SOL Football Wrap (8-29-25) – Suburban One Sports

Check out the recaps for SOL football teams in action Friday. CB West/Upper Dublin photos courtesy of Kim Supko, Souderton/CB South photos courtesy of Greg Lindsay, CB East/Cheltenham photos courtesy of Richard Owens, and PW/Wilson photo courtesy of Michael Rice Photography. Check back for galleries of all three games.

Non-league

CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 24, UPPER DUBLIN 7

It was just an early season non-league game, but the stakes certainly felt high for two teams determined to avoid an 0-2 start. The Bucks were able to do just that, thanks to a stout defensive effort and the inspired performance of quarterback Louie Cipollo, who played a key role in all three of his team’s touchdowns.

“Any win’s a good win, and to be able to bounce back after a tough loss last week – I’m proud of our guys,” said West coach Rob Rowan, whose team was coming off a 26-20 loss to Easton.

The Bucks’ coach, whose team led wire to wire, credited the play of his first-year quarterback.

“He played exceptional,” Rowan said of Cipollo. “Just from last week to this week, he took a gigantic step forward, controlling the offense and being a playmaker. I’m just so, so proud of him the way he continues to work.”

The tone for the game might well have been set when the Bucks – thanks to a nine-yard keeper by Cipollo – scored on their opening drive.

“Early in the second quarter, (Cipollo) actually broke a 90-yard touchdown run that was called back due to a holding call which I’ll have to see on film,” Rowan said.

As a result, West took that 7-0 lead into halftime and then – early in the third quarter – tacked on a Joey Craig 42-yard field goal.

“That was pretty big time – Joey Craig has a real strong leg, and that put us up two scores,” Rowan said.

The Bucks took that 10-0 lead into the final quarter when – after West came up with a big fourth-down stop – Cipollo took it to the house from 45 yards out to give the Bucks a 17-0 lead.

Upper Dublin got on the scoreboard with a touchdown of their own, but West answered with a score when Cipollo connected with Joey Capps for a 13-yard TD and the 24-7 final.

“Upper Dublin is really well coached – there’s no quit in those guys,” Rowan said. “They made a couple nice plays, but for our guys to be able to respond – we had a fourth-and-one late in the game, and we ended up snapping off a 40-yard run and then scored two plays later. We were able to finish the game off there, which I was proud of our guys to be able to do that.”

There was plenty of credit to around after Friday’s win.

“I thought our defense played well,” Rowan said. “Up front, (D-end) Liam Laphen played some really good football tonight. Jeff Cappa (D-tackle) is back, and at times, he really dominated.

“On the back end, I thought Mason Darrows really stepped up and gave us some really, really quality reps at corner. I’m really proud of the way he’s developed as a football player. For him to be able to step in – he had an interception tonight, and he was involved in a couple of pass breakups. He played well.”

According to their coach, the Bucks received a lift from their late comeback in their loss to Easton when – after falling behind 19-0 – they pulled to within 26-20.

“There’s no doubt,” Rowan said. “It gave our guys that level of confidence. That was a big deal. We’ve got to keep working, keep getting better. As I like to tell our guys, we’ve got to close the gap.

.“We’ve got a lot of new faces, so learning how to win is a real thing. We’re in that process right now. A lot of these younger guys are getting their first opportunity, learning what it takes to actually win a football game against a high quality opponent.

“We’re not going to see anything but high quality opponents on our schedule, so we have to learn how to win. The truth is we have to clean a lot of things up still. We had a lot of penalties tonight. We’re making things harder for ourselves than they need to be. On one hand, I was incredibly proud of the response from last week and the effort. Guys definitely took a step forward, and I’m really, really proud of our guys for that. On the other hand, there’s still a lot of work to do and a lot of room to get better and get sharper.”

Up next: Central Bucks West (1-1) will travel to Souderton on Friday, and Upper Dublin (0-2) will host Central Bucks South Friday.

Upper Dublin 0-0-0-7 7

Central Bucks West 7-0-10-7 24

SOUDERTON 19, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 7

(Game info provided courtesy of Andrew Robinson @ADRobinson3)

It’s very early with plenty of football still to be played, but for a Souderton squad with high expectations, Friday’s matchup against the two-time defending SOL National Conference champion Titans felt like something of a statement game.

“Absolutely, it fires us up,” Souderton sophomore Chase Hart said. “We went into this game, everyone was doubting us, thinking we were going to lose because CB South’s been great for years, but we stepped up and we grinded.

“We didn’t have a great week of practice, but we came out, grinded and picked each other up after mistakes. That’s what great teams do, and we had a team win tonight.”

Hart hauled in a pair of Ben Walsh touchdown passes, and it was his 11-yard touchdown reception on Souderton’s opening drive that gave the Indians the early advantage.

The Titans answered with a drive of their own that was capped by a 56-yard TD run by quarterback Cade Crim that evened the score 7-7 after one quarter. But what looked like a might be a high-scoring affair turned instead into a defensive struggle, and the Titans never scored again.

“We knew they were going to give the ball to (Gavin Graham) and (Braylen Cape) and run with the quarterback (Cade Crim),” Souderton senior defensive lineman Mike McCormick said. “All three of them are incredible athletes, that long run proved that quarterback can run.

“My job was just to eat double teams and penetrate when I need to. Will Dower and Djecy Ngoyi both did an incredible job of making opportunities and plays in the backfield.”

While the Titans have a whole lot of new faces in their lineup this year, they put up 28 points in a season-opening loss to Wood and still have weapons, so limiting them to just seven points was no small feat.

“They’re a very, very good offense,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said. “I thought our defense just did a really good job. I thought Mike McCormick at nose guard and J.C. Nagoy were both very disruptive on the defensive line. Chase Hart and Noah Porter had really good games at linebacker for us. Timmy Meehan came up from the secondary and made some really big hits, made some big plays. So, yeah, our defense is good. We have some new kids playing along with some veterans, but they’re meshing really well.”

Points weren’t easy to come by for the Indians either, but with 18 seconds remaining in the first half, Walsh found Hart with a 19-yard TD pass that sent them into halftime with a 13-7 lead.

In the second half, the Titans threatened with a first-and-goal from the Indians’ six-yard line, but after back-to-back penalties, the Titans found themselves with a fourth-and-long at the Souderton 25. After South’s 42-yard field goal attempt went wide, the Indians drove for a touchdown that all but sealed the Titans’ fate when Walsh connected with Timmy Meehan on a four-yard pass. The big play on the drive was a 28-yard run by Jared Higginbotham.

The Indians rode that 19-7 lead out to the final horn, and the big win was in the books.

“This was huge,” Gallagher said. “South did not play very well against Wood last week, and you could tell we were going to get a better game. They’re too well coached, they’re too good of a program, and their kids came out and they played hard, they were good.

“Tom (Hetrick) and those guys – I know a lot of coaches on that staff. They’re good football coaches. They do a great job with those kids. To go there and get a win is just huge, especially when you know their ears were pinned back coming off a loss. They don’t want to start 0-2. Honestly, we started 0-2 last year, and we were able to bounce back and make the playoffs, and I think they have the capability of doing that. They’re a good football team. He’s going to keep working them, and they can get the ship straightened out next week.”

For the Indians, the game provided a learning experience for some new faces in their lineup.

“We started three sophomores on the offensive line tonight,” Gallagher said. “Did they struggle? Yes, they definitely struggled blocking some of those kids because they’re good, but that’s how you get better. This line will get better by the end of the year, and that’s what’s important. It was a huge step forward tonight.

“Ben (Walsh) made some great plays and probably had some he’d love to have back, but at the end of the day, he probably threw for 200 yards and three touchdowns against a good team. They did a good job of defending Hunter Smeltz, our all-league wide receiver, but we were able to hit some other things that were successful, and hey, it’s a win.”

Up next: Souderton (2-0) will host Central Bucks West Friday, and Central Bucks South (0-2) will be on the road at Upper Dublin.

Souderton 7-6-0-6 19

Central Bucks South 7-0-0-0 7

ABINGTON 42, HARRY S TRUMAN 7

There’s a different look and feel about this year’s Abington squad.

Granted, the Ghosts are 1-1 after two games, the same as last year this time, but last year’s only win was a 7-6 win over Truman in their second game. Friday’s mercy rule win bore no resemblance to that game.

“You know, we worked hard this offseason to really change things around,” second year-coach Bruce Fleming said. “Having a full offseason to really change the culture, change how we do things, it’s starting to show.

“It showed last week even though we lost (to Conrad Weiser) 29-22, but we played a lot better, and today we put it all together.”

That much was evident from the outset as the Ghosts raced out of the gate to a 27-0 halftime lead.

Sophomore quarterback Miles Yokus threw for four touchdowns in a stellar outing – three to Ayden Turner and one to Antonio Ford. Turner had a long kick return for a touchdown as well, Camryn Powell had a pick six, returning an interception 35 yards.

The Ghosts received the game’s opening kickoff, and on their opening drive scored a touchdown when Yokus connected with Turner. They missed the extra point, but the Ghosts’ defense came up with another stop, and Yokus hooked up with Ford for a touchdown and a 12-0 lead after the two-point attempt failed.

Back-to-back TD passes from Yokus to Turner – the first with a successful two-point conversion and the second with an extra point by sophomore Kaleb Adams – put the Tigers on top 27-0 at halftime.

“The defense did their job,” Fleming said. “The defense did a great job up front. Kai Taylor, even though he didn’t have a big offensive game this week like he did last week – he played very well on defense with big stops, an interception as well and a sack.

“Saadir Wimbush was unblockable on the defensive line. He didn’t get in for a sack, but he had a lot of quarterback hits and a lot of pressure on the quarterback just to make the quarterback uncomfortable. A host of other guys defensively really did a good job.”

There’s no mistaking – Friday’s win was a step in the right direction.

“I’m pleased with the total effort,” Fleming said. “One of the things we talked about after last week’s game was taking advantage of the opportunities that we get, not missing those opportunities and really playing a complete game and understanding our assignments and executing them, and I think we did that tonight.

“There’s still always room to improve as we go back and watch the film as coaches, but I’m very happy – I’m glad the guys will be able to celebrate this before we turn the page on Monday.”

Up next: Abington (1-1) will host Bensalem in a non-league game Friday, and Harry S Truman will be on the road at Pennridge.

Abington 27-15 42

Harry S Truman 0-7 7

CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 17, CHELTENHAM 14

The Patriots picked up their second win in as many games Friday, but neither one came easily.

Friday’s game once again came down to the wire, and when the Panthers scored the tying touchdown with 63 seconds remaining in regulation, that could have been the death knell for the Patriots. Overtime appeared inevitable, but the Patriots had other ideas. Benefitting from a Panther penalty, East took over at midfield and capped a gutsy drive when Cole Wojnicki nailed a 32-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining and then survived a Cheltenham Hail Mary at the buzzer.

“All grit, no quit – to borrow a quote from my friend Kurt Handel, the wrestling coach at Quakertown, and that’s exactly what it was,” East coach John Donnelly said. “We could have played for overtime, and they could have hung their heads after Cheltenham scored. There wasn’t much time. We just made the plays.

“The offensive play of the game was a Hunter Pulford pass to Sam Piszel. He had the wherewithal to run to get out of bounds, and then we still had a timeout which allowed us to center the ball for the field goal. The hold by MikeyBova, which was not an easy one – he got it on the block and Cole banged it. It was a 32-yarder right down the middle.

“Cole is a receiver for us and obviously a great athlete. He did a great job of stalk blocking tonight, which is not something all wide receivers sign up to do. All of our guys on the perimeter did a really good job of that.”

The Patriots’ coach also had high praise for his sophomore quarterback.

“He’s extremely intelligent,” Donnelly said of Fulford. “He probably played five different positions tonight, and I’m not exaggerating. He was the short snapper on the winning field goal, he played quarterback, he played tight end, he played linebacker, he played lead blocker. He did whatever we needed, and he’s a special player.”

Friday’s game was another roller coaster of emotions for the Patriots and their fans. Cheltenham turned an East fumble into an early touchdown to go on top 7-0. East got on the scoreboard in the second quarter when Mike Price scored on a two-yard run and then also took it in for the two-point conversion and an 8-7 lead, a score that stood until halftime.

The Patriots upped their lead to 14-7 when Price punched it in from two yards out. The big play on the drive was a trick counter play with Fulford flipping the ball to Tommy Seiler who took it to Cheltenham’s five.

The game, however, was far from over. Cheltenham’s late touchdown knotted the score, setting the stage for the fantastic finish with Wojnicki nailing the field goal.

Donnelly credited the performance of his defense in the win.

“Defensively, we had three takeaways – three interceptions, and their quarterback is very, very good, and they’ve got a lot of fleet-footed wide receivers,” the East coach said. “Piszel had an interception, Tommy Seiler came up with an interception and Chase Ingram also had one. We had three interceptions, and we had three three-and-outs. It wasn’t always pretty offensively – we toughed out every yard, but we got ourselves in a position to win. And we’re just really proud of the kids.”.

Also earning credit from Donnelly for its strong play was the defensive line comprised of Magnus Figueroa, Timmy Fuhrmeister and Dan Kirk.

Up next: Central Bucks East (2-0) will host Council Rock North Friday, and Cheltenham (0-2) will be on the road at Neshaminy.

Cheltenham 7-0-0-7 14

Central Bucks East 0-8-6-3 17