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By Scott Huff
DOYLESTOWN – The ticket the fans purchased for the Quakertown-Central Bucks East game didn’t have the word ‘District One Playoff’ written on it – but it might as well have.Those same fans were treated to a terrific scholastic football game - played in a playoff atmosphere - as visiting Quakertown (6-2, 2-2) defeated CB East (4-4, 3-2) 27-20.
“We knew we were in for a tough battle,” said Quakertown quarterback Ryan Tinknell, who fired three touchdown passes on the cool evening. “This game was a major push for us if we want to get into the playoffs.
“We knew coming into this game that we just had to forget about North Penn,” added Tinknell in reference to the Panthers 49-13 loss to the Knights last week. “We had to focus on Central Bucks East.”
Anyone who focuses on CB East must give running back Devon Passman the hardest look. And the talented Passman was ‘all that’ in the first half with 152 yards on 16 carries that included a gorgeous 50-yard touchdown scamper.
“We made some adjustments up front with our defensive tackles,” said Quakertown head coach John Donnelly. “And we began to make some big plays defensively.”
Passman finished with 157 yards on 20 carries.
“Devon was pretty beat up at halftime,” said CB East head coach Tim Michael. “Quakertown is a physical football team, but I thought we were very competitive with them the whole game.”
The game was very entertaining from the beginning of the game until the end.
CB East turned the ball over on its first series at the Patriot 21-yard line, and Quakertown wasted little time cashing in on the opportunity.
Tinknell flared a pass into the flat on first down and running back Tony Latronica darted through and around Patriot defenders into the end zone. The point after touchdown failed, and Q-town settled for a 6-0 lead.
It took CB East just four plays to score its first touchdown. Passman handled the ball all four plays and cruised 50-yards for the score. The PAT was blocked and a 6-6 deadlock was forged.
Quakertown regained the lead when as the Panthers took seven plays to move 64 yards for the score. Tinknell fired a 35-yard scoring strike to tight end Eric Fath – and the Tinknell to Fath connection worked on the 2-point conversion to give the Panthers a 14-6 advantage.
The Patriots would rally back to tie the score. East marched 48-yards on seven plays with the scoring play coming on a terrific seven-yard TD pass from QB Kyle Bernard to wide receiver Chris Harmon. Bernard hit Chris Miller for the 2-point conversion to knot the score at 14-14.
CB East would take its only lead of the game later in the second period. Another Passman run of 50 yards set up another Bernard scoring strike – this one of eight yards to tight end Scott Schneider. The PAT failed, but the Pats led 20-14.
Quakertown would strike quickly to erase the lead. Tinknell had two long pass completions featured in the drive – a 37-yard aerial to Kurtis Roberts – and a 40-yard TD missile to Latronica with only 13 seconds left before intermission. Geoff DeLan booted the PAT and the Panthers took a 21-20 advantage.
The first half produced 41 points – while the only score of the second half was a three-yard quarterback keeper by Tinknell midway in the third period.
There was a huge Quakertown defensive play at the outset of the fourth period. On a fourth and goal play, the Patriots ran a gadget play that was tipped away in the end zone at the last moment by Roberts.
“Kurtis made a key play there,” said Donnelly. “Plus he came up with two interceptions to stop other drives.”
“The coach tells us not to let anyone behind us,” said Roberts. “I just did what the coach told us to do.”
The entire Quakertown team did a great job of following the advice of the coach.
“We talked to the guys after the North Penn game and told them that we still control our own destiny,” said Donnelly. “We wanted to play with a real sense of urgency, and we were up to the challenge.”
“This loss was very disappointing to the players and the coaches,” said Michael. “We were looking at this game as a playoff game. Now we have no room for error – we have to win the rest of our games if we want to get into the playoffs.”
Last season Quakertown was 1-11 – and now the Panthers are on the playoff doorstep.
“This whole experience is totally different from last year,” said Tinknell. “And you have to like it.”
In a few weeks, chances are the Quakertown ticket will have ‘District One Playoffs’ stamped on it.
QUAKERTOWN 27, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 20
Quakertown 14 7 6 0 - 27
CB East 6 14 0 0 - 20
Q: Latronica 21 pass from Tinknell (kick failed)
CBE: Passman 50 run (kick blocked)
Q: Fath 35 pass from Tinknell (Fath pass from Tinknell)
CBE: Harmon 7 pass from Bernard (N. Miller pass from Bernard)
CBE: Schneider 8 pass from Bernard (kick blocked)
Q: Latronica 40 pas from Tinknell (DeLan kick)
Q: Tinknell 3 run (kick failed)
First Downs – [Q] – 19 ---- [CBE] – 14
Rushing/Yds --- [Q] – 163 ---- [CBE] – 193
Passing/Yds --- [Q] – 186 ---- [CBE] – 87
Total Offense --- [Q] – 349 ---- [CBE] – 280
Punts/Avg --- [Q] – 4-29 ---- [CBE] – 2-17
Penalties --- [Q] – 7-50 ---- [CBE] – 5-25
Quakertown
Rushing: Latronica 21-103; Festa 4-23; Fath 3-21; Able 6-15; Tinknell 8-1. Totals 42-163
Passing: Tinknell 9-17-1; 186 yards – 3 TD.
Receiving: Latronica 4-71, 2 TD; Fath 3-67, TD; Roberts 2-48. Totals 9-186, 3 TD.
Interceptions: Roberts (2).
Central Bucks East
Rushing: Passman 20-157, TD; N. Miller 3-44; B. Miller 1-8; White 1-5; Whittington 1-2; Reilly 1-(minus 3); Bernard 5-(minus 20). Totals 33-193, TD.
Passing: Bernard 10-16-2; 87 yards, 2 TD; Reilly 0-1-0, 0 yards; B. Miller 0-1-0, 0 yards. Totals 10-18, 87 yards, 2 TD.
Receiving: Harmon 4-19, TD; N. Miller 2-21; Passman 2-15; B. Miller 1-24; Schneider 1-8. TD. Totals 10-87, 2 TD.
Interception: Kogut
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