In the 11th weekly edition of the Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dom Cosentino offer their opinions about this weekend’s opening round games in the District One Tournament and also predict the winners in each of the Quad A games.Cooney and Cosentino – who boast a combined 23 years covering high school football – are two of the area’s most respected and knowledgeable football writers. To stay on top of all the latest high school football news in the area, visit the web site http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/sports_now.html
SuburbanOneSports.com: Any surprises the final week of the regular season?
Dom Cosentino: For the most part, the script went as I thought it would. I would have thought Pennsbury would have played a much better first quarter than it did against Neshaminy. Going in, I didn’t expect Pennsbury to win, but I don’t think anyone would have figured it would be a four-touchdown game before the first quarter was done.
Everything else pretty much went by the script - Souderton beating Quakertown to clinch a playoff spot, North Penn wrapping up the league title, CB West finishing off with a win and positioning themselves for the playoffs, and then Neshaminy, Council Rock South and Abington all winning to clinch a share of the National Conference.
Kevin Cooney: Nothing really surprised me. If you look at the 16 teams, only Henderson is the one that going into last week you would have probably said, ‘Huh, Henderson is getting in?’ I think maybe the order is a little interesting now because you have North Penn away from Ridley until the final. You have Abington and Neshaminy in that four-five spot having a brutal road – whoever it is – going through each other, then Ridley and then either North Penn or CR South at the end to get out of districts.
In the end, it’s probably what we all expected. You have some interesting matchups, and that’s the thing that got me. You do the old line cross to see who’s playing who - that’s what you look at this year, not the actual numbers in front of them but how their roads will go on the bracket.
It’s strange because that picture could change this week. You never know. Who would have thought last year the number two seed – Pennsbury - would have gotten beaten like they did. You never really know, but we have an idea of what we think is going to happen, and I think most of us think it’s going to be North Penn in one end of it and either Ridley, Neshaminy or Abington in the other.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Looking at the district bracket – the game pitting #2 Council Rock South against #15 Souderton is one of the most interesting matchups. What are your thoughts about that game?
Dom Cosentino: The playoff points cannot and do not take into account a team’s relative strength. Souderton is better than a 15 seed even though they’re 7-3. They are three points from being 9-1, if you look at their losses to Abington and Neshaminy, two of the tri-champs of the National Conference. Unfortunately, the point system has no way of taking that kind of thing into account, so Rock South – even though they benefitted by Downingtown East losing to give them the two seed – they end up with a bad matchup in Souderton. That’s a scary first round opponent.
Now, Rock South lost to Abington and had a closer-than-expected call against Rock North, which of course is a rivalry game.
The biggest concern may be that Abington may have exposed Rock South to some degree. Tim Sorber talked about how they were able to block along the edges and get outside, which no team had done all year, including Neshaminy. Let’s give Rock South credit. They’ve won the games they’ve had to. They went down to Neshaminy and won that game, but now you just wonder – perhaps Abington was able to exploit some things that other teams couldn’t and Rock North was able to capitalize on that. Rock South certainly has a tougher game than most two seeds would.
Kevin Cooney: Remember back in ’06 when Council Rock North was the number one seed, Abington was the 16, and Abington went to North and beat them. I remember walking out of that game thinking, ‘That really wasn’t that much of an upset.’ It’s strange because this game almost has that feel to it. If you look at Souderton’s three losses – one was to North Penn who is three, one was to Neshaminy who’s four and one was to Abington who’s five. Two of the three were one possession games.
If you’re Souderton, I think you’re happy as hell you didn’t end up in the 14th spot against North Penn. Souderton is good enough to win if Tyler Scholl is healthy, if Javon White and Joe McNamara get going and if Tanner Allem can control the ball. There are a number of factors in play here: 1) Souderton can control the football and move it pretty effectively because of that wing-t, and nobody really runs the wing-t in the National conference as effectively as Souderton will, and 2) the Rock South defense, which they built that team on this year, is not what it was three weeks ago. It has not played well in either of its last two games.
Yes, last week was a rivalry game against Council Rock North, but should a number two seed really have struggled that much with Council Rock North? Vince Bedesem is a good coach, and they have had a hell of a year, but I just get this feeling that Souderton could make a run here, and not just this game. You win this game, and then you end up with the winner of that 7-10 game between CB West and Coatesville. Are they going to win a district title? No, but they could win a couple of games in this tournament. They are set up right now to make a run, and they have played enough basically playoff-type games going back to week four, and I don’t think this is going to faze them. I actually think they’re the upset pick this week, and I’m not sure how much of an upset it would be. Just compare the resumes.
CR South could take that as a slap, but it’s not meant that way. You look at Souderton losing to the three, four and five seeds – teams that are clearly better – and you lose to two of them by a single possession, and that says something. Right now maybe this is billboard material for Rock South, but I think right now on a neutral site I would take Souderton to win the game, and I like Souderton even at Rock North.
Could South come out and blow the doors off Souderton? Yes, they could, but I don’t see it happening. You take one part of the equation – what team has played well the last couple of weeks? It’s almost the old NCAA rule with the basketball tournament. You want to find a team that’s playing well going into the tournament. Souderton went 6-1 in the final seven weeks, and their only loss was to North Penn. In theory, they had North Penn on the ropes at 16-0.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What will be the keys to the Rock South/Souderton game for both sides?
Dom Cosentino: Souderton has seen some wing-t teams perhaps, but Rock South runs that wishbone. The play on Friday night where the official whistled a play dead because he had bought quarterback Billy Fleming’s fake when Fleming still had the ball and was running into the end zone illustrates what a lot of us who have seen Rock South play have known all along – Billy Fleming is terrific with that ball fake. As crazy as that sounds, I wasn’t surprised to hear that happened because he is that good at selling the fake. It happened to him last year, but it’s a wonder it hasn’t happened again this season, before last week. They have the perfect wish bone quarterback for that offense.
Let’s not forget that even though CR South lost to Abington, it still scored 35 points that night. The Golden Hawks are able to control the ball, they’re able to get guys in the open field to make plays, and they’re able to run the ball. They don’t throw the ball much, but they can be effective when they do. I think Souderton’s biggest challenge will be to contain all the options that offense presents, including Billy Fleming’s ability to fool people with the ball fake. He is one of the best high school quarterbacks at selling the fake that I have ever seen.
Souderton pounds the ball, and they’re physical. If you look back to that first game against Neshaminy, they were very physical in that game. They will present the kind of physical challenge Rock South hasn’t seen, except for maybe Neshaminy and Abington. It’s a 15 seed, but it’s a 15 seed that packs a punch. Ed Gallagher takes a lot of pride in that, and he should because that’s the type of program he has created up there.
This game is the most intriguing matchup of the tournament, by far. It’s really ironic that Rock South benefits from getting the two seed by Downingtown East losing, but they probably get one of the worst teams you’d want to face in the bottom of the bracket.
Kevin Cooney: How much different is Rock South’s offense going to be than what Souderton faces every day at practice? You’re talking about a defense that practices against a wing-t all the time. The thing with Billy Fleming and an option quarterback – it’s maintaining your assignments, and given what Souderton has seen in practice since August.
In what is obviously an interesting weekend – that game is the most intriguing. Yes, the seedings tell me it shouldn’t be close and it may end up not being that close, but you get the feeling everyone thinks it’s going to be real close. Next week I could be sitting here thinking – ‘What was I thinking?’ There’s usually one shock in the opening round, and the biggest shock could be Ridley-Henderson. Ridley didn’t play well last week, and Henderson goes and beats Downingtown East. The amazing thing is they beat Downingtown and ended up falling a spot.
SuburbanOneSports.com: By moving up to the third seed, North Penn appears to have gotten out of the minefield it would have been in if Knights were seeded fourth. What are your thoughts on North Penn’s position in the tournament?
Kevin Cooney: North Penn opens up this week with Penn Wood. I thought North Penn looked as good last week against Pennridge as they have all season. It’s funny because we’ve kind of gone through this whole year, and everyone is like, ‘What’s wrong with North Penn?’ Maybe nothing is wrong with North Penn.
We mentioned this last week – there are times you wonder if this league schedule does them any favors. Despite the injuries they have had on defense - they have Ralph Reeves who has a cast on his hand, Ryan Hessenius was out last week - they’re playing their best ball right now. They played really well against Pennridge last week. They were able to move the ball with Craig Needhammer and Dom Taggart. They were able to mix the offense up a bit. Corey Ernst looked great – he hit on his first eight passes. They’re as good right now as they’ve been all year.
Eventually, they’re going to have to get healthy on defense. A couple of guys that are out have to come back at some point. I think they need to just settle down and play football, and I think that’s what they’ve done. They have settled into that groove that you expect good teams to get into at this time of year.
Dom Cosentino: I know Penn Wood has Shawn Oakman at d-end, a Penn State recruit who's just one huge dude. That said, I would be surprised if North Penn didn’t mercy-rule Penn Wood in the opening round. Honestly, I think we’re heading for a North Penn-Ridley rematch. Given the way North Penn has been playing the last nine weeks, they look like they’re rolling, and the bracket is now set up where they’re not going to be in a lot of danger, so to speak, at least until the semifinals when they could face Council Rock South if Rock South wins its first two games.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about Central Bucks West as the tournament’s number 10 seed traveling to Coatesville?
Kevin Cooney: This is interesting because the one thing Brian Hensel mentioned last week – ‘Wow, if you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would go 8-2 and then we go 8-2 and don’t get a home game – I would have been amazed.’ Their only two losses are Souderton the first game of the league season and then North Penn. They played respectable in both.
This isn’t the Coatesville of 10 years ago, but they have some things that could give West problems. Remember, they pushed Ridley pretty much in week one. West is going to need Ward Udinski, Rashaad Williams and Bill Bell – they’re going to need all their offensive weapons firing, and they haven’t really had that in a while until last week. They put up some astounding numbers early, and then they kind of cooled off. Then the last week or so you saw them warming up again. West is a team right now that I would say could win its first game. If you put a gun to my head, I’m taking Coatesville, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if West won this game.
It’s strange because Coatesville is almost a mirror image of West. Coatesville was the number one seed back in ’04. They have been good but not a real factor in a while. If you think about it, their main factor is they’ve hosted the district title game as a neutral site. Coatesville has a new coaching staff this year, and it’s strange because it’s almost a blast from the past between two programs that were really good but then hit a little bit of a lull and now are trying to get back. I think I’ll probably end up picking Coatesville in the paper, but I definitely could see CB West winning this game.
Dom Cosentino: That’s an interesting game for CB West. With a player like Rashaad Williams and a quarterback like Ward Udinski, they’re going to be a tough out for anybody. I think Downingtown East’s loss to Henderson proved that maybe the Ches-Mont League isn’t as formidable this year. It sounds like there’s a lot of parity in that league. Downingtown East looked like a dominant team, and they lost in the final regular season game to a Henderson team that had a few losses.
It’s a game West can go down and win. West came from a tough league and is in pretty good shape. I think it’s a winnable game. I don’t know that Coatesville is head and shoulders better than West. There’s one that may play towards it’s seed – West may be a little bit better than a 10 seed.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Abington and Cheltenham boast a local rivalry and face each other each Thanksgiving. Share your thoughts on that game.
Dom Cosentino: Cheltenham has good athletes, but I’ve said it every week – Abington’s defense is going to make them very tough for a lot of people. It will be an interesting matchup. You have a bit of that rivalry thing. It might be the only time that two Thanksgiving rivals get matched up in a first round playoff game, so there’s a familiarity there. Cheltenham has had a very good season. Both of these programs kind of fly under the radar because our newspaper doesn’t cover them on a daily basis. I like Abington, I like Abington a lot. I can see them giving some teams trouble because they play defense. They’re physical. Julien Ireland is a great player and Ray Schreiner has proven he’s a very good player.
Kevin Cooney: They’re very familiar with one another. I think the one difference right now is that Abington is playing with a world of confidence. You see how much they have gained over the weeks, going back to the Neshaminy game. They’re that hot team from the National Conference.
Cheltenham plays in a good conference. I think everybody takes their shots at the American Conference, but that’s a little unfair. You look at what the American Conference did with Upper Dublin and Cheltenham being in the tournament, Upper Moreland being the second seed in Class AAA. There are some pretty quality teams. Norristown and PW also were respectable.
The one thing I wonder about is – can Abington kind of find its defense again because for as well as they have played, it’s almost been all offense. If they don’t get the defense back, Cheltenham can burn them. I just see right now we’re going to be seeing Abington-Neshaminy in the second round.
Ed Gallagher was on the WNPV’s Scoreboard Show last week saying how unfair he thought it was that teams that meet in the regular season could be matched up in the first round of the tournament. I think he’s got a point. The PIAA wants everything pretty much by number, so there’s no human shenanigans, if you will. The fact that Cheltenham and Abington are going to play each other this week and then maybe play each other on Thanksgiving is kind of ridiculous. You could have ended up with North Penn-Souderton in the first week, and it totally makes the regular season meaningless, which I believe the PIAA feels about it anyway. I think the PIAA has gotten to the point where they don’t care about Thanksgiving games, they don’t care about regular season games. They care about the second weekend in November until the weekend before Christmas, and that’s all that matters.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Neshaminy will host Upper Dublin in another all-SOL contest that figures to be a tough matchup for the Flying Cardinals.
Dom Cosentino: You’re going to have these matchups in the playoffs. Neshaminy will have to see if Corey Majors is healthy. He hurt his ankle in the second half on Friday night and sat out. Mark Schmidt said it was precautionary. There will be some question about whether he will be back.
Neshaminy’s offense has so many weapons. I really like what Charlie Marterella has done at quarterback, and Dwight Williams has really become a tremendous receiver in terms of what he can do after the catch. He’s tall, he’s got good hands, and he has speed.
But Upper Dublin's got a pretty good quarterback in Andrew Derr, and a pretty good running back in Anthony Williams. They won the American Conference. They're good. The question I have is how they'll stack up physically – that is usually the difference between the SOL's smaller and bigger schools.
Kevin Cooney: The most lopsided game of the weekend will be Neshaminy-Upper Dublin. Upper Dublin didn’t do any favors for itself by getting a bye last week. There’s a history here. Neshaminy has played the American Conference team a couple of times in this tournament in the first round and absolutely demolished them.
Neshaminy clearly last week put the hammer down on Pennsbury, and Neshaminy is that team that right now looks like they’re playing with a higher purpose.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Moreland will face Interboro for the second time this season. How tough will it be to beat the same team twice?
Kevin Cooney: I think it’s going to be tough for Interboro to come up to Willow Grove. The bigger challenge for Upper Moreland will be – how tough will it be to beat Strath Haven twice with the idea that the second game will be at a neutral site or on the road. That’s going to be the tougher challenge.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Looking back at the regular season, which were the best games you’ve seen?
Dom Cosentino: It would have to be Abington-Council Rock South just because it was completely unlike anything anyone could have foreseen. You had two good defenses, and yet the teams went out and scored 80 points. There were big plays and a gutsy fake punt call by Tim Sorber and also the halfback option pass. Rock South fell behind early, but they grinded it out on offense and came back and took the lead. A lot of things happened in that game that made it a very fun and entertaining game to watch. It's one that I won’t forget for a long time.
Kevin Cooney: Central Bucks West against Central Bucks East (a 13-12 West win) – it was a close game, and it was a great game. It wasn’t the most polished game I saw, but was interesting. It was the rivalry game and had that feel to it – not well played, but it got better and better and better as it went along.
The one other game was the Souderton-Abington game in the rain. That was a sloppy night, but that was actually a pretty good game.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Biggest surprise team of the year?
Dom Cosentino: Council Rock South - every year the talk always seems to be about Neshaminy and Pennsbury in that league and most recently Abington. Rock South went out and beat both Neshaminy and Pennsbury and was in a position to win everything outright until that tremendous game against Abington. Maybe they’re a program now. Maybe they’ll be in that annual discussion. We’ll find out. I thought they had a great season. Four shutouts in a row and five overall is nothing to sneeze at, I don’t care who they’re playing. They, to me, were the biggest and most pleasant surprise.
Kevin Cooney: Central Bucks West – I think West is the biggest surprise and the biggest feel good story at the same time. You look at what happened there – the fact that Rashaad Williams came back, the fact that they have their offense together. Is this a long-term thing for West? I don’t know, but they needed to get the program jump started. Brian Hensel is a good coach. I think he showed that this year.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Most disappointing team of the year?
Dom Cosentino: I would have to say Council Rock North. Not to pick on them, but before the season with the two Big 10 players – you deal with injuries and you think it’s going to be bad, but they won one game.
Kevin Cooney: I think it speaks for itself – Council Rock North. We were talking about Rock North competing for a championship. Part of it was the injuries, but it’s one thing if you get your brains kicked in by Pennsbury and Neshaminy. It’s another if you’re Rock North and you’re losing to Truman.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Best story of the year?
Dom Cosentino: Truman – I still love that anecdote about how they were told they were forfeiting at halftime against Council Rock South, and those kids – I was told they had tears in their eyes - took the field anyway and started warming up. They wanted to keep playing. That team has more heart than anybody.
Then to hear Ed Cubbage say after the Bensalem game last week that ‘We’re done with moral victories.’ They expect to win as well. They won two games and they still have to play Stroudsburg this week, and they play Conwell Egan on Thanksgiving. They might be able to steal two more wins.
Those kids are never going to forget the experience they had coming together and playing this season. They will be old men talking about how cool it was to be on this team. They won’t have a banner to hang or anything like that, but what they collectively came together to do – it’s just really neat to have covered a team like that and been around them. It’s something I’m not going to forget. It’s one of the better stories I’ve ever witnessed in this job. It’s kind of neat.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Players that stood out in the National Conference?
Dom Cosentino: Corey Majors of Neshaminy, especially defensively. Just sideline to sideline, a great linebacker at the high school level.
Billy Fleming of Council Rock South – his ability to fake and create. He was the perfect quarterback for that offense.
Brandon Pepper – Pennsbury had a rough year, but he had a great year. He was asked to move back to quarterback, and they won three games with him doing that. He finished with 1200 yards rushing and had a great season for a team that finished .500.
Connor Geiger of Tennent – a linebacker/fullback – had a pretty good year.
And certainly Mark Damirgian of Rock South and Julien Ireland of Abington.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Players that stood out in the Continental Conference?
Kevin Cooney: The Rashaad Williams – Dom Taggart debate is the one I’m going to be interested in when SOL’s come out in a few weeks. Who’s going to be the MVP? If you want to talk about the most valuable player to his team, it’s Rashaad Williams. You look at what the team has done, but when you’re talking about player of the year – when you consider what Taggart has done on both sides of the ball, how big a threat he is as a running back and wide receiver – it’s tough to say otherwise. It’s going to be a real interesting choice. Those are the two players who stood out to me.
Then you have Tanner Allem’s emergence from back-up player to a pretty good starting quarterback. I didn’t see Zac Gravelle, but obviously, his numbers leap out at you.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pick your winners for week one.
Kevin Cooney: Ridley (I think Henderson makes it close), Souderton, North Penn, Coatesville, Abington, Neshaminy, Rustin, Downingtown East, Upper Moreland.
Dom Cosentino: Ridley, CR South, North Penn, Coatesville, Abington, Neshaminy, Rustin, Downingtown East, Upper Moreland. But don't hold me to any of them.
*The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of SuburbanOneSports.com. Check back every week for more football talk with Kevin Cooney and Dom Cosentino. To offer comments or ask questions, write to Cooney at KCooney@phillyburbs.com and Cosentino at DCosentino@phillyburbs.com.
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