Now in its second season, the Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ features high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dan Dunkin. Cooney, who also is the Phillies beat writer, continues to cover schools in the Intelligencer area while Dan Dunkin – who has been covering sports at the high school and professional level for 25 years - covers teams in the Courier Times area. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the web site www.PhillyBurbs.com.
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Neshaminy 21-7 on last Friday night. You were at that game – what are your thoughts?
Kevin Cooney: I think the story of that game was the fact that North Penn’s defense was so effective. You hold Neshaminy to 119 yards of total offense – Neshaminy after its touchdown drive when they tied the game 7-7 didn’t threaten that much. They were within 14-7 midway through the fourth quarter and had the ball at midfield, but you never got the sense that the game was within reach, and I think a lot of credit goes to North Penn’s defense, which has played a lot more physical the second half of the year. They’re flying to the football right now, they’re cutting off running lanes, and they haven’t really been tested in their secondary, which everyone says is their one Achilles heel.
I think what you have to give Neshaminy credit for is they found a way to keep North Penn’s offense kind of buttoned up. Corey Ernst had a good game, and North Penn had 400 yards of total offense - Neshaminy’s defense bent, but it didn’t break. If you look at it in that sense, what you’re seeing is that North Penn is still pretty good. Neshaminy gave a good effort, but you could see the clear gap between the two.
Overall, it was an entertaining game, which is something that this series was sort of lacking.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennsbury soundly defeated Coatesville in a second round game. Share your thoughts about the Falcons.
Kevin Cooney: I think the way Pennsbury is going right now – they’re very physical. You take their wing-t style attack, and you put it on turf where the offensive line has steady footing and your backs can kind of explode, and you face a team that, quite frankly, has that playoff (failure) reputation hanging over their heads like Coatesville does – this was a matchup I was on the fence about last week, but more and more, we should have seen that Pennsbury has played a tough schedule, Pennsbury has a good attack, Pennsbury is well coached, and when you look at it, I really think that we should have seen that type of game coming. The fact that Pennsbury jumped out on them that quick was a real testament to how good they are, and that’s what is going to make this game on Friday night a little dangerous for North Penn.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What will be the key for both sides in Friday night’s all-SOL showdown between North Penn and Pennsbury?
Kevin Cooney: I think Pennsbury can hang with North Penn. I’ve heard the whole analogy about how it’s going to be a street fight, and it’s going to be. It’s going to be two very physical teams. A couple of things stand out: 1) Does Pennsbury even try and throw the ball and try to see if they can get it down the field against North Penn’s secondary because that’s the one area I think everyone assumes they’re vulnerable at.
This is where you see if the injuries North Penn has had this year come back and haunt them a little bit. Is (James) Fielder going to play, and if Fielder plays, does Dan Gevirtz stay at tailback, or do you put him back at wide out. You wonder if North Penn will need these guys more than other weeks because of how physical the game is going to be, especially along the line.
North Penn doesn’t have the talent they have had in previous years. I think we’ve all said that from the beginning, but they’re the best executing team of the bunch. Last year you had Dom Taggart, Craig Needhammer, Brandon Mercer, Ralph Reeves, Corey Ernst right down the line, but this isn’t a team that’s had that kind of output, but they’re taking advantage of a district that is a little bit down.
To me, this game comes down to avoiding two things as all playoff games do. You have to avoid penalties. You want to keep the hard-hitting thing going, but you can’t afford the big silly penalty, and you have to avoid turnovers. I guarantee you the team that finishes in the negative category in turnover rating is going to lose. That’s the nature of playoff football to begin with, but I think in this game it’s more critical because the emotions are going to be so up and down. It’s going to be fun. I think this is one of those games you can just say it’s going to be a fun kind of game to watch. I don’t see a blowout. I think it will be very entertaining. Honestly, I don’t quite know what I see, but I think North Penn-Pennsbury might be the district playoff game of the year. I just get that sense.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks South suffered a heartbreaking loss to Garnet Valley after accumulating over 500 yards of total offense. Comment on that game.
Kevin Cooney: South had over 500 yards of total offense, and their running back (Dan Brown) had six touchdowns. I think that game kind of speaks for itself in the sense that you see the numbers that were put up, and you’re amazed but, in a sense, you’re not that surprised because you knew that both teams had good offenses, and you knew both teams had really shaky defenses.
Look, CB South did a remarkable job this year, and they had a wonderful season. I don’t think they necessarily get the credit that they deserve because of North Penn and what they did. South has gotten the offense down, and this year they improved their defense because, quite honestly, they used their offense to improve their defense. With Dan Brown running the ball 10 times on a drive, it keeps their defense off the field. At some point, you can’t hide it forever, and that’s where they got exposed. They got exposed a couple of times this season. They got exposed at CR South on opening night, and they got exposed against Souderton in the 44-42 game. For all their offensive kudos, you have to have some kind of defense that can hold the lead. I don’t know about the officiating in the Garnet Valley game. People I’ve talked to said (the roughing the passer call against South) was a bad call at the end of the game, but it’s kind of tough for a team that allowed that many points and that many yards to win.
SuburbanOneSports.com: How do you see Council Rock South faring against an explosive Garnet Valley team?
Kevin Cooney: There are a couple of things here that work in Council Rock South’s advantage. One, they didn’t have nearly the grueling game last week as Garnet Valley did. Two, they’re playing at home. Garnet Valley to Newtown on Black Friday could be a nightmare. These are the ancillary things. Also, Garnet Valley is going to have to go from playing defense against the spread offense one week to basically an option wing-t that CR South is going to throw at them on Friday night. I don’t know if you could have two more different offenses thrown at you. They still have to contend with quarterback Brian Donnelly, and CR South’s defense is pretty good. CR South’s a team that gets to the quarterback pretty quick. It’s a question of whether they can get to the quarterback and disrupt his passing flow. If they do that, they’ll win this game. We’re getting to the time of year where you see these passing teams, and it’s a completely different game than it was two or three weeks ago because of wind and cold. The whole weather element starts to come into play. I’ve never been a big believer in the heavy passing teams at this time of year. Not that I think you can do 55 runs and two passes, but I tend to shy away from teams that rely heavily on the passing game. I kind of like CR South in this one – I think they’ll win by 10 or so.
I think we’re on a collision course for North Penn-CR South next week. I’ve sensed that since CR South beat Abington that this is the way it was going to go. There will be the revenge factor for CR South after what happened last year and all of that. I just get the feeling that Garnet Valley is going to run out of steam this week. How many times have we seen a team put up that big a point total in the district playoffs and then come out the next week with nothing left. I think that’s maybe where we’re headed this week.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your overall thoughts entering this weekend’s action?
Kevin Cooney: This is the amazing part – you look at the district bracket. You have one and five going, which is Council Rock South and Garnet Valley, and then you have 11 (North Penn) and 15 (Pennsbury). There’s something systematically wrong when that happens. I understand they don’t want to reseed because it may force coaches to get extra game film, but come on – quietly honestly, it should be Garnet Valley against North Penn and CR South against Pennsbury, but that’s just my opinion. This is the way it is, and you just move forward. Probably North Penn shouldn’t have been an 11 seed to begin with. No team below eight has ever won this thing.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Neshaminy saw its remarkable late-season run come to an end at the hands of North Penn. What are your thoughts about that game?
Dan Dunkin: North Penn shut down Neshaminy’s running game completely, and that was it. North Penn is just very, very good and has been since Dick Beck has been there. Neshaminy gave North Penn a much better game than they did last year, and they’ve got to feel good about that, but there are no moral victories in the Neshaminy program, and I respect that a lot.
Mark Schmidt and his staff and their returning players have to feel good about how this season ended and build on that for next year. They rescued a season that was really tottering. Going to Pennsbury and winning that must-win game says a lot about the character of that whole program. Mark told me after the game that was one of his top five all-timers, and I can see why. They followed that with a great win at Unionville – they dominated and beat a team that was seeded much higher, and they gave North Penn a game.
Neshaminy will be back with a vengeance. What really has to inspire them going forward is how some of their young kids grew up in the last half of the season. Kids like Denny Lord and Luke Carrezola are real good players and are going to be real good leaders for them. Look out for Neshaminy next year.
North Penn has really gotten its act together on both sides of the ball since their second loss to a Catholic League team in week three, but they lost to tough competition. They have just been lights out since then on both sides of the ball. They’re very difficult to run against. Ralph Reeves, to me, is the best two-way player in the entire area. He’s a terrific player and a terrific leader. I think what North Penn has done this year is they’ve flown under the radar. They’re good every year, but you haven’t heard a lot about them this year. Well, here they are. They’re very capable of winning the district. I like their offensive versatility. What Dan Gevirtz has done at running back the last couple weeks after playing receiver all year has been outstanding. They have a complete team. Corey Ernst is a heck of a quarterback, and it’s a credit to Beck and his program – you’re looking at a team that people said, ‘Well, they’ll be good, but they won’t be as good as last year.’ They’ve won nine in a row, and they’re better than anybody I’ve seen.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennsbury put up a lot of points in its win over Coatesville. Share your thoughts about that game.
Dan Dunkin: That showed me two things. I knew Pennsbury’s defense was good, but they’re real good. They’ve been playing as well defensively as Council Rock South really all year. To take a team that scored 60 points against Spring-Ford and to hold them to 21 – Pennsbury has that nice blend of rugged physicality and enough speed. They’ve gotten better and better. Their defense was really good from the outset of the season. From that aspect, I was surprised that they could shut down that explosiveness of Coatesville. Their quarterback is going to NC State, and (Pennsbury) made them totally rely on him, and he couldn’t do it. Pennsbury made them have to throw the ball a lot, and they can’t beat Pennsbury that way.
Pennsbury is good. We’ll find out against North Penn. It’s a great opportunity for Galen Snyder and his program to really make a statement. They’ve come back in a very impressive manner after that disheartening loss to Neshaminy. Boom, they’re suddenly a big factor. They avenged their loss to Abington, they throttled Coatesville, and they do have a good shot against North Penn.
The other thing that surprised me about that Coatesville game was the explosiveness of Pennsbury’s offense. That was their best all-around performance. They really have that Wing-T clicking. Their offensive line is big and tough, and they’ve got a good blend of running backs. Daquan Mack, their fullback, is a handful. He’s gotten stronger as the season has worn on. They were able to get Adam Lewis out in space to catch two big touchdown passes from Bruce Campbell, so they’re surging with confidence. They have nothing to lose. They'll stand toe to toe with anybody and take their chances. I think it’s going to be a really good, tight game. North Penn will win like 27-21.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock South will be taking on an explosive Garnet Valley squad. What are your thoughts about that game?
Dan Dunkin: Again, I think this is a case of a more physical, tougher team from a tough National Conference who’s the number one seed – Council Rock South – playing at its home field that will prevail. Their defense has been good all year. When you play Garnet Valley, you have to deal with their weapons, and they’ve got a bunch. They’re averaging 37 points a game, but they have trouble stopping everybody. That’s going to be a real problem against the triple option. I just think Council Rock South is too sound, too hungry and too veteran. They have an opportunity to reach the district championship game for the first time, and they’re not going to let that slip. I think they’re going to win just with strong fundamental, physical football. They’re going to have to really play disciplined on defense, but they’ve had five interceptions the last two weeks, so again, when they shut down a team’s running game, they’re not going to lose making a team throw the ball 20-30 times. That plays to their favor – their pass rush and their pass defense. They crushed Central Bucks South in the opening week of the season, and Garnet Valley had to score 52 points to beat them. I think they will be fine - Council Rock South wins 31-17.
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