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: Upper Dublin downed previously undefeated Wissahickon 53-42 in a wild game. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “Let’s take a look at Upper Dublin in that defensive struggle with Wissahickon. They put up almost a hundred points. Shyne Roberts – for those of you who didn’t know – rushes for over 300 yards and seven touchdowns on 19 carries. That’s 15-16 yards a carry. It’s incredible. A performance like that is just hard to believe.
“Wissahickon/Hatboro was 41-40 when they played, so Wissahickon can put up points too, and they put them on Upper Dublin, but when you have somebody doing what Roberts did – that has to be one of the biggest games in the state this season. A school record, I’m sure, for rushing yards in a game. If it’s not a school record, I’d sure like to see what was. Upper Dublin has a home run hitter with Roberts, and so many teams don’t have that. That’s the most incredible performance I’ve heard in years. Unreal.
“Between the two teams, they had over 1,100 yards of offense – I’m glad I was not keeping a box score on that one. That’s insane. I’m a fan of the 9-7 games, and that was definitely not it when the teams put up almost a hundred points in a high school football game that’s only 48 minutes.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks South travelled to Fairless Hills and came away with a 24-13 win over Pennsbury. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “I kind of kept waiting for CB South to falter, but they’re not. They’re not allowing anything on defense, and they do enough on offense to win these games. They’re undefeated. They had a nice win over East, and now they beat Pennsbury. Now you’re 5-0, my gosh. If I would have had to name five teams before the season that would have been 5-0, South would not have been one of them. They proved a lot of people wrong. I picked Pennsbury to beat them. I was wrong.
“Pennsbury doesn’t have a home run hitter this season. With G Mulbah last year, he was a running back that could score from anywhere. Now, they don’t have that, and when you rely solely on the run – the running game is great when you can do it, but when you fall behind, it’s really hard to catch up because it takes a long time to score. Especially in high school football, the hurry-up offenses and trying to go fast – it normally just leads to penalties. When you fall into a hole and all you can do is run, it’s a pretty big hole, and you don’t come back.
“South beating Pennsbury is setting up what should be a heck of a game against West when they play. I’m glad that someone is also in the running with West because West seems to be the clear-cut favorite. Now when they play South – South is making a case that ‘Hey, we’re pretty good too.’ Again, South’s early season schedule wasn’t much, but since then, they’ve done a nice job.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock South travelled to Quakertown and edged the Panthers 20-17 in a key SOL Continental Conference game. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “I think Council Rock South learned a little bit by playing Pennsbury pretty tight (a 28-19 loss) earlier this season. I bet they’d like to play Pennsbury again, but that was a good learning experience for Council Rock South. To go to Quakertown and win, that’s a great win. We talked last week – we now have to look at Council Rock South as being a player in the Continental Conference, and they absolutely are. In Chase Ennis, they have somebody who can throw the ball, and then in Chase Myers, he not only can run the ball and give you the big running play, he can catch it too. That’s always been my thing – it’s not like I figured it out myself, but if you can run it well and throw it enough to make the defense have to worry about it, it makes you hard to stop.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Souderton trailed Truman by one at halftime before opening the game up in the second half for a 49-21 win. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You look at Souderton with sophomore quarterback Ben Walsh sidelined with an injury, and they had a battle with Truman. The final score of 49-21 doesn’t look like it, but Truman led that game 14-13 at halftime. Again, when you become one-dimensional, you become a whole lot easier to stop. Danny Dyches, their receiver, is an electric player, but you have to get him the ball. You can put him in the backfield, and you can pitch it to him only so many times. You want to be able to throw it to him because he’s got great hands, he’s got great speed, he makes people miss, but if you can’t get the ball to him, you can only play him as a decoy for so long before the other team realizes they’re not throwing the ball to you.
“Quakertown at Souderton this week will be a good one. Quakertown needs to bounce back after the loss to Council Rock South, and the weather might play a role too. They’re calling for rain, so we’ll see where that goes. That will be a test for Souderton. If Walsh is hurt for an extended period of time, that is absolutely going to come back and bite them at some point, for sure.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks East edged Pennridge 18-17 in two overtimes. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “There was a wild one in the National Conference with Pennridge and CB East, who always seemingly play close games. It’s always tight. It was 5-3 at the half. CB East had a couple of late field goals and had to drive the length of the field to tie it at 11 and force overtime. Neither team scored in the first overtime, and CB East scored in the second when quarterback Dan Voglesong throws a touchdown to Jack Donnelly, who was an all-state player last year. East goes ahead 18-11. Pennridge on its possession scores, goes for two, but Nick Giordano, the CB East linebacker, breaks up the pass, the game’s over and East wins in a squeaker by a point.
“That’s a game both of those teams needed. East was coming off a loss to South, and Pennridge has been scuffling. That puts East at 3-2, and there’s still hope. This week Pennridge is at Neshaminy, and on either side, the loser there is probably done as far as district playoffs go. The winner there might not even get in. That is absolutely a big game. Pennsbury at CB East is the same thing. You’ve got East at 3-2, and you’ve got 2-3 Pennsbury – they’ve got to pick it up. Ideally, you want to get to seven wins. A lot of times, six wins will get you in, but if you win six games, you’re looking at a 13th seed and a very tough first round game. The season is half over. It’s only late September, but when you start in August, this is what happens. The crunch time is upon us as odd as that sounds, but it is, for sure. Pennsbury/East is a good game. That will tell us a lot.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: The American Conference begins play this week. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You look at the American Conference. Wissahickon has got to be considered one of the favorites along with Plymouth Whitemarsh. We haven’t said that ever, but we’re saying it now because Wissahickon has proven they can score points. How much confidence must they have? They lose a crazy game to Upper Dublin, but they were battling. They’ve been battling in all of them. Plymouth Whitemarsh has been very good for very long. That makes things interesting. There’s only a handful of teams in that conference, but those two are definitely the cream of that group.”
Drew Markol’s picks
(Winners in bold)
Abington @ Central Bucks West
Bensalem @ Harry S Truman
Pennsbury @ Central Bucks East
Central Bucks South @ North Penn
Plymouth Whitemarsh @ Cheltenham
Upper Dublin @ Council Rock North
Council Rock South @ Hatboro-Horsham
Pennridge @ Neshaminy
Quakertown @ Souderton
Springfield Twp @ Wissahickon
William Tennent @ Upper Moreland
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