Pennsbury, Pennridge & Upper Dublin were winners in District One Tournament action Friday. Pennsbury/Neshaminy photos provided courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography; photos of North Penn/Garnet Valley courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. CLICK HERE to go directly 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/
CLASS 6A
#1-8 PENNSBURY 36, #1-1 NESHAMINY 17
Two weeks after watching a 13-point fourth quarter lead slip away in what amounted to the SOL National Conference title game against the Redskins, the Falcons had a second shot at their archrivals in Friday’s District One 6A quarterfinal game at Heartbreak Ridge.
“(That loss) was deeply disappointing,” coach Dan McShane said. “It took three days (to get over it), and a couple of days would go by and it would bite you again – coulda, shoulda woulda.
“It was definitely a motivating factor. We told the kids – there were two parts to it. It’s very rare in life you get a chance like that to redeem yourself. The other part was just living to fight another day and continue to play in the playoffs.”
The Falcons got the redemption they were looking for with a convincing win that vaulted them into the district semifinals. Momentum swung in their favor early when – with the Redskins poised to take a lead on their opening drive – the Falcons’ defense forced a fumble on their own 21-yard line.
“We just got done watching that play – you see this great hustle,” McShane said. “The kid who came over was Matt Lewis. He only knows one speed.
“He got caught inside and was probably 15 yards from the ball, but he spins out and hustles. We had one guy make the initial tackle, and Matt came in and popped the ball out. That’s the style of defense we play. We really run hard and try to get as many guys to the ball. That’s when turnovers happen. He did a real good job. That’s a turning point.”
Pennsbury marched down the field for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead when Zach Demarchis took it in from 10 yards out. It was the senior quarterback’s first carry of a drive that featured a whole lot of fullback Andrew Basalyga, who found himself in a starring role with 173 yards on 18 carries.
“We got the turnover and then it was Basalyga time,” McShane said of his senior fullback. “He was rumbling through the secondary. It was nice to see.
“He’s a typical Pennsbury kid. He’s playing two ways and even covers kicks for us. He’s a good kid, and I’m really glad to see all his success.”
The Redskins answered with an 82-yard touchdown drive. Joel Stills capped the drive with a 16-yard touchdown run. The extra point attempt hit the uprights, and the Falcons led 7-6.
A 40-yard Basalyga run on the first play of the Falcons’ ensuing drive set the stage for an 80-yard drive. Nassan Robbins ran untouched 14 yards up the middle for the TD and a 14-6 Falcon lead.
Again, the Redskins answered with Stills providing the big play, a 55-yard touchdown run. The extra point was blocked, and the Falcons maintained a 14-12 lead that grew to 16-12 when a high snap on a Redskin punt sailed out of the end zone. A 37-yard field goal by Matt Leonhauser made it a 16-15 game at the intermission.
“We felt really good about the first half, but it was still 16-15,” McShane said. “We had won the toss, and we had deferred, so now it was our choice in the second half.
“We chose to take the ball, and they chose to kick into the wind. The wind was really a significant factor. They had a short kickoff, and we had half the field.”
The Falcons capitalized with Robbins racing in from 44 yards out, and Pennsbury led 23-15 just over a minute into the third quarter. Basalyga capped the second scoring drive in the frame with a two-yard run that gave the Falcons a 29-15 lead after three quarters.
Pennsbury marched down the field a third time, completing the drive at the 10:47 mark of the final quarter when Basalyga scored from two yards out to put the Falcons on top 36-15.
“We pounded in three straight scores with the wind at our back,” McShane said. “It got to that point, and in the fourth quarter, although they had the wind, we can really rush the passer, and we got a bunch of extra DBs on the field playing pass defense which we feel confident in. All of a sudden, they have to throw the ball every down.
“We’ve been on a little bit of a roll with our defense. They had a shutout last week, and they really did step up.”
Basalyga and Robbins (123 yards on 20 carries) combined for almost 300 yards on the ground.
“We weren’t going to change a whole lot, but we had a couple of wrinkles,” McShane said. “Their two inside linebackers are really active kids, and we thought we could take advantage of some things.
“We had a good game plan, obviously, and the weather conditions kind of pushed us in that direction. We didn’t call a whole lot of passes. We spent a real hard week with the offensive line. We thought they had been playing okay, but we thought they could be playing better, and they really stepped their level up. That was really nice to see.”
The Falcons’ line includes center Kieren Saunders, tackles Matt Rosso and Brian Malinowski, guards Nika Wright and J Shellenberger as well as tight end Bill Turk. They were the unsung heroes on a night when the Falcons’ ground game was the difference.
“We have some really good coaches,” McShane said. “Coach (Ian) Bell is one of the brightest offensive minds I’ve been around in high school football ever in 30 years.
“He works real hard at it. He’s got a real feel for it, and he has a good way with the kids. He’s got us going in the right direction. It’s funny – a lot of the plays we ran tonight were some of the same plays we ran last year, but we didn’t have Zach (Demarchis) at quarterback and we were missing a couple of linemen we have now.”
While some may be surprised by the Falcons’ turnaround after winning just five games last season, McShane is not in that number.
“We had very high hopes, I’m not going to lie,” the Falcons’ coach said. “We knew we had a young team last year and this year they were coming back.
“We kind of felt like Zach was going to bring something special to the table as far as the quarterback position with all his versatility. A 10-win team – I don’t know about that, but we felt playoffs were a reasonable goal, a league championship was a goal. Now it’s win and survive and play again next week.”
Pennsbury (10-2, 5-1 SOL) will travel to Coatesville for a District One 6A semifinal against the fourth-seeded Red Raiders. Coatesville defeated Downingtown East 61-42 in a quarterfinal game.
“We look forward to it,” McShane said. “They’re just Fairless Hills kids – they just love playing football. I told the kids before that some kids when it’s this time of year, they’re like – oh, it’s getting a little cold, the girlfriend is calling me up, it’s basketball season. It’s like a war of attrition where you battle with yourself.
“They just have a great attitude. They don’t care if it’s November, January or August – they just want to play football. That’s very symbolic of the type of kids that have been playing football at Pennsbury for a long time. They’re just hard-nosed football kids.”
Neshaminy closed its season with a 10-2 record. The Redskins were the SOL National Conference champions with a 6-0 record.
Pennsbury 14-2-13-7 36
Neshaminy 6-9-0-2 17
#1-7 PENNRIDGE 25, #1-2 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 0
In 10 games against teams not named Pennridge – all wins, Perk Valley averaged 36.7 points a game. In two games against the Rams, the Vikings did not score a point. Earlier this season, the Rams defeated the Vikings 29-0. They all but duplicated that feat in Friday’s win, their second shutout in as many games.
“Coming in, we were going to win this game – I knew that,” said senior linebacker Nick Tarburton, who anchors the Rams’ defense. “I didn’t know by this score.
“We just came to play, and we wanted it more than them, bottom line.”
The Rams were opportunistic on offense. Zak Kantor completed just five passes, but three were for touchdowns. His first – a 47-yard TD pass to Joe Devine – gave the Rams a 7-0 lead with 5:31 remaining in the first quarter. A seven-yard touchdown pass to Tarburton upped that lead to 13-0 in the second quarter.
An interception in the end zone by Cooper Chaikin – his fifth in four games – killed the Vikings’ best chance to get on the scoreboard in the half.
“Cooper’s interception on the goal line was just a huge, huge play in the game,” coach Jeff Hollenbach said. “We were very physical both sides of the ball. To run our power game the way we did early really established our offense.”
Any doubts about the outcome were put to rest in a hurry in the third quarter. After Kyle Schetter scored on a nine-yard run, the Rams fell on an unintentional short kick and scored on the very next play when Kantor found Schetter with a 44-yard touchdown pass.
Just like that, the Rams led 25-0, and a win was all but in the books for the Rams.
“We always try to play with confidence – that’s one thing coach always tells us to do,” Kantor said. “I think it was two years ago – we were up on Quakertown 21-0, and they ended up coming back, so they’re always telling us we’ve got to finish it, play it out, so that’s what we try to do.”
Both players and coaches acknowledged that opening districts with back-to-back shutouts is unexpected.
“It’s definitely a little crazy – I think we all found a goal, and we’re working together to achieve it,” Kantor said. “Everybody is doing their job and focused, and that’s what it takes.
“The coaches always preach family football, and I think we all bought in, and it’s what’s really working for us.”
“To take two playoff games and not give up a point is pretty incredible defense,” said Hollenbach, crediting defensive coordinator Mike Barainyak. “He’s doing an awesome job, and that interior group – Ryan Rapp has played terrific at defensive end.
“Oliver Jervis is playing great on defense. Nick (Tarburton) is the obvious choice in terms of what happens in the middle. It’s pretty obvious what he does physically, but what you don’t see is his leadership with these other guys. They all respect him, they all look up to him, and he’s always getting them motivated. He’s another coach on the field. It’s just such an awesome thing to be able to coach a player like him.
“And our secondary – we had 10 interceptions in two games. They came alive and they’re playing well. I just love what we’re doing defensively.”
According to the Tarburton, all three levels are clicking.
“We got the D-line playing unbelievably well,” the senior linebacker said. “Our linebackers are stepping up, making plays, and our secondary is just over the top making great plays and keeping everything in front of them.
“We’ll play anybody that comes to us. Our biggest goal is to be 1-0 this week.”
Pennridge (10-2, 5-1 SOL) will face Garnet Valley – the Jaguars stunned North Penn 36-35 – in next Friday’s District One 6A semifinal. It is the program’s fifth trip to the district semis.
“It will be different going down to Garnet Valley,” Hollenbach sad. “We thought we might get North Penn. I know we have to get ready for the triple option, but our defensive interior is pretty good.”
Pennridge 7-6-12-0 25
Perkiomen Valley 0-0-0-0 0
1-3 GARNET VALLEY 36, #1-6 NORTH PENN 35
Everything was going North Penn’s way. Or at least so it seemed when Justis Henley hauled in his fourth touchdown pass of the game to put the Knights on top 35-7 with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter.
That turned out to be the Knights’ last hurrah as the Jaguars closed out the game with a 29-0 tear. Sophomore quarterback Ryan Gallagher engineered a touchdown drive that cut the heart out of the Knights. His 23-yard touchdown pass to Danny Guy with 46 seconds remaining pulled the Jaguars to within one, and instead of settling for the tie, Gallagher punched it in for the successful two-point conversion.
As losses go, they don’t get much more devastating than this for a Knight squad that owned the first half. Steve DePaul shredded the Jaguars’ defense for 198 yards with TD passes of 36, 49 and 34 yards to Henley. KJ Cartwright scored from 10 yards out, and the Knights took a commanding 28-7 lead into halftime.
That lead grew to 35-6 before the Jaguars came roaring back, benefitting from a pair of Knight fumbles.
North Penn closed out its season with a 9-3 record overall. The Knights were 6-0 in SOL Continental Conference play. Garnet Valley will face Pennridge in a District One 6A semifinal on Friday.
North Penn 14-14-7-0 35
Garnet Valley 0-7-7-22 36
CLASS 5A
#1-5 UPPER DUBLIN 17, #1-4 ACADEMY PARK 12
The Flying Cardinals sent the defending district champion Knights home for the season, rallying from an early 6-0 deficit to go on top 10-6 after one frame. They led the rest of the way to earn an impressive win in the District One 5A quarterfinals.
“I didn’t see this coming,” coach Bret Stover said of his team’s postseason run. “They’re just continuing what the tradition is here, which is nice to see.
“They’ve taken it on as their responsibility, and I give a lot of credit to my seniors for carrying the torch. I’m so excited to spend at least one more week with them.”
Things didn’t look promising when the Vikings marched down the field for a touchdown on their opening drive of the game. The point after attempt hit the upright, and the Knights led 6-0.
“They went down the field in four or five plays and put it in,” Stover said. “We drove it to midfield and had to punt it.
“On their first play, they tried to run a reverse. They dropped the reverse, and Adam Jefferson-Jones picked it up – I thought he was just going to fall on it, and he scooped it up and went 20 yards for a touchdown.”
Chris Barbera’s extra point gave the Flying Cardinals a 7-6 lead.
“From that point on – that play, I think, settled us in,” Stover said. “They didn’t do anything to threaten offensively the rest of the night.
“When you’re practicing all week, you can’t practice for the speed of some of these teams. It took us just a few plays to get us up to game speed, if you will, and from that point on, our linebackers flowed to the ball. (Max) Winebrake and (Malik) Bootman are sitting there waiting for them in the hole, and we had (Nick) Sowers on the outside. It was just a matter of getting us up to game speed.”
Barbera nailed a 27-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to send the Flying Cardinals into the intermission with a 10-6 lead.
“Julien Gimble had like a 65-yard run, and they pushed him out at the 10, and we stalled, but Chris Barbera kicked the field goal,” Stover said.
That score stood until the fourth quarter when – after the Cards recovered a Viking fumble – Gimbel scored from four yards out to put UD on top 17-6. Also on the drive, Gimbel hooked up with Selvin Haynes for a big completion.
“We didn’t run the ball well at all tonight,” Stover said. “Gimbel just kept making the right checks.
“We put a little check package in for him this week because they’re so athletic, and they’re so aggressive that we had to get them out of the box. His ability to do that enabled us to run just enough in the second half to move sticks when we needed to move sticks.
“In the second quarter, we didn’t get any points, but we were into the wind, and I bet we had the ball for nine of the 12 minutes. We moved it enough. It wasn’t pretty by any stretch. Julien was on the run, and somebody would slide into a little open pocket and he would find them. He did stuff with his feet tonight and his head, which was nice to see from your senior.
“(Ryan) Besachio had a couple of big catches, (Lucas) Roselli had catches, Sullivan had a big catch, (Jack) Jamison – all four of those guys on the wide outside did big things.”
Things got interesting when – with 3:57 remaining – the Vikings stripped the ball and took it in for a touchdown to make it a 17-12 game.
“We stuffed their two-point conversion play,” Stover said. “They tried an on-side kick, and they kicked it and basically brought the whole team at Nick Sowers.
“Somehow Nick managed to come up with the football, but they held us at midfield. We go to punt and we snap the ball over our punter’s head, so they get the ball on the 30-yard line going in, and we just threw up the wall. They basically had a fourth down that made it by a credit card width. That’s how close we were to stopping them on that series.”
On a crucial fourth down play, Haynes broke up the pass play to seal the Vikings’ fate.
“They must have turned the ball over at least seven times, which is another thing that kept us in the game,” Stover said. “We had two picks (by Mike Slivka and Anthony Cerminara).”
The Vikings had twice the number of players as the Cardinals.
“They came out and they had 75 kids, and we were there with 34 dressed,” Stover said. “(Defensive coordinator) Dave Sowers does a great job just getting them in the right places. The amount of time that man spends on film breakdown – I can’t even tell you.
“They just believe – they believe in each other, which is huge at this point in the year, and they believe in us. They trust us that we’re going to put them in the spots. My guys have been putting these kids in position to make plays, and they keep making the plays.”
Upper Dublin (8-3, 6-2 SOL) will travel to Springfield-Delco to take on the top-seeded Cougars on Friday in a District One 5A semifinal. The Cougars defeated West Chester Rustin 28-7.
Upper Dublin 10-0-0-7 17
Academy Park 6-0-0-6 12
#1-7 MARPLE NEWTOWN 24, #1-2 UPPER MORELAND 18
Marple Newtown has not been especially kind to the Golden Bears in the postseason. Last year, the Tigers sent UM home with a 35-7 defeat in an opening round district game. This year, the Golden Bears were the higher seed, and although they were in this one until the end, they came up short, suffering their first loss of the season.
The Tigers led 3-0 after one quarter, but quarterback Brendan Olexa scored from one yard out to put the Golden Bears on top 6-3 in the second quarter. Marple Newtown took a 10-6 lead into halftime and extended that to 17-6 when Marlon Weathers scored from eight yards out four minutes into the third quarter.
Caleb Mead gave the Golden Bears life when he took the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown that made it a 17-12 game. Weathers answered with a 30-yard TD run for the Tigers, who led 24-12.
Again, the Golden Bears responded, this time with Sterlen Barr taking a screen pass 75 yards for the score that made it a 24-18 game. The Bears saw their final chance slip away when they fumbled the ball on the Tigers’ 14-yard line with just under five minutes remaining.
Upper Moreland (11-1, 7-0 SOL) will host Hatboro-Horsham on Thanksgiving Day. Marple Newtown will face Unionville in a semifinal game. The Indians defeated Strath Haven 39-8.
Marple Newtown 3-7-7-7 24
Upper Moreland 0-6-6-6 18
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