CB South downed previously undefeated Central Bucks West in Friday’s District 1 6A title game. Photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko and Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of all the action: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f1050704496
District 1 6A semifinal
#1-5 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 42, #1-1 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 14
(Statistics provided by CB South football)
“This is the stuff you dream of.”
And with those words, senior Nick Conte undoubtedly summed up the emotions of just about everyone wearing a Central Bucks South uniform after the Titans’ convincing win over its archrival – top-seeded and undefeated Central Bucks West
“I’m speechless,” Conte said. “This is insane.”
Friday’s win vaulted the Titans into Friday’s District 1 6A title game against #6 Downingtown West, an upset winner over second-seeded and also previously undefeated Downingtown East.
Conte, a senior offensive lineman, was one of the unsung heroes in a win that saw the Titans – led by the brilliant 285-yard effort of senior Anthonly Leonardi – accumulate 440 rushing yards. Joining Conte on an O-line that dominated play were left tackle Kieran Padgett, left guard Nick Micewski, right guard Rolan Hess and right tackle Collin Goetter as well as tight end Jake Menaker.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” South coach Tom Hetrick said. “I’ve been coaching high school football for almost 30 years. I’ve been part of very good offensive lines, but these kids – left to right tackle – do some very elite things.
“Our tight end – Jake Menaker – gets involved and has sort of brought himself into that corral. Our fullbacks – Sean Moskowitz, Eddie Bowen – are very physical people. We just have guys – I don’t have to motivate them. They just have this intrinsic want to be out there and be physical, and it’s a pretty cool thing to watch.”
Playing no small role in the O-line’s success is their familiarity with each other.
“A lot of it is – we’ve been playing together for a while,” Conte said. “Our left tackle Kieran Padgett is new this year, but he just fit in so well with what we have.
“All year we’ve been clicking pretty well, and over the games, the chemistry has been growing and growing. It’s so much fun – especially an electric player like (Leonardi). He always finds the hole and watching him go down the field on those breakout runs – it’s the best.”
South’s offense gave a preview of things to come with a 13-play, 58-yard drive that took close to seven minutes off the clock and was capped with Corey Moore scoring his first of three touchdowns. The Bucks – sparked by Devin McGowan’s 55-yard run – needed just five plays to even the score when Cooper Taylor connected with Jack Williams on a six-yard touchdown.
The Titans had an immediate answer, going 68 yards for a touchdown when Moore punched it in from one yard with 22 seconds remaining in the quarter. Leonardi’s 53-yard run to West’s five was the highlight of the drive.
That’s when the scoring stopped for both sides in the first half, and although the Titans had a decided advantage in total yards of offense, they led by just a 14-7 score at the intermission.
Things changed in a hurry in the third quarter when – on the first play from scrimmage – junior Danny Gies recovered a fumble at West’s 41-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Leonardi burst through the line and pushed aside a defender in his path, racing 41 yards for a score after a marvelous individual effort that put the Titans on top 21-7.
“At the end of the day, it just comes down to who wants it more,” Leonardi said. “My line got me a nice seam to run through. I broke through that, lowered by shoulder, and the rest is history. I just wanted it more.”
The senior running back was just getting started, and after the Titans’ defense came up with a stop, Leonardi took it to the house on a 52-yard touchdown run that made it a 28-7 game with 5:52 remaining in the third quarter. If the Titans’ first TD of the second half didn’t break the Bucks’ backs, this one did.
On the Bucks’ next possession, it was another three-and-out as the Titans’ defense quietly was turning in a superb performance of its own.
Moskowitz and Adam Oscar have been mainstays at linebacker.
“(Our defense) is just 11 guys doing their part and working hard,” Oscar said. “That really makes it a team effort, and then we can go out there and execute the game plan.”
Added Moskowitz, “We’re just a hundred percent effort, resilient, and we have determination. Our coaches talk about us being aligned before the snap, so it really helps when we’re aligned so we can see things and our feet are set, and we’re reading our right keys.
“It was great (when Leonardi scored to open the second half), but we knew we couldn’t let our foot off the pedal because West is still a great team, and they could come back at any time.”
It took no time for the Titans to capitalize on their defense’s stop, and Leonardi – on his team’s fourth play from scrimmage – took it in on a 41-yard touchdown run, putting the Titans on top 35-7 with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
“The O-line – man, man, man, none of this would be possible without my offensive line,” Leonardi said. “They are the best all around. The guys on the perimeter do a great job of blocking. They battle their butts off all game.
“We have some nasty dudes, some nasty fullbacks (Moskowitz and Bowen) that are willing to get their nose dirty running through a hole and meeting a linebacker. Everything works out perfectly. They give me real good lanes to run through, so it’s awesome.”
The Bucks managed to get on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter when quarterback Cooper Taylor connected with Jack Fleisher for a 27-yard touchdown to make it a 35-14 game. Another long Titans’ scoring drive culminated with Moore collecting his third TD on a nine-yard run.
An interception by Gies put an exclamation point on the win, and all that remained was the celebration, which began in earnest at the final horn.
“It’s unimaginable,” Moskowitz said. “There’s no words to describe it.
“We knew we were going to be good. We just didn’t know how far we’d make it in the playoffs, and it’s great to be here.”
“It’s really magical,” Oscar said. “To go down here and beat a great team – West is a very good team, and to beat them, it’s everything.”
South more than doubled West’s offensive output. The Bucks accumulated just 150 total yards of offense after their opening drive of the game.
“The defense was outstanding,” Hetrick said. “They were just so sound. There are two things about playing sound defense – there’s getting aligned and being where you need to be, but then at the end of the day against these running backs from West that run the ball so hard, you have to have the ability to put your feet on the ball carrier and the willingness to put your body on them.
“The last time we played them – we got our feet there, but we weren’t putting our body on them, and they were breaking tackles because they just run the ball so tough, but tonight, we put our bodies on them. That’s just a matter of bringing your heart to it. I couldn’t be more proud of our ability to just sort of blanket the field and be where we needed to be and, more importantly, to make the tackles.”
Oscar’s nine tackles led the Titans while Dan McCusker added seven, including a sack and a tackle for loss. Moskowitz add six tackles while Jimmy Wade had five tackles, including a sack, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
The Titans’ potent offense was led by the glittering performance of Leonardi, who averaged almost 13 yards a touch on 22 carries and had three touchdowns.
“There’s no better feel than to come out here and go to battle with my brothers every day,” the senior running back said. “We’re working hard every week. There’s no better feeling than coming out here, getting a win against a big rival. It’s a surreal feeling, it’s just unreal.”
Moore had 20 carries for 91 yards and three touchdowns while Owen Pinkerton had 13 carries for 64 yards. For the Bucks, Cooper Taylor’s 68 yards on 15 carries led the way. He also completed six passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns.
Friday’s win in front of a crowd of over 4,500 at War Memorial Field avenged the Titans’ lone loss of the season to the Bucks in week nine of the regular season (40-29).
“We told them after week nine that we had to put ourselves in a position to try to get ourselves to that rematch,” Hetrick said. “We were looking forward to this rematch.
“I told them four weeks ago that in my heart I knew we were going to be playing in the district championship, and they went out and made it happen. I couldn’t love them any more, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
On the other side of the field, the Bucks were left to deal with the reality that – after 12 straight wins – an extraordinary season had come to an end. The loss of key players took a toll on the Bucks, but West coach Rob Rowan refused to use those injuries as an excuse.
“We put so much work into this thing,” Rowan said. “We’re 11-and-a-half months in, and it’s going to hurt – it should hurt. It’s a tough pill to swallow when something you invest so much time into comes to an end.
“But I told them – ‘As time goes on, you guys will look back and be incredibly proud of the season you put together. Ultimately, for the seniors, this was their ninth playoff game in three years, and that hasn’t been done in 20-plus years, so they’ve left just an amazing legacy. They’ll be able to look back and say – ‘I maximized my time here at West, and I left the place better than I found it,’ and they have. We had a phenomenal year. (South) is a really good team, a really good team. Even if we were fully healthy, it still would have been a really tough, tough, tough game.”
South (12-1, 6-1 SOL) will host Downingtown West in Friday’s District 1 6A title game at 7 p.m.
“It’s the coolest thing ever,” said Hetrick of hosting Friday’s district contest. “Hey, we’re going to be practicing on Thanksgiving Day getting ready for the District 1 championship, and weirdly enough, that may be one of the coolest things about this in the years to come when they think back to when we had to practice on Thanksgiving to get ready for a game. It’s absolutely cool.”
Central Bucks West closed out its season with a 12-1 record overall and was 7-0 on its way to the SOL National Conference title.
Central Bucks South 14-0-21-7 42
Central Bucks West 7-0-0-7 14
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