Back for its 13th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writer Drew Markol. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (http://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school/) and Courier Times (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/) web sites.
Join Jeff Nolan and Kevin Cooney for the WPHT High School Football Scoreboard Show as they recap the night of high school football on Friday at 10 p.m. on 1210AM/WPHT and the Audacy app.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin captured the District 1 5A title with a 21-7 win over West Chester Rustin. The Flying Cardinals will face Imhotep Charter in Friday’s PIAA 5A semifinal. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “In Upper Dublin’s district final against West Chester Rustin, the game was interrupted when the lights for the field went out – there was a lengthy delay, but it was still a very solid 21-7 win for Upper Dublin. West Chester Rustin scored late to snap a string of 15 scoreless quarters – almost four games where Upper Dublin’s defense had not allowed a point, which is just a remarkable number. The win gave Upper Dublin its third district title in the last five seasons and their fourth district title since 2015, which obviously makes them, without question, the dominant Class 5A program in Dsitrict 1.
“In last Friday’s win, Kyree Butler blocked a punt that set up the second touchdown and sent Upper Dublin into halftime with a 14-0 lead. Senior quarterback Colin O’Sullivan completed 15 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown. Upper Dublin just continues to impress. They’re the last SOL team standing since CB West lost in the 6A final. Now they’re playing Imhotep Charter. The winner of this one is going to be a heavy favorite to win it all next week.
“You look at Imhotep Charter – they beat a good Roman Catholic team two weeks ago to win the District 12 title like they normally do, and that’s a very good Roman Catholic team that they beat. In the state quarterfinals in 5A, they played District 11 champion Whitehall. Whitehall scored first and made it 7-0. Then, 55 points later, it was Imhotep Charter winning 55-7. Maybe the touchdown by Whitehall woke them up. Who knows? They’re a school that doesn’t have a home field, but charter schools can bring in players, and that’s what they do.
“Mark Schmidt, the former Neshaminy and Hatboro-Horsham coach, used to coach at Imhotep, and now he’s coaching at Upper Dublin, so he’s probably familiar with the offenses and defenses they like to run. That’s quite a program Imhotep has built. This is the game we all talked about for weeks – we all figured it would be Upper Dublin and Imhotep Charter in the state semifinal. Well, now it’s going to happen. In essence, as we’ve been saying, it’s the de facto state championship title game. The winner of this game is going to be a heavy favorite to win the PIAA title next week.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West saw its season end with a 35-7 loss in last Friday’s District 1 6A title game at Garnet Valley. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You look at the 6A game, CB West playing Garnet Valley. Garnet Valley is the defending district champion, a team that CB West lost to 14-7 on opening night this year. This game was 14-0 at the half in favor of Garnet Valley. West finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter. They had other opportunities. They were banging on the door first-and-goal on the Garnet Valley 3-yard line, but they had a series of penalties and ended up getting nothing out of that. Eli Boehm finally scored on a great play – a pass reception from quarterback Ganz Cooper – to make it 14-7, but Garnet Valley comes at you in so many ways with their option offense. You don’t know who has the ball and where the ball is. They put up over 300 yards on the ground, and they just kept pulling away and won 35-7.
“West had a great season. They started out 1-3, and it looks like maybe they were going nowhere, but they never lost faith. They knew they were playing good teams, and they were. They just kept battling. They got into districts as an 11 seed, and they worked their way through. They beat CB East, their rival, in the first round. Then they beat North Penn and then they beat second-seeded Perkiomen Valley. It was truly an unexpected and remarkable district run by West. They go into the district final at Garnet Valley without junior Conor McFadden, who’s their most dynamic player. He’s a wide receiver and defensive back. He has blazing speed and can take a two-yard pass and take it 80 yards. Having that missing from their offense, that definitely limited what West could do.
“They have a lot of players back. They only started four seniors on offense and defense, so to have 14 returning starters from a team that went to the district finals is pretty good. They play Garnet Valley at home to start next season, so we’ll know pretty early how they look. It was a great season for West that ended, and it was a great season for Upper Dublin that keeps going.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown entered last week’s Thanksgiving Day game against Pennridge as an underdog but rolled to a 22-6 win in front of a packed house at Alumni Field. You were there – your comments.
Drew Markol: “On Thanksgiving, you had the traditional Pennridge/Quakertown game. You looked at that game and said, ‘Yes, Quakertown made the playoffs,’ but I think most people, including myself, thought Pennridge would win going away. Quakertown was without senior John Eatherton (injury), and they played a lot of inexperienced guys. They only had one player who started in last year’s Pennridge Thanksgiving Day game that started this year – senior Vinny Pellegrini, a two-way lineman. Pennridge was uninspired, and they got hit with seven personal fouls, which is hard to believe. It was just very, very sloppy. When Quakertown scored its second touchdown, you thought, ‘Well, this game’s over’ because Pennridge was just sort of lifeless, and Quakertown just took it to them to win for the second year in a row. It’s the first time since 2014 and 2015 that they won two straight Thanksgiving Day games. It was a good job by George Banas getting his team ready for Pennridge, for sure.
“It was an interesting contrast – you had the District 1 6A final on Friday night, and it was a decent crowd at Garnet Valley, but by no stretch were the stands full, and they weren’t lining up around the fence to watch. That’s a district title game with a spot in the state semifinals, and the crowd was okay. Then you look at the Pennridge/Quakertown game between a 2-8 Pennridge team and a 5-6 Quakertown team, and the place is mobbed. There are people three deep around the fence the whole way around the stadium. I love Thanksgiving football. I think all the rivals should play – I would get rid of the state playoffs, but that will never happen because the PIAA lords over everything. If you’re the district champion in District 1 6A, guess who you’re playing every year the next week – it’s St. Joe’s Prep, and guess what’s happening to you the week after your huge district title win – you’re losing 55-12 to the Prep. Take a look at what Prep did to Parkland, a really good District 11 title team – they beat them 55-21.
“Thanksgiving Day games are the best. It’s the one that people care about it. If you think about it, 20 years from now at the CB West high school reunion, the question is going to be – did you beat CB East? Yes, we beat them twice. The question - how did you do against Garnet Valley in the district title game? - Is not coming up. Nobody even cares. No one could even find Garnet Valley on a map, and no offense to Garnet Valley, but they’re not finding Doylestown on a map. We’ve become so – the end-all, be-all are district titles and state titles and blah, blah, blah. Again, Garnet Valley is going to go into its game against St. Joe’s Pre 14-0, and then they’ll be 14-1. I’d get rid of districts. I’d have East playing West, Neshaminy playing Pennsbury, Council Rock North playing Council Rock South. I’m living in a fantasy world that’s not going to happen, but boy, it would be nice if it did.”
Markol’s Pick (Winner in bold)
(Last week: 2-1)
Upper Dublin vs Imhotep Charter at Wissahickon
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