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By Scott Huff
Fourth-and-one.
It was this down and distance that would define North Penn’s impressive 28-0 victory over Neshaminy in the PIAA Class AAAA District One championship game played before a capacity crowd at William Tennent High School.
Fourth-and-one.
North Penn – thanks to a spectacular 42-yard touchdown run by Ronnie Akins in the first half – owned a 7-0 lead. The Knights took the second half kickoff and 12 plays later found themselves on the Neshaminy 1-yard line.
Fourth-and-one.
“I have a tremendous amount of confidence in our guys up front,” said North Penn coach Dick Beck. “If we don’t get the first down, I have just as much confidence in our defense.”
“That was a big play,” said Neshaminy coach Mark Schmidt. “And we needed a stop.”
Fourth-and-one.
North Penn senior Tyler Smith cracked through the left side on the Redskin defensive line and powered into the end zone for the critical touchdown. Brandon McManus kicked the extra point to forge a 14-0 Knight lead.
Fourth-and-one.
On the very next series, Neshaminy began its drive on the 20-yard line. Three plays later, the Skins had moved the ball to the 29-yard line.
Fourth-and-one.
“I felt that at that point in the game we had to take a shot at the first down,” said Schmidt. “We needed to keep their offense off the field.”
“All night long I kept seeing number nine (Jay Colbert) hurt us with that wedge play,” said Beck. “So we just decided to run our goal line defense and see what happened.”
Fourth-and-one.
Colbert did get the ball – right in the heart of the North Penn defense. And when the pile was unraveled, Colbert’s thrust into the Knight defense was for no gain.
“I don’t regret going for it there,” said Schmidt. “I do think that maybe I should have run something different, though.”
North Penn cashed in on the terrific field position to score its third touchdown and put the game out of reach. The
Knights used six plays to score as Akins glided in from 10 yards out.
Akins finished the night with 145 yards rushing the football on 14 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns. He also caught a five-yard scoring pass from Justin Davey in the fourth period.
“I score the touchdowns, but I get in because I can read the blocks of my teammates,” said Akins. “Once I get into the open field, I still have teammates that are blocking for me downfield, and I just cut off their blocks.
“To win a district title is very satisfying – especially after what Neshaminy did to us last year,” added Akins in reference to the Redskins 35-0 win that ended the North Penn season. “We want to be state champions, but we need to focus on the next game.”
The next game will be at William Tennent – that is for certain. The opponent is to be determined as Bethlehem Liberty plays George Washington from the Philadelphia Public League.
“I told the kids all week that we needed to play relaxed,” said Beck. “And to have some fun.”
But it’s no fun losing.
“We did some good things, and North Penn is a very good football team,” said Schmidt. “We were in a position a couple of times to do some good things, but we didn’t capitalize when we had to.”
Like on fourth-and-one.
EXTRA POINTS – Neshaminy senior lineman Dan Shirey – one of the most highly touted players in the area - was helped off the field on North Penn’s opening drive of the third quarter with a knee injury. He was greatly missed and left the stadium on crutches.
North Penn’s Smith also left the game in the third period when he took a crushing hit along the Skins sideline. He should be able to play next week.
It was the first time this season that Neshaminy was held scoreless – and it was the first North Penn defensive shutout of the season.
The Knight defense forced four Redskin turnovers – two fumbles and two interceptions. The North Penn offense did not turn the ball over.
Neshaminy 0 0 0 0 - 0
North Penn 7 0 14 7 - 28
NP: Akins 42 run (McManus kick)
NP: Smith 1 run (McManus kick)
NP: Akins 10 run (McManus kick)
NP: Akins 5 pass from Davey (McManus kick)
First Downs: [N] – 14; [NP] – 8.
Rushing Yards: [N] – 144; [NP] – 238.
Passing Yards: [N] – 106; [NP] – 24.
Total Offense: [N] - 250; [NP] – 262.
Punts: [N] – 3-30; [NP] – 4-38.
Penalties: [N] – 2-10; [NP] – 3-15.
Neshaminy:
Rushing: Dean 15-68; Colbert 12-57; Arnold 6-42; Titus 4-(minus 23). Totals 37-144.
Passing: Titus 9-18-2; 106 yards.
Receiving: Brebner 5-29; Carrezola 3-73; Colbert 1-4. Totals 9-106.
Interceptions: None
North Penn:
Rushing: Akins 14-145- 2 TD; Smith 11-71- TD; Needhammer 6-23; Bennett 1-2; Williams 1-0; Price 1-0; Davey 3 (minus 3). Totals 37-238- 3 TD.
Passing: Davey 4-10-0; 21 yards. Smolinsky 1-1-0; 3 yards. Totals 5-11-0, 24 yards.
Receiving: Akins 2-11- TD; Smith 2-10; Taggart 1-3.
Interceptions: Smith, Stoll.
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