Back for its eighth season, the popular Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features Drew Markol, Todd Thorpe and Jen Wielgus. Markol is the football beat writer for the Intelligencer area while Thorpe is the Courier’s football beat writer. Wielgus is a video sports reporter for the Intelligencer and Courier. Markol and Wielgus are contributors on the weekly Game On show. To view this week’s show, click on the following link: http://www.theintell.com/videos/hsgameon/ To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (http://www.theintell.com/sports/) and Courier Times (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports) web sites.
Check out the picks by our panel of experts: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/football-forecaster
SuburbanOneSports: Neshaminy rallied for a 21-20 come-from-behind win over Pennsbury in a battle for the SOL National Conference title and the top spot in the District One 6A power rankings. Your comments.
Todd Thorpe: “Everything you want from that game it was. It had a little bit of controversy at the beginning. It was a defensive struggle and really an awesome defensive game by both teams. Oleh Manzyk, Neshaminy’s junior inside linebacker, actually was a thousand-yard receiver last year, and he put in about as good a 
defensive effort as you’re ever going to see in mirroring Zach Demarchis. Neshaminy forced four turnovers – two fumbles deep inside their own territory to stop scoring drives – and just played an excellent defensive game. That being said, they still were trailing 20-7 with nine minutes to go. They were pretty much cooked, and then Joel Stills changed the entire tenor of the game with his 92-yard kick return for a touchdown. The heroics down the stretch with the fourth down play – that’s stuff of legends, and that’s what I wrote about this week. It’s something that rivalry is always going to remember to have a game end quite like that.
“I thought Brody McAndrew, the quarterback at Neshaminy who’s just a sophomore, really came into his own in that game. That kid shows a lot of poise and has the makings of a really big-time quarterback, and you’re starting to see that as the season goes along. It was just an excellent game. I enjoyed it. They’re both excellent teams. As I’ve stated in the notebook I’m writing for this week, I think they’re both top five quality teams in this district tournament. To the victor goes the spoils, and Neshaminy gets the top seed, and with that upper half of the bracket, I’m not sure how much of a reward that is, but they get that, and Pennsbury gets a home game in the first round, which is always important too.
“They each have games this week, and I think they’re both pretty significant favorites to win. They could end up playing back at Neshaminy next week at Harry Frank Stadium, and I look forward to it because I’d love to see part two of that game.
“Pennsbury is the eight seed and is playing CB South, the nine seed. South – after a real good start – has lost three games over the second half of the year. They’ve had a miserable time keeping their quarterbacks healthy. Jack Johns moved to wide receiver, and he caught three touchdown passes for over 100 yards last week. I heard from a source that he may play this week at quarterback. That changes the picture, but in my opinion, that game comes down to – can they stop Zach Demarchis. Coming off a week in which he did not have his best game, I would not want to be the defense in charge of doing that. I think Pennsbury scores too much, and they can’t keep up with them, but it is more interesting with Jack Johns if it’s true – if he plays quarterback, that changes the equation because you have a 6-7 guy with a ton of poise back there and a big arm. They could really test Pennsbury’s defense, but I don’t see any other first round upsets.”
Drew Markol: “You watch the highlights of that game, and you see Pennsbury at the start of the game – they charge down to the other end zone, and they’re taunting Neshaminy from about 20 yards away. Obviously, Neshaminy gets the last laugh by beating them, which I’m sure they mentioned to them once or twice.
“That’s just a great rivalry, and it always has been. It was a defensive struggle. They set it up that Oleh 
Manzyk – who’s going to be maybe the best player in the whole Suburban One league next year and he’s right near the top now – almost scores on a third and long. Then they have to go for it fourth-and-goal on the two-yard line, and Manzyk hands off to Cory Joyce, who throws it to the quarterback Brody McAndrew for a touchdown. It was just a very well-designed play, and boom, the game’s over. That was a memorable one, for sure.
“You look at it now, and obviously, we didn’t know this beforehand, but now you’ve got them on a collision course to play again two weeks later, which is just something. There always seems to be one upset that crops up, but I don’t see Pennsbury or Neshaminy losing, so I think they’re going to play next week. I would not be surprised at all of the top eight seeds were left standing at the end of this weekend. They don’t ask me as far as the number of teams in the tournament, but 16 is too many if they did ask me.
“If you’re Pennsbury or Neshaminy, which game is more important? Let’s say Pennsbury beats Neshaminy this time around. Is it more important to win a district quarterfinal or is it more important to win a league title. Again, it all depends on your taste, I guess. That’s one thing these district playoffs have done. It does every so often give you a really intriguing matchup, and that’s what we have.
“You look at Central Bucks South going to Pennsbury, and Pennsbury – they want another shot at Neshaminy obviously, and they’ve been playing well. CB South comes limping into this one. They’ve had some quarterbacks go down, and they’re down to their third string guy. You’re going up against a really good defense in Pennsbury. Points will be at a premium anyway, and not having your starting quarterback or even your second string quarterback just makes it that much tougher. That’s a tough spot for CB South, getting Pennsbury. Injuries aside, if everybody was healthy, that would be a heck of a game, but it’s asking a lot for the Titans to pull one off against a good Pennsbury team.”
Jen Wielgus: “It’s funny I talked to several people who were at that game – it was really exciting at the beginning and really exciting at the end, but it was dull and sloppy in the middle. It started with some shenanigans – Pennsbury’s team typically runs out through their little sign, and they turn and go towards their sideline, but Pennsbury ran directly down the field and stopped just short of where Neshaminy was huddled up in the end zone. I guess they were trying to make some sort of statement, ‘This is our house.’ The kids were jawing at each other, so that was an interesting beginning to the game. Pennsbury actually got a penalty because they started the game late because of Senior Recognition Night.
“Neshaminy scored on the first drive, and Pennsbury answered shortly thereafter and missed the extra point. It was a close game to start, but then Pennsbury really took over as much as you can take over in a game that had a bunch of three-and-outs and a lot of penalties. It really looked like Pennsbury was in charge. People want to talk about that trick play Neshaminy ran at the end, but really what changed that game more than anything was Joel Stills returning a kickoff for 92 yards and a touchdown because Pennsbury had that game, and they let Neshaminy get hope again when Joel Stills did that. Without that, you wouldn’t dream of running that trick play, you don’t have a chance to run that play.
“All things considered, if you’re Pennsbury coming out of that game, I’m sure they’re not at all happy that they were nine minutes from winning that game and nine minutes from having the top seed in districts. If anything, they came away saying, ‘If we can beat the top team in the district, we can beat anybody.’
“Everyone wants to talk about CB South’s quarterback situation, but that does not make them a non-factor this week at Pennsbury. They are a deep team, they have a great defense, and they’re going to show up on Friday night, but I think Pennsbury has to be favored, regardless of seeding. Anybody that comes to Falcon Field and sees the atmosphere they have there – that is a factor.
“If you’re Pennsbury, you’ve got to be thinking, ‘Okay, take care of business Friday – and we can’t look past CB South, but we can beat Neshaminy.” For a team that didn’t make the playoffs last year and lost to Neshaminy 35-0, this is just a great turnaround season for them and really what a school like Pennsbury should be putting on the football field, quite frankly.
“We’re talking about Pennsbury when Neshaminy was the one that won the game. Kudos to them for pulling off that gutsy play on fourth-and-goal. I got crap for not mentioning Cory Joyce in my video – he’s the one that threw the touchdown pass, and he also had an interception in the game. There were a lot of kids that stepped up in that game, and obviously, they needed everybody, including Matt Leonhauser, the kicker, who did not miss. If you want to look at every single play that made a difference in that game, an extra point that Pennsbury missed cost them the game. Neshaminy made the least amount of mistakes and then pulled off magic. I’m really looking forward to seeing if those two teams meet again, but I think CB South will have something to say about it. I’m not discounting them or Spring-Ford.”
SuburbanOneSports: Upper Moreland edged Upper Dublin 21-20 in a battle for the SOL American Conference title. Your thoughts about those two teams.
Drew Markol: “I give Upper Dublin and coach Bret Stover a lot of credit for going for two. The guy knows what he’s doing, and maybe he figured they couldn’t stop them in overtime, and he said, ‘We’ll go for two. If we get it, we win. If we don’t, we don’t.’ I always liked that – win it now. If you try an extra point, it’s never a sure thing in high school football. Go for it. He knows better than we do that Upper Moreland is very explosive, so you’ve got to stop them a couple of times and probably score a couple of times if you go to overtime. They had an opportunity. They went for the two. It doesn’t happen, but I applaud the move.
“For Upper Moreland, that’s the kind of game you want heading into the district playoffs. You don’t want an easy one where you blow somebody out 43-6. You want a good, tough game to get you ready. They had a couple of them during the season, and that’s going to help them now because their sights are set on a 5A title. They get the second seed. Springfield-Delco is sitting out there at number one, but you worry about that a month from now.
“What better game for a conference title to come down to? Obviously, if you’re Upper Dublin, you want to win and get a share of the title, but still, that’s one that you remember. If you’re Upper Dublin this week at practice, now you tell them, ‘Hey, let’s not put yourself in that same position,’ and you turn it into as much of a positive as you can. Then you go after it. Upper Dublin is now an established program. They’re proving that district title from a couple of years ago wasn’t a one-year wonder.
“Upper Moreland is good. I don’t care if it’s 5A, 6A, 12A or whatever, they’re a good team. That’s what you want your championship to come down to. Upper Moreland had a huge game against Quakertown, which beat Upper Dublin, and you had a huge game for the title. Good for them.”
Todd Thorpe: “I expected Upper Dublin/Upper Moreland to be a close game. One of the signs of a good team is that you win games like that. Upper Moreland did that against Hatboro-Horsham earlier in the year. It was a very close game that came down to an extra point. Upper Dublin went for two – apparently, there was a penalty that forced it back, and that’s why they decided to go for two. They did it, and good for them. That’s a gutsy call. I liked that call, but Upper Moreland finds a way to win.
“In 6A, you know most of the teams. Even the ones outside the Suburban One, you know the history of these programs. In 5A, who knows? That’s a wide open field. You don’t know how these teams are going to stack up because so many of them are the old 4A schools when it was four classes who are now playing in classifications more to their school sizes. Then you have Upper Moreland who was always a pretty good 3A school and had their success through the years competing against them, so who knows? Springfield-Delco probably has to be the favorite. They own a win over Garnet Valley, and it’s Garnet Valley’s only loss. Garnet Valley is the three seed in 6A, so you have to like them. In an ideal world, Springfield-Delco against Upper Moreland would be a great matchup. The Golden Bears need to take care of business these first couple of weeks. They’ll match up well with Sun Valley, I think. That’s a very good game. It’s rare that a lot of these teams are going to see a team with two talented backs like Upper Moreland has in Sterlen Barr and Caleb Mead.”
Jen Wielgus: “The fact that both of those teams got to that point in such a dogfight of a league again is a credit to them. Upper Dublin is a great program that year in and year out always battles. Upper Moreland kind of separated itself as the team to beat in that league. There wasn’t a great deal of separation. Now you can’t really say that Upper Moreland is by far the best team because Upper Dublin was right there. I think both of those teams are extremely dangerous in the 5A bracket. Upper Moreland just has so many weapons.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown and Pennridge will be meeting in the opening round of the District One 6A playoffs Friday. Your comments.
Drew Markol “You look at the side of the bracket that Pennridge, Quakertown and North Penn are in – that’s the side of the bracket you want to be in. If you’re Pennridge and North Penn, you’re probably thinking, ‘Hey, we’re meeting in the semifinals to see who’s going to the championship game.’ North Penn is sixth, and you have Pennridge as the seventh seed. If Pennridge beats Quakertown this week, they’ll play Perk Valley in the quarterfinals. They destroyed Perk Valley earlier in the season, so they’ve got to be very confident that they’re heading for a matchup with North Penn in the semis. On the other side of the bracket, you have Neshaminy, Pennsbury, Downingtown East and Coatesville.
“As far as Pennridge/Quakertown, it’s kind of the reverse of Pennsbury/Neshaminy. They’re going to play each other on Thanksgiving, but if Pennridge keeps going, we might not have that. I think Pennridge is playing better as the season has gone along. They have to watch out. They still commit some bad penalties that can hurt them, but I just think they have too much for Quakertown. How do you approach this game? Obviously, you have to go all-out and then you have to go all-out on Thanksgiving. It’s another interesting way that the tournament has unfolded.”
Todd Thorpe: “You can’t get enough of Pennridge/Quakertown games. It’s fascinating when they play. When you look at Pennridge this year, I think it’s a legit team in District One. I don’t know if they can win this tournament, but they’re an 8-2 team whose two losses are to the one seed Neshaminy and the six seed North Penn, the defending District One 6A champion who a lot of people think are the favorite to win. Basically, Pennridge lost two games that were relatively close, and they’ve won every other game. They beat Perk Valley handily, and Perk Valley is the two seed. Lo and behold, they may play at Perk Valley in the second round, which is a really quirky flaw of the point system, and we could talk for hours about that.
“Pennridge, I think, is a real live dog to go far and maybe make a semifinal round, or who knows – if they get matched up with North Penn again, it could be anybody’s game. The big caveat to that is – the last team they want to play in the first round is Quakertown because Quakertown can beat Pennridge any day of the week, just like Pennridge can beat Quakertown on their best day. That game brings out emotions that make it a scary proposition if you’re the higher seeded team. George Banas is going to have those kids fired up and ready to go. That game is going to be wild. I love it. I love that they’re playing. It does take a little bit of the luster off the Thanksgiving Day game three weeks from now, but I think it’s great when rivals play in the playoffs. You’re going to see that again possibly when Neshaminy plays Pennsbury and Downingtown East plays Coatesville. I really love that matchup. Here I am saying Pennridge might go far in the tournament, but that might be the most dangerous first round matchup for the higher seeded team.”
Jen Wielgus: “This has happened before. I was listening to the selection show on WNPV on Saturday afternoon, and George Banas said, ‘You know, it would be kind of neat to see somebody we haven’t seen.’ The kids have got to be hyped to play this game. It is obviously a very familiar situation to be in. Three years ago, they had to play each other in the playoffs and then again on Thanksgiving. I think Pennridge is the clear favorite, but we’ve talked about it a lot earlier in the season – Quakertown found a way to win against some teams that they technically looked like they couldn’t beat. Quakertown was losing to PW 20-0 at halftime and then outscored them 42-3 in the second half. If they do that against Pennridge, they aren’t going to come back with 42 points, no way.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Truman defeated Bensalem 49-21 to earn the program’s first ever trip to districts. Your comments.
Todd Thorpe: “I just got done writing a story about Truman. They went into that game against Bensalem, and they said, ‘You know what, this game is every goal we set for ourselves. If we win, we’re in, and we do something no Truman team has ever done before, and if we lose, we don’t.’ It was 14-14 after one quarter, and it was put up or shut up, and they really came out and played strong. Both of their track stars turned football players in Sayyid Saunders and Javeer Peterson had over 200 yards rushing. That’s incredible. When you consider the different things they’re doing and the many options they have to run the football in that wing-t, that’s a really tricky team. I don’t know how they’re going to respond going up against an elite team in Coatesville. If they show up and their offense executes the way it did against Pennsbury, I think it’s going to be a track meet, and you never know. This is also their first playoff game in a very hostile place against an excellent team that could win the whole tournament. The fourth seed is kind of a joke for Coatesville. They’re probably the deserved one seed if you take all factors in consideration. They beat Downingtown East who beat North Penn, and they destroyed Downingtown West who beat Neshaminy. They’re probably the legit one seed, and Truman has a really tough battle going into that game. I give them a ton of credit – those kids are having fun there. I think they’re going to go in there ready to play. It will be interesting to see how they respond. Who knows, if they get out in front, we’ll see how Coatesville responds.”
Drew Markol: “For Truman, it’s great that they got into the tournament. You can always say, ‘Hey, we were the first Truman team to make the district tournament.’ That coaching staff is turning things into something truly positive. They needed to beat Bensalem. They went out and did that handily. Yes, they have to play Coatesville, who has to be considered one of the favorites to win the tournament this year like almost every year. I think for Truman it’s more about just getting in. They got in as a lower seed, so they’re going to get someone very difficult in the first round, and sure enough, they did. I think it’s more about the fact that you build on this and say, ‘Hey, we can make the playoffs. This is not just a conference with Neshaminy, Pennsbury and Abington. We can be part of this.’ It’s a good job by Truman.”
Jen Wielgus: “It was so cool to hear that former players and former coaches were celebrating. For a school that’s been around that long and for this to be their first time in the playoffs – so many things have to go into that. It’s not like they just caught lightening in a bottle or something. The former coaching staff really laid the foundation, and these coaches came in and really found a great group of kids that responded to the discipline and worked hard. They had some adversity this season. They had a little losing streak where they could have folded up their tents and maybe gone the wrong way. You kind of knew this was going to happen. You knew they weren’t going to get a top seed and get a home game. You knew they were going to draw a tough team like a Coatesville, but just because we expect them to lose, they can still put out a good showing. Those kids that have such athletic ability can still go out there and show what they’ve got. Again, I’ve said this before, but having been at that stadium and seeing how many people showed up and how excited everybody was, it’s so cool to see. There’s no reason to think they can’t build a tradition like this and go to the playoffs year after year, no reason.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West lost to Souderton last week and fell to the 14th seed. The Bucks will travel to third-seeded Garnet Valley. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “I know Jake Reichwein didn’t play for West, but still, Souderton was a team that struggled all season. That’s a credit to Ed Gallagher – if you want a team that could have quit, there’s one that could have quit and said, ‘Okay, let’s turn in our uniforms,’ but they didn’t do that. West had that really tough loss against CB South. They bounced back with a good similar type win, that one-point variety against CB East, so they had a lot of range of emotions close together, so they’re thinking, ‘Souderton isn’t very good. We’re going to roll over them.’ Well, you can’t do that. Coaches always tell you that you can’t look past anybody, and kids being kids, sometimes they look past teams. It happens on the pro level too. It’s not just high school football. They looked past Souderton. Now you lose that game and you’ve got to go down to Garnet Valley to play the number three seed in the tournament. Garnet Valley has that funky offense, and they score a lot of points. West has just got to get it back together. They put themselves in a tough spot, for sure.”
Todd Thorpe: “Give CB West a ton of credit for getting into districts. They lost last week to Souderton. They’ve been banged up. They’re going to Garnet Valley, which is a tough, tough system to play against. Especially if you don’t play them very often, which they never have, it’s a real tough matchup for them. I give them a ton of credit for making it. Chas Cathers has done a very good job with that program to get them to the playoffs in his third year. When you consider where they were less than four years ago, this is a pretty nice accomplishment for him. Hey, you never know. They’re going to go there, suit up, line up across the football. Garnet Valley is a pretty big favorite in that game, but who knows?”
Jen Wielgus: “CB West is going all the way to Garnet Valley. They really hurt themselves by losing to Souderton. It’s such a shame because they are another program that built themselves back up to where they are after having some low times. I don’t want to take anything away from the fact that they made it. They’re a playoff team, but everybody talks about going to Garnet Valley like it’s the other end of the earth, and it is not a fun trip. I’ve heard there’s a very distinct home field advantage. They definitely didn’t do themselves any favors dropping to the 14 seed. Jake (Reichwein) was held out for precautionary reasons, and he’ll play.”
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