”
For the shorthanded Patriots, it was another gutsy effort. With quarterbacks Connor O’Keefe and Matt Szczypiorski sidelined with injuries, middle linebacker Jack Lamb, the team’s top tackler, lined up behind center.
“He’s like Jim Jenson that used to play for the (Miami) Dolphins back in the day,” coach John Donnelly said. “He could play tight end, he could play quarterback, he could play fullback, and he’s under the weather, but he played like a grown man today.”
Connor Pattyson was lined up at running back for the first time, and he also had a big outing.
“Jack Lamb and Connor Pattyson are two of our top three tacklers that we had to primarily play on offense today,” Donnelly said. “I thought they did a great job.
“We’ll be getting guys back healthy, and I say ‘Look out’ because I think our guys believe, and obviously, they don’t quit. The fact that we have a chance to win these football games says a lot about the toughness of our team.”
After the two squads exchanged early touchdowns, the Patriots closed out the opening quarter with back-to-back touchdown runs by Pattyson. Their 20-6 lead disappeared rather quickly in the second quarter.
A nine-yard touchdown run by junior Brendan Patterson was sandwiched between a pair of TD runs by Vince Alimenti.
“Coach is always talking about pad level, so in the huddle, we were always trying to get everybody fired up, keeping the pad level going,” Patterson said. “We just kept moving the ball, playing our brand of football.”
Alimenti, who finished the game with 292 yards on 30 carries, had touchdown runs of nine and 12 yards. He took it in for a two-point conversation to send the Golden Hawks into halftime with a 26-20 lead.
“You just have to keep digging deep and pushing yourself harder and harder,” Alimenti said. “That’s exactly what all the boys did.”
Senior Sam Presley gave the Indians a huge shot in the arm when he took the opening kickoff of the second half 97 yards for a touchdown that – after a successful Alimenti run for the two-point conversation – put the Golden Hawks on top 34-20.
“That was huge,” Alimenti said of Presley’s big play. “That gave us all the momentum for the second half. If we didn’t get that, we probably would have started off slow, but that gave us all the momentum.”
The Golden Hawks tacked on two more touchdowns on a one-yard run by Patterson and a 32-yard burst by Alimenti to go on top 46-20 as their triple option was working on all cylinders.
“We’ve been trying to mesh everybody together because it’s a young team,” Patterson said. “I think right now we’re at a point where everybody is starting to connect, everybody is starting to get a feel for each other, and it’s working really good.”
Bedesem echoed a similar sentiment.
“We’re starting to jell, and it starts with our offensive line and getting those guys to where they need to be,” the Hawks’ coach said. “They’ve just done an outstanding job.
“It’s our fullback, halfback, quarterback, fullback, halfback, quarterback, and that’s what we want. When we’re able to get that, that’s the offense.”
With 5:32 remaining, Lamb took it in from five yards out for a touchdown that made it a 46-27 game, and when Tommy Strasburger recovered his team’s on-sides kick, the Patriots were in business. A 14-yard touchdown run by Pattyson made it a 46-33 game with more than three minutes to play.
Things got real interesting after the Patriots recovered another on-sides kick and Pattyson took it in from two yards out with 1:18 remaining to make it a 46-40 game. This time the Golden Hawks pounced on the on-sides kick attempt, effectively thwarting the Patriots from completing their remarkable comeback.
“We had scored pretty quickly in the first quarter, so we felt we could score some points at the end as well,” Donnelly said. “We made some plays on specials teams there, but we gave up two critical ones.
“I don’t know if it was an intentional on-sides kic (by Rock South), but we didn’t handle that one and gave them a score right before the half. That was huge. Then their kick-off return to start the second half took the wind out of our sails.”
The Golden Hawks amassed 491 yards of total offense – 462 of them on the ground. In addition to Alimenti’s four-touchdown effort, Patterson had 127 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Shaun Stackhouse had 40 yards.
“It was big work by our offensive line,” Patterson said, tipping his hat to center Joe Carter, guards John Anderson and Conner Brunetti, right tackle Zach Blickly, left tackle Keith Rieser and tight end Rick Johnston. “We got the glory, but they’re the ones fighting down there.”
For the Patriots, Lamb finished an impressive day with 199 yards and one touchdown. Pattyson had 91 rushing yards and 27 receiving.
The Golden Hawks (3-2, 2-0 SOL) will travel to Central Bucks West on Thursday night while the Patriots (1-4, 0-2 SOL) will travel to William Tennent Thursday.
Council Rock South 6-20-14-6 46
Central Bucks East 20-0-0-20 40
PENNSBURY 34, ABINGTON 6
(To reach Scott Huff's complete game story, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/article/content/falcons-stay-perfect-win-over-ghosts-0047242)
QUAKERTOWN 34, NORRISTOWN 6
While it won’t go down as a classic, it will go down as a win, and the Panthers are 5-0 at the midway point in the season. If the players needed any incentive heading into Saturday’s game at Norristown, they got it from a newspaper article that questioned just how good the Panthers really were.
“The kids came in with the mentality that they had something to prove today,” coach George Banas said. “We’re not used to Saturdays, and it wasn’t pretty, that’s for sure. Even the players will agree – we have a lot of work to do for Thursday.”
The Panthers took the suspense out of this one early, opening up a 20-0 lead before the Eagles got on the scoreboard. They led 20-6 at the intermission.
“With a team like Norristown, that is very, very athletic – I give them a lot of credit,” Quakertown coach George Banas said. “Last week they didn’t give up. They were down 20-7 (and came back to beat CB West), so we knew we had to try to jump out early.
“We didn’t want to play from behind because maybe, just maybe we could get them a little bit deflated. I didn’t see that today. He (Jason Powel) is doing a tremendous job with them, and it’s a real good ball club.”
The Panthers had over 300 yards of total offense and limited the Eagles to 194. Running back Nick Bonomo threw a 59-yard touchdown pass and also was the team’s leading ground gainer with 67 yards. Rob Burns had 60 yards and two touchdowns while Alec Vera had a pair of touchdown passes.
Norristown quarterback Desmond Gorski threw for 127 yards and a TD. Khalif Sinclair was on the receiving end of two of those passes for 96 yards.
Despite the lopsided win, Banas saw plenty of areas his team needs to clean up if the Panthers hope to continue their strong start.
“Realistically, every drive that we ended up having to punt it away – there was a penalty, there was a fumble,” the Panthers’ coach said. “We’re just hurting ourselves.
“If we take care of ourselves, we’ll be in good shape, and we’ll be competitive in games.”
One thing Banas is not worried about is his team’s work ethic.
“This group is a bunch of hard workers,” he said. “They don’t get too high, they don’t get too low on themselves. They just push through it and keep grinding.”
Quakertown (5-0, 2-0 SOL) will travel to Harry S Truman on Thursday night. The Eagles (3-2, 1-1) will travel to Council Rock North on Thursday night.
Quakertown 13-7-7-7 34
Norristown 0-6-0-0 6
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 36, WILLIAM TENNENT 22
The Panthers opened up a 15-6 lead, thanks to a safety and a pair of one-yard Derek Finley touchdown runs, but that lead disappeared quickly in a second quarter that saw the Indians score three unanswered touchdowns. Chris Welde scored on a 13-yard run, and then it was Brandon McIlwain scoring his second touchdown of the game on a four-yard run to put the Indians on top 20-15.
On the ensuing kickoff, Rock North took over on Tennent’s 34, and on the first play from scrimmage, Welde hauled in a 34-yard touchdown pass. The Indians took a 28-15 lead into halftime.
Tennent pulled to within six (28-22) after Finley took it in from three yards out before McIlwain closed out the scoring with a three-yard TD run.
McIlwain finished with 107 yards on the ground with three touchdowns and 161 yards in the air and one TD. Welde finished with 100 total yards, 53 on the ground.
For the Panthers, senior Colin Herbert started at quarterback in place of the injured Nik Banks and was the game’s leading ground gainer with 167 yards.
Rock North (4-1, 2-0 SOL) will host Norristown on Thursday night while the Panthers (2-3, 0-2) will host Central Bucks East.
Council Rock North 6-22-0-8 36
William Tennent 9-6-7-0 22
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