In the eighth weekly edition of the Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dom Cosentino share their thoughts about some of last week’s SOL action, highlighting Council Rock South’s huge win over Neshaminy. They also take a look ahead.
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: The highly-publicized showdown between Council Rock North and Neshaminy certainly lived up to all the pre-game hype. Share your thoughts on Rock South’s big win.
Dom Cosentino: Obviously, it’s the biggest victory in Council Rock South’s history. They had a game where they struggled quite a bit in the first half, and then in the second half, their offense really got going, putting up more than 240 yards in the second half alone. It helped that Corey Majors – who is probably an all-state caliber linebacker for Neshaminy – got hurt, but you have to tip your cap to Rock South for grinding out the win, and their defense for coming up with a couple of big stops late. Hunter Shull had two sacks late in the game.
Rock South is in a really good position now to finish the regular season undefeated and be the top seed in District One entering the playoffs. Neshaminy has dropped to a tie for third in the standings, and they may fall just a tad further because their schedule the rest of the way is not as strong as Downingtown East's, with whom they're tied. That sets up the possibility that the Redskins could meet a team like North Penn in one of the earlier rounds of the tournament. It’s not devastating for Neshaminy obviously, but it could mean a bit of a tougher road through the playoffs at this point.
But, really, the story is Council Rock South and what they were able to achieve and the likelihood of what’s in front of them.
Kevin Cooney: You look at the fact that Council Rock South was able to pull out the game in the fourth quarter like that – that is a huge, huge win for them going forward. It helps the program long term, and it gives them a boost in their identity. You have to have a little pep in your step after you win a game like that.
Rock South is set up right now to be a number one seed. There’s no doubt if they run the table – and they should – that they’ll be the number one seed heading into the district playoffs. Does that matter a lot? It depends on the matchups, but I think right now they’re obviously the team to watch. They’re this year’s Cinderella right now.
As far as Neshaminy is concerned, they could be in for a second or third round game against North Penn, and that’s not a good matchup for Neshaminy right now. I think – for all the talk about what Rock South has done – you have to still believe that North Penn is the team to beat in this district right now.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Dom, what were some of your observations about Rock South after watching that game.
Dom Cosentino: Billy Fleming is a big, big part of what their offense does. They run that wishbone attack, and they have three very good backs with him – Ryan Whitely, Mark Damirgian and Brian Donnelly. You basically have a four-headed monster, and with Fleming’s ability to ball fake, you have to account for him at all times, and that can be very difficult to do. In the second half, he was running more up the middle, and he kicked it outside to Damirgian on the game-winning touchdown with about two minutes left. It’s just the fact that they didn’t deviate from what they do. They lined up and played the game and did it.
You have to wonder – it might have been a different game with Corey Majors out there, but he wasn’t, and they won the game.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Coming into the season, not a whole lot of people would have picked Council Rock South to finish at the head of the pack in the National Conference. What kind of expectations did you have for the Golden Hawks?
Dom Cosentino: They made the playoffs last year. They did win eight games for the first time in school history. And while they lost some players, they had a solid core coming back. Perhaps something similar might have been expected from this team again - that they would be competitive, but I think it’s a credit to the program now that Vince Bedesem has been building. It’s taken some time since the split of the school, and they had to start with an entirely new program, but it’s finally all beginning to come together.
Don’t forget – I think there are only four senior starters on that defense, so they still have some of the pieces in place to be pretty formidable next year. Some of the seniors they’re losing are very good, but that’s a program now. We’ll see if they can take this forward the way the Neshaminys, Pennsburys and North Penns have done over the years and maintain consistency, but that remains to be seen.
SuburbanOneSports.com: In an era where football games don’t fill the stands very often, comment about the packed house at Heartbreak Ridge for the CR South/Neshaminy game.
Dom Cosentino: The hype surrounding the game between two unbeaten teams had a lot to do with it, but Neshaminy may have some of the best fans in the area anyway. They usually draw very well both home and away. Council Rock South is not that far away, and they brought quite a crowd, too. It was one of those games you don’t see that often – where you’re into the second half of the season and both teams are undefeated and ranked in the top 10 in the state.
It was a great atmosphere, great weather – it was a little windy, but other than that, everything about it was what makes high school football so fun. It was just a great, great night for football, and it turned out to be a very competitive, compelling game that wasn’t decided until the very end. Rock South scored with a little over two minutes left and still had to make two defensive stands to win it.
SuburbanOneSports.com: By contrast, Council Rock North has fallen on some very hard times. Does this represent a changing of the guard in the Council Rock School District?
Dom Cosentino: You have two teams literally going in different directions – one is 7-0 and the other is 0-7. Rock North does have a new coach, and they’ve had a lot of injuries this year, injuries to some very good players. As I said several weeks ago, I don’t know if there’s any team out there that can withstand something like that.
Rock North has to build some momentum in a game and have a bunch of things go their way, and maybe they will be able to pick somebody off at this point. They’re just in a tough situation right now that you’re seven games in without a victory.
Within that district, it’s interesting and little ironic. You have one team headed toward an undefeated season and another team that just can’t find a way to win.
Kevin Cooney: You look at what Council Rock South has done and what the program has become with Vince Bedesem. It’s just a fun program to be around. There’s very little drama, very little sniping. You never hear a peep out of there.
Quite honestly, maybe it’s a lesson that should be learned up North, and what I mean by that is – there always seems to be more parental drama at North in every sport, not just football, and sometimes that leads to tinkering and such that you don’t need.
North’s football program had made some strides. Was it good enough? Perhaps not, but they had made some strides over the last five years. This season has kind of destroyed all of that, and I’m not sure that’s just the fault of the coaches. They’ve had some injury problems, and at times, good enough is good enough, but they really have to look in the mirror right now at the entire program. There is something to be said for putting some emphasis – not the be-all, end-all – on winning, and when you don’t, this is what happens.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Abington earned a big win at Pennsbury. Talk about the implications of that contest.
Dom Cosentino: If you look at the playoff points standings this week, there are 18 teams with two losses or fewer in the district, so Pennsbury’s playoff chances are probably out the window at this point. But Abington, at 5-2, is right there. I think you really have to credit that Abington defense. They have kind of been flying under the radar because they don’t have a newspaper that covers them, but they have played tremendous defense in every game this season, except for the Neshaminy game, but that was a night when Abington’s offense couldn’t do anything and put its defense in a bad spot most of the night. Other than the Neshaminy game, they haven’t allowed more than 15 points. It’s a real credit to the job John Konway and Josh Lee and those guys they have on defense are doing this year.
CR South and Neshaminy have stolen the headlines in that conference, but Abington has a pretty good team over there. The Ghosts still have to play Council Rock South, and I think with those defenses going up against each other in a couple of weeks, it will be a very good matchup.
Kevin Cooney: It’s pretty obvious Pennsbury doesn’t have any playoff aspirations. It’s a disappointing year. I think there were a lot of expectations over in Fairless Hills that they would make a pretty big run at the top. To not make the playoffs in the 16-team format is disheartening for them. There’s become almost a sense that people feel it’s their birthright to go, but they don’t have the talent that they believe they have. They have some good players, but you look at Neshaminy, CR South and North Penn – there’s some real talent there, and that’s a huge, huge difference between those programs. Pennsbury has talent two years out of three, and when they have talent, they usually do very well. If they don’t have that same level of talent, they’re not going have that same kind of success. Just because they wear white helmets and black uniforms doesn’t mean their team necessarily is going to be a district contender.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about Pennsbury electing to go for two points in a 14-13 game with 9:22 remaining in regulation?
Dom Cosentino: Maybe Galen Snyder wanted to take a risk there – thinking in a defensive battle he would rather not go to overtime and would rather take the points and take the lead. It’s just a gamble he made really with the team’s season on the line. It’s the kind of thing – people will say this a million times – if they make it and win the game 15-14, he looks like a genius. I think Galen was taking a risk their to salvage his team’s playoff hopes and win the game in regulation, figuring his defense would be able to hold the lead for the final nine minutes. I don't have a problem with that.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Bensalem rallied to earn a come-from-behind win over William Tennent. What are your thoughts about that game?
Dom Cosentino: Bensalem is another team that’s had its struggles this year but has been pretty competitive when you get right down to is. That was a game that was there for them to win, and they got it done. They have a kid like Christian Fernandez, whom even Mark Schmidt of Neshaminy talked about as a pretty good player after they had played a couple of weeks before.
I think Tennent is a good team. It’s their best team in several years, but I don’t quite know if – even at 4-1 – they were a playoff-caliber team coming down the stretch, but it was a good win for Bensalem.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown kept its game against North Penn close early on, rallying from a 14-0 deficit to make it 14-13, and while no one will confuse the two programs, what are your thoughts about that game?
Kevin Cooney: Every team hits a little bit of a doldrum spot. Some coaches look at their teams more analytically than others and with a harsher eye. North Penn is the best talent-wise team in the district. Whether that talent plays at that level consistently is another question. Right now North Penn is not playing up to its level. They let a Quakertown team – who has Zac Gravelle but not a whole lot else – stick around. Eventually, at some point, they are going to get burned, and that point could be this week.
The strange part – and we mention it in baseball a lot – you can’t flip it on and off like a switch. I think high school kids tend to fall into that more. I think North Penn knows how good they are. I think they’re at the point of the season where they’re a little bit bored, and there are some sloppy habits. That has to get dropped pretty quickly right now. You’re in week eight, and it’s time to start gearing up for the big stretch. It has to start this week against Souderton.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about the upcoming North Penn/Souderton game? Can Souderton play with North Penn?
Kevin Cooney: Souderton has to play the perfect game. They can’t turn the ball over, and they have to keep their offense on the field and keep the Mercers, the Taggarts and the Needhammers off. You wonder how much of what Dick Beck said on the radio and what he said in print – how much of a motivator it becomes because North Penn has this tendency to have that one week where they just drop everybody’s jaws. They haven’t really had that yet. If you want to count the St. Joe’s Prep game as that, that’s a little bit of a stretch because I think we’ve all seen that the Prep is not as good as we thought they were. I think this is the game we could see North Penn drop some jaws around here.
Dom Cosentino: I think it can be a game. I think North Penn wins, but I don’t see Souderton laying down and losing 40-0. This is a game that Ed Gallagher really wants to get his kids ready to play. It’s something of a neighboring rivalry, and last year at the half, North Penn was winning 13-0, but it was a good, physical game in the rain at North Penn. That wasn’t as good a Souderton team, and I think on their home field, they’re going to be fired up and ready to play. It ought to be a terrific game.
SuburbanOneSports.com: CB West eked out a 13-12 win over Central Bucks East. Comment about that game.
Kevin Cooney: I thought Justyn White was the best player on the field, and it had nothing to do with him on the run. I thought defensively he was incredible. He’s a linebacker, and he flew to the ball and really stopped the run well. They contained Rashaad Williams – he didn’t go completely nuts against them.
For West, it was a win they had to have. The advantage for them is they’re 5-2, and they can see their way into the playoffs and even a home game if they win out. They need to beat Pennridge this week though.
East has improved a lot since I saw them earlier in the year against North Penn. I think West needed to take a step forward though because they had that hot start, but people wondered who the hell they played. What you saw out of them was they could play a tight game and find a way to get the job done. You can’t overstress how important that is heading into November.
Dom Cosentino: West looked like they were much better than East coming in, but it was a close game, and I think the rivalry factor plays into it, and East was able to stay in that game most of the way.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks East faces Quakertown on Saturday. What are your thoughts about that Continental Conference matchup?
Kevin Cooney: Zac Gravelle obviously has established himself as one of the better run/pass threats in the area, but you have to be more than one dimensional. Right now they are very one dimensional.
East at 3-4 is probably not a playoff team, but they have some pride. I think they would like to finish out strong. Maybe at 6-4 they establish what John Donnelly wants going forward. That will be a big stretch for them.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Moving away from high school football, what are your thoughts about the quarterback situation Andy Reid is left to deal with after Kevin Kolb’s strong showing against Atlanta?
Kevin Cooney: Why don’t you just ask me to solve the crisis in the Middle East?
Dom Cosentino: If you’re Andy Reid, you have to deal with a lot of questions about that even if you win. As long as they’re both Eagles, there’s going to be a debate in this city amongst the fans who want one guy or the other. That’s just the way it is, but if you’re the Eagles, you go ahead and do your thing, you have to block that out and go ahead and play. Reid has said that Vick is still the starter when he comes back, although Kolb will play again this week because Vick is still hurt.
It’s almost comical. They win a game as decisively as they did the other day against Atlanta, and most of Reid’s press conference is a lot of questions about the quarterback situation after they’ve just won a game against a pretty good team. That’s the situation they’ve created. They have to do their best to try to block it out, but they're going to have to deal with all the other stuff as long as both guys are on the roster.
*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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