Back for its 14th 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 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: You were at Souderton’s 23-21 win over Central Bucks East in a key SOL contest – your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “The Souderton/CB East game was two 2-0 teams going in. East had beaten Souderton pretty good last year when they played in the regular 
season. In this one, Souderton came out and had a 14-0 lead and was really playing well, and East came back and finally took the lead at 21-20 in the fourth quarter. East had gone to Dan Voglesong at quarterback, and he provided a spark. He’s a very good runner, he throws it okay, but he’s very hardnosed. They used Jack Donnelly, the tight end, in the backfield a couple of times, and he had a touchdown run. Souderton comes back, and a lot of it was thanks to their kicker, senior Rylan Zuk. He kicked a 40-yarder that got through, and that’s a nice poke for a high school kid. Then he hammered a 42-yarder, and he made a 21-yarder with three minutes to give Souderton the lead for good, and he put both of his kickoffs in the end zone. That is a weapon, and he’s a good punter too. That’s a weapon that can be the difference in the game, and he was the difference because they were able to try these long field goals, he comes out and he makes them. You’re thinking, ‘Okay, we’ll get a nice (kickoff) return and get the momentum back, and he boots it in the end zone.
“You also saw Ben Walsh, Souderton’s young sophomore quarter, and there’s some skill there. Ryan Sadowski is a nice back, and Danny Dyches, the wide receiver, is terrific – he’s a very good player, a very good defensive back too, and he made some nice catches. He’s a home run hitter whenever he gets the ball. Souderton likes to run and run and run, but they’re trying to get him the ball in a little bit of open space just to make things happen. Souderton and CB East are two good teams, and in my mind, they’ll both be playoff teams.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennsbury defeated a 2-0 Council Rock South team. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “CR South came into that game 2-0 and coming off a nice win over Neshaminy. Their quarterback, Chase Ennis, who is going to Penn State for baseball, has been off to a really nice start. Pennsbury makes no bones about what they do – it’s their ground and pound. Nate Beighley, who is a senior now, was the backup to G Mulbah at running back last year. This year, they moved him to quarterback. What does he like to do and what is he good at? Running. They like to run – that’s their game.
“Pennsbury beat South, but CJ Szydlik is doing a nice job. They lose the game, but they played Pennsbury tough. They’re improving, so that was nice to see.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West defeated 40-20 Quakertown. West travels to Pennsbury this week for a key matchup. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “You look at Quakertown/CB West – there was a lot going for Quakertown in that one. They were coming off a huge win for North Penn, they were playing their first home game, and West had beat up on them pretty good last year, so Quakertown wanted to obviously get some revenge, but that didn’t happen. It was a close game at the half, but West was able to pull away in the second half. Cooper Taylor, the quarterback, had a touchdown run, and Ryan Clemens, the tailback, had a touchdown run, and they win going away, 40-20. That was a bit of a tough spot for West. Quakertown has a great student section, they make a lot of noise, and they’re into it. It’s a nice atmosphere for football. West goes in and gets the win. They’re 3-0, and now they have to play Pennsbury at Pennsbury. It’s getting pretty good.
“Pennsbury beat them last year 21-6, but this is a different West team. I’ve had West number one since the preseason, and they’ve done nothing to make me think of changing the rankings. They’ve been tremendous. Here’s a team that lost its three-year starting quarterback Ganz Cooper to a knee injury. He would have been the first four-year starter at West at quarterback, and Cooper Taylor comes in, and they haven’t missed a beat. West has weapons all over the place. Ryan Clemens, the junior running back, is small – he’s probably 5-6, 165 maybe, but he runs tough, he’s fast, and Conor McFadden on the outside is one of the fastest kids in the state, so you get him the ball – he can score from anywhere, and he also plays in the secondary, so they can run anybody down that breaks free. Having him roaming around in the secondary gets overlooked. If a player from another team gets in the clear and you think they’ve got a touchdown, and then he chases them down - it just makes it harder. West’s defense has been good, and they have that revenge thing. They wanted revenge against Garnet Valley, and they got it. They wanted revenge against Upper Dublin, who they lost to last year. Well, they blew Upper Dublin out. Now they look at Pennsbury and say, ‘Pennsbury beat us last year.’ Revenge is quite a motivating factor in a lot of walks in life, and for high school football players, it’s a pretty big one.
“With Pennsbury, they’ll try and do what they do – run the ball, eat the clock and then run the ball some more. They’re 2-1. They lost to Coatesville in week one, and Coatesville is one of the best teams out there. Coatesville lost to Central Dauphin a couple weeks ago, and Central Dauphin is one of the top teams in the state. That is going to be a fun game to watch. I give West the edge. It just looks like it’s shaping up to be West’s year. It will be tight.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks South upped its record to 3-0 with a lopsided win over Council Rock North. The Titans will face CB East. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “I was talking to a couple of people on the sidelines, and they were asking – ‘What do you think of CB South?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ You really don’t know. They beat Father Judge, which is their best win, but it’s too early to tell about Father Judge. South plays pretty good defense. I saw them play Council Rock North, but Council Rock North is just struggling mightily. That game was 40-0 at halftime. CB South had its reserves in to start the third quarter.
“I talk to other coaches, and they say that the coach at Rock North, John Greiner, is a good coach. It looks like they do have some numbers, but they just got run over in this one. They made a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties. I really don’t know how good CB South is. We’ll find out more Thursday when they play CB East. Council Rock North just looked like they’re just not quite there. They’ve been struggling for a while. There are teams that going into a game think they’re going to win, and there are teams that go into a game thinking they’re going to lose. You just have to somehow turn that around, and I’m not quite sure how you do it, and it doesn’t get any easier for them because now you have to play Souderton. I’m not sure who Council Rock North is going to beat, and I’m not sure Souderton is going to lose.
“East beat CB South last year. Can South hang with East? Can they beat East? East is coming off the loss to Souderton in what was a really good game. Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said afterwards – ‘East is going to win a lot of games, they’re good,’ and he’s right. This one is a good test for both teams. Imagine if the Central Bucks schools had one team. They’d be unstoppable. That’s another good one on Thursday. I give a slight edge to East. East is just massive up front on their offensive and defensive lines with Joe Collins and Mike Carroll, the transfer from La Salle who’s the number one rated guard in Pennsylvania in the junior class. He’s 6-6, 300 pounds, and he’s just a mountain out there. I give a slight edge to East. They’re going to pound it again like they did against Souderton. I think that’s a less than a touchdown game, but I wouldn’t bet against East.”
SuburbanOneSports: Pennridge picked up its first win under Kyle Beller with a shutout of Bensalem. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “You look at Pennridge – they had played Souderton tough in week two and lost 19-14, and last week they beat Bensalem 33-0, and Kyle Beller gets his first win. Chase Marshall for Pennridge had four catches for over a hundred yards, and he scored a touchdown. Pennridge gets Abington at home on Thursday – a lot of the games are on Thursday this week because of the Jewish holiday. For Bensalem, it’s just been a dreadful start. They’re 0-3 and haven’t scored a point. That’s tough on a team. It’s hard to keep going to practice every day when you’re getting blasted in all the games you play. Hopefully, they’ll be able to turn it around. Maybe Pennridge has found something. They almost beat Souderton and then they get a confidence builder by taking care of Bensalem, and then you get an Abington team that is coming off a loss to Truman. It’s a nice job by Truman head coach Cordero Newkirk. That’s a game you look at on paper, and you say, ‘All right, Abington will probably win that one.’ Well, that’s not what happened. That worked out well for Truman – it’s one of the crossover games the SOL plays early in the season. Normally, in those crossover games, the team from the bigger conference – which is the National Conference – usually wins those games, but in this case, it was the Continental Conference team turning the tables. It’s a solid win for Truman, absolutely.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Upper Dublin 42-7 for its first win over the season and takes on Neshaminy this week. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “North Penn needed this win. North Penn opened up with La Salle and took it on the chin. Then they played Quakertown and gave up 35-plus points in a loss, so now they’re 0-2 looking at an Upper Dublin team that they lost to last year. North Penn was 6-6 last year, but if you start out 0-3, it’s hard to go 6-6. Instead, Amir Major, the NP running back, had three short first-half touchdowns, sophomore quarterback Matt Bucksar had three touchdown passes, and they put 42 points on Upper Dublin. We talked last week – what did we learn about North Penn? I don’t know now. Things are just evolving.
“You look at Neshaminy – they played Downingtown West tough and had a lead, but then Downingtown West pulled away to win 42-17, so now you have 1-2 North Penn playing 1-2 Neshaminy. The loser of that game is in trouble.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Hatboro-Horsham defeated a 2-0 Springfield Township team 27-0. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “I wrote about this this week. Right now Hatboro-Horsham is the feel good story of the year. They’re 2-1 and their only loss was by a point in a crazy game against Wissahickon 41-40. They’ve already beaten Upper Moreland. If I’m Tom Butts, the first-year coach at Hatboro, this couldn’t be working out any better. You’re playing well, you have an independent schedule this season, but you’re seeing results, you’re seeing success. Success breeds excitement and also breeds turnout. You need kids coming out for the team. It wasn’t that long ago when you didn’t have enough. For Hatboro, we were talking last week about how the Springfield game would be a good litmus test for both. Well, Hatboro shuts them out. What does that tell you? It tells you Hatboro is starting to turn things around a bit.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Plymouth Whitemarsh – which was off last week – will face Quakertown in a non-league game. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “PW, a 5A team, is 2-0. Quakertown is 1-2, and they already have a loss against a 5A team in Southern Lehigh, so when it comes down to your points at the end of the season, losing to a smaller classification kind of hurts you a little bit. Southern Lehigh is a pretty good team and is going to win a bunch of games, so that will counter it a bit. PW had two weeks to prepare. The game is probably more important to Quakertown at 1-2. Again, you slip to 1-3 with two 5A losses, it’s tough to escape from that. It should be a good one.”
Drew’s pick (Last week 8-4)
(Winners in bold)
Abington @ Pennridge
Bensalem @ Upper Dublin
Central Bucks South @ Central Bucks East
Central Bucks West @ Pennsbury
Souderton @ Council Rock North
Harry S Truman @ Council Rock South
Hatboro-Horsham @ William Tennent
Lower Moreland @ Morrisville
North Penn @ Neshaminy
Jenkintown @ New Hope-Solebury
Quakertown @ Plymouth Whitemarsh
West Phila HS @ Springfield Twp
Radnor @ Upper Moreland
Simon Gratz Charter @ Wissahickon
Cheltenham @ Perkiomen Valley
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