Check out the recaps for SOL football teams in action Friday. CR South/Neshaminy photos provided courtesy of John Gleeson. North Penn/Tennent photos courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. Check back for game action photos. CLICK HERE to go direrctly to the FOOTBALL GALLERY.
Stats used in the wraps are provided courtesy of the Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier. For complete high school football coverage, visit the web sites: http://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school/fall/football/ and http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/fall/football/
SOL National Conference
PENNSBURY 42, ABINGTON 28
The Ghosts took an early 14-0 lead, but that was hardly cause for concern for the Falcons, who had Zach Demarchis behind center. The senior quarterback was once again unstoppable, putting up the kind of staggering numbers that have become almost routine. DeMarchis threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 105 yards and three more TDs.
The game started on a promising note for the Ghosts, who marched 71 yards on their opening drive. Darryl Davis-McNeil took it in from one yard out to put Abington on top 7-0. An interception set up a second TD for the Ghosts, and once again, it was Davis-McNeil punching it in, this time from two yards out.
The rest of the half belonged to the Falcons. A pair of Demarchis touchdown runs and two field goals by Christopher Knop sent Pennsbury into halftime with a 20-14 lead, and the Falcons were just getting started.
In the third quarter, the Falcons scored 22 unanswered points – the first TD on a Demarchis 13-yard run and then two touchdown hookups from Demarchis to Burke, the first from 22 yards out and the second a 36-yarder.
Davis-McNeil added a pair of touchdown runs, the final from 59 yards out. The senior running back once again surpassed the 200-yard mark, finishing with 229 yards and four touchdowns.
Pennsbury (8-1, 5-0 SOL) will host Neshaminy in a conference showdown Friday, and Abington (4-5, 2-6) will be on the road at North Penn for a non-league game.
Pennsbury 0-20-22-0 42
Abington 7-7-7-7 28
NESHAMINY 28, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 0
The Redskins found themselves clinging to a 7-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter when they exploded for 21 unanswered points.
Joel Still spotted the visiting ‘Skins an early 7-0 lead when he took it in from 10 yards out, but after that, the Golden Hawks’ defense stiffened and did not allow a point until Stills caught a two-yard touchdown pass from Brody McAndrew in the fourth quarter. Oleh Manczyk took it in from five yards out for the score, and Mike Garlick returned an interception for a touchdown to give the Redskins their final margin of victory.
McAndrew threw for 154 yards and Still ran for 84 to lead the Redskins. Rock South quarterback Christian Jabbar accounted for 148 yards of offense – 80 on the ground.
Neshaminy (8-1, 5-0 SOL) will travel to Pennsbury next Friday with a conference title at stake for the winner. Council Rock South (3-6, 2-3) will host Council Rock North on Friday.
Neshaminy 7-0-0-21 28
Council Rock South 0-0-0-0 0
SOL Continental Conference
PENNRIDGE 21, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 7
The film room at Pennridge was not an especially happy place this week. No one really wanted reminders of last week’s 35-26 win over William Tennent that saw Panther quarterback Mitch Vierling torch the Rams’ defense for 343 yards and four touchdowns.
“If you were in the film room, you probably would have been a little scared because it was not good,” senior cornerback Joe Devine said. “That was one of those trap games. Energy is low. You come out a little flat and think you’re just going to dominate, and they come and throw all over you. We knew we had to step up tonight, and we came up big. It’s a great win.”
Friday’s game certainly fell under the category of big games, and the Rams stepped up, making life miserable for the Titans all night.
“Our D-line and O-line – they’re just monsters, and I love them to death,” Devine said. “When they get pressure, it makes our job that much easier.
“All we have to do is save them from getting over the top and making plays on the ball, which we did tonight.”
Devine had one of five Pennridge interceptions on a night that belonged to the Rams’ defense, which did not allow a point.
“We showed up,” senior defensive end Ryan Rapp said. “We knew they had their third string quarterback in, and we knew they were going to pass a lot, so it was really just the secondary doing their thing.
“It was all about the chemistry on this team, executing our plays and the D-line getting pressure. We all helped out each other.”
The Rams seized early control, opening up a 21-0 lead before halftime. Ryan Garner, who led the Rams with 119 rushing yards, put the Rams on the board with a 14-yard touchdown run. Then it was Devine on the receiving end of a Zak Kantor 19-yard TD pass. Kyle Schetter punched it in from a yard out.
“I think early momentum in a big game is just huge,” coach Jeff Hollenbach said. “I’m looking at the scoreboard, and it’s 21-0. I’m pinching myself thinking, ‘It’s really 21-0 against this team?’
“For our guys to come out and establish good offense – we were running and throwing, and the whole game the defense was really lights out. Really, it’s a shutout for the defense because we gave them an easy one. I’m really proud of how we played.”
The Titans’ only points came early in the third quarter when – after a high snap – Sean Charpentier fell on the fumble in the end zone.
Sophomore Cooper Chaikin had a pair of interceptions on a night that saw the Rams limit the Titans to less than 150 total yards.
“We were preaching ball hawk all week,” Hollenbach said. “We figured they were going to try to throw the ball against us.
“We spent a lot of time on pass coverage. We probably spent a half hour more on pass coverage this week during practice than we usually do, and it paid off. (Defensive coordinator) Mike Barainyak did a great job again defensively. For us to do the things we did defensively, I’m just really proud. The defense just played great. For us to go up three scores and rely on our trusty defense was awesome.”
Both teams entered the game with identical 3-1 records in conference play. With the win, the Rams are alone in second place in the standings.
“We know we have a special team, and we’re trying to play to our full potential,” Rapp said. “It’s when we underestimate a team that we find we get set back in games. We can’t underestimate teams.
“Perfect games don’t exist. Kids mess up. All you can do is watch film, go to practice and then rebuild. That’s exactly what we did. This (win) means so much – seeding in the playoffs, maybe a home playoff game, a confidence booster, the whole nine yards. Everything was riding on this game.”
Pennridge (7-2, 4-1 SOL) is the eighth-seeded team in the District One 6A power rankings.
“I really do not play close attention to those numbers,” Hollenbach said of the power rankings. “I let it all shake out.
“We have to play (Central Bucks) East next week and see how it all shakes out, but I’m thinking we can be in the top eight if we win next week and get a home playoff game. We would love for these seniors to have a home playoff game. We’ve never had a home playoff game on this field.”
“That would be huge,” Devine said. “The energy here is always electric. We always come to play. We can play with the best.”
Central Bucks South (6-3, 3-2) will close out its regular season next Friday with a home game against William Tennent. 
Central Bucks South 0-0-7-0 7
Pennridge 7-14-0-9 21
NORTH PENN 56, WILLIAM TENNENT 7
The Knights raced out of the gate to a 42-0 halftime lead en route to their sixth straight win. This one clinched another conference title for the Knights.
Steve DePaul, who threw for over 200 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, found AJ Catanzaro with a 37-yard touchdown pass, and the Knights were off and running. The junior quarterback also hooked up with Justis Henley for a pair of touchdowns in the opening half. KJ Cartwright had a two-yard touchdown run and surpassed the 100-yard mark in the opening half as well.
Tennent didn’t get on the scoreboard until the fourth quarter when Dawson Pierson scored from one yard out.
North Penn (7-2, 6-0 SOL) will host Abington in a non-league game Friday, and William Tennent (0-9, 0-6) will be on the road at Central Bucks South on Friday.
SOL American Conference
UPPER DUBLIN 14, HATBORO-HORSHAM 7
Defense was the name of the game for the Flying Cardinals, who celebrated Senior Night by holding the Hatters to a season low seven points.
“On Senior Night and homecoming, if you could write your script for the seniors, that’s the way I would write it,” UD coach Bret Stover said. “We had a great defensive game plan. Dave Sowers, my defensive coordinator, put together a great plan.
“I think we probably played our best all-around game, all three facets tonight even though we didn’t put a lot of points up. We played a good team. Hatboro is well coached. They have some really, really good players.”
Two of those players – Calvin Broaddus and Ben Ejimonyeugwo – were the focal point of UD’s defensive scheme as was quarterback Chris Edwards.
“We had our hands full, and we held them to seven points,” said Stover. “To hold that high-powered offense down to just seven was huge for us.
“We kicked the ball away from 11 and six (Ejimonyeugwo and Broaddus) all night because they ran back three kicks last week. We didn’t want to give them anything in the special teams game, and that worked well for us tonight. Our offense was opportunistic. We didn’t turn the ball over, which was good because that’s been a little bit of a bugaboo for us. I thought we played our most complete game in all three facets.”
Edwards threw for 210 yards, but the Flying Cardinals’ defense limited the Hatters to just 69 yards on the ground.
“I couldn’t be prouder of my players,” said Stover. “Max Winebrake has been the catalyst (on defense). This is the last of the Winebrakes for me, unfortunately, but he’s been our anchor all year.
“Anthony Cerminara tackled extremely well in the secondary for us tonight, which with Broaddus – he catches a five-yard out, and he turns it into a 55-yard touchdown sometimes. Anthony was very sure in the tackles.
“Chris Smith, one of my D-tackles up front, played sideline to sideline and made some key stops. My sophomore in the back, Mike Slivka, was just kind of patrolling because we were doubling some of their key players and Mike was over the top. They threw him one interception, and he probably should have had another, he’ll tell you. As a sophomore quarterback in the secondary, that’s outstanding. I can’t wait to see what the next two years have to bring for that guy.”
The Flying Cardinals got on the scoreboard late in the first half when senior quarterback Julian Gimbel found Brody Balasa with a nine-yard touchdown strike, sending UD into halftime with a 7-0 lead.
That one-touchdown lead stood until early in the fourth quarter when Ryan Besachio hauled in a 17-yard Gimbel TD pass that put the Cards on top 14-0.
“We were opportunistic in what we did,” Stover said. “We had a couple of really nice drives that ate up six, seven minutes, and we shortened the game, which was another part of our plan – we have the ball, they don’t.
“That was our plan to get first down, first down, and that worked for us. Julian Gimbel, my senior quarterback, ends up throwing two touchdowns on Senior Night, one to Ryan Besachio and the other to junior Brody Balasa, who is starting to come into his own. That’s what you want to see at this point because they’re not rookies anymore. You’re eight games into your season, and you’re starting to see what the future is going to look like and who your players are going to be, and he’s going to be definitely one of them for us in the future.”
Gimbel finished with 95 yards in the air to lead the Cards. Senior Malik Bootman was limited to just 77 yards, breaking a string of six straight games over 100 yards.
Upper Dublin (6-2, 4-1 SOL) will travel to Upper Moreland to take on undefeated Golden Bears’ squad with first place in the SOL American Conference at stake.
“It’s an opportunity to go out there and play a real, real good Upper Moreland team for an opportunity to get a piece of a championship, and that’s really what you want – meaningful football in late October and early November when the playoffs start,” Stover said. “For me and the program that we’ve built, that’s really what we’re all about.”
Hatboro-Horsham (4-4, 2-3) will host Cheltenham on Friday.
Hatboro-Horsham 0-0-0-7 7
Upper Dublin 0-7-0-7 14
CHELTENHAM 23, PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 20
After opening the season 0-7, the Panthers notched their second win in as many weeks, rallying from a 13-10 halftime deficit to outscore their visitors 13-7 in the second half.
The Colonials took an early 7-0 lead, but the Panthers answered with a touchdown drive of their own that was capped with a Jordan Gyabaah run, knotting the score. Dontae Wilson’s 21-yard touchdown run gave the Colonials a 13-7 lead, but Justin Grady’s 29-yard field goal made it a three-point game at the half.
Grady’s second field goal of the night – this one from 45 yards – knotted the score 13-13 heading into the final frame. The two teams exchanged touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and it was Grady emerging the hero when he split the uprights with his third field goal of the night – this one from 21 yards out with time winding down.
Cheltenham (2-7, 2-3 SOL) will be on the road at Hatboro-Horsham on Friday, and Plymouth Whitemarsh (1-7, 1-4) will host Quakertown on Friday.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7-6-0-7 20
Cheltenham 7-3-3-10 23
UPPER MORELAND 46, WISSAHICKON 26
(Game information will be added when it is received.)
Non-league
HARRY S TRUMAN 33, SOUDERTON 7
The Tigers rebounded from back-to-back losses to turn in a complete performance in their non-league win over the visiting Indians.
“Our offense and defense contributed to this win,” said coach Mike LaPalombara. “Against, Abington (a 14-0 loss last week), our defense played real well, and our offense did not.
“Tonight once again our defense started out playing real well, and then our offense kicked in, and obviously, we were able to win the game. Also, special teams-wise, we were a little better than we’d been as well. All three facets we played better tonight than we did earlier.
“We had to work really hard to win this game, no doubt about it. They were bigger than us once again, and they were very, very physical. You could see how well coached they were because we were struggling with them for a bit.”
The tone was set early when Gabe Gipli returned an interception 22 yards for a touchdown. The Indians evened the scored when DeAndre Wakefield punched it in from two yards out, but that would be the Indians’ last hurrah.
By the time the first quarter had ended, the Tigers had tacked on two more touchdowns – the first from two yards out by Dylan Snelling and the second on a 52-yard run by Javeer Peterson that gave Truman a 20-7 lead.
The Tigers still led by that score heading into the fourth quarter when both David Akinwande and Sayyid Saunders had TD runs.
LaPalombara pointed the performances of several players as key..
“I thought Habeeb Baba had a big game defensively,” the Tigers’ coach said. “Javeer Peterson was real big both ways. We put him as a running back, we threw the ball to him, and he made some plays defensively.
“Sayyid Saunders ran really hard. David Akinwande is playing on both sides of the ball now. In the beginning of the year, he was mostly our fullback, but we had to shore up our defense. Gabe Gipli is another guy who played really well. He had that interception in the beginning of the game, and that’s how we got our first points on the board, so that was very, very important.”
Saunders led the Tigers’ ground game with 86 yards, one of four running backs with 50 or more yards. Freshman Willie Goods led the Indians with 71 yards on the ground. On a night that saw neither team pass for 50 yards, the Tigers held a 278-130 advantage in rushing yards.
Heading into Friday’s game, the Tigers had dropped three of their last four games after a 4-0 start.
“It’s the length of the season type of thing,” LaPalombara said. “You get banged up here and there, and you’ve got to fight through those injuries with regard to depth.
“That became an issue after the Neshaminy game. We had to push through that. We were healthy tonight – this is the healthiest we’ve been since the beginning of the year, so that had a lot to do with it.
“I looked at that Pennsbury game (a 47-32 loss), and we did score 32 points. Defensively, we didn’t play well, so we brought only the defense in and took a look at the defense in that game. They were not playing near the kind of defense we were in the beginning. They were sitting there watching the game take place, and it wasn’t 11 guys playing football.
“Then we played at Abington, and the defense showed up, so that was a critical point in the year – how we responded defensively after the Pennsbury game because we weren’t down and out. That’s why this game was very important. It was very important for our defense to stand up and get some semblance of control of the game to give our offense a chance once again to start clicking.”
Harry S Truman (6-3, 2-3 SOL) will travel to Bensalem on Friday, and Souderton (2-7, 1-4) will be on the road at Central Bucks West Friday.
Souderton 7-0-0-0 7
Harry S Truman 20-0-0-13 33
MORRISVILLE 36, SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 21
The Spartans took a 21-14 lead into halftime, and they still were clinging to a one-point lead heading into the final frame when the Bulldogs scored 16 unanswered points.
Quarterback Max Perry completed 6-of-13 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 73 yards and a touchdown as he accounted for all three of the Spartans’ touchdowns. Perry connected with Brian Mainshein on a 20-yard TD pass and threw a 30-yarder to Samari Savoy.
Perry’s rushing touchdown came when he was under heavy pressure from the Bulldogs and made a loop around the field before taking it 70 yards to the house.
Senior captain Eddie Goldsmith had a big game with seven tackles, and senior Josh Sawyer added five tackles.
The two teams combined for seven turnovers.
Springfield Township (2-6) will host Springfield next Friday.
Morrisville 0-14-6-16 36
Springfield Township 7-14-0-0 21
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