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DOYLESTOWN – Josh Bernard might not have been known as a big-play quarterback. Nor would anyone have mistaken his Central Bucks East football team for an offensive juggernaut.
Take away the Patriots’ 42-20 rout of a Hatboro-Horsham squad that is winless in the SOL, and heading into Saturday’s showdown with Quakertown, the Patriots were averaging just over seven points a game in their other six games.
Bernard and the Patriots upped that average considerably with their impressive 40-6 win over the Panthers at War Memorial Field. In the win, Bernard completed just three passes but all three were for 17 yards or more and two were for touchdowns. He also rushed for 75 yards and one TD in a superb all-around effort.
“We had them scouted out,” Bernard said. “We knew over the top we had them beat, so that’s what we attacked.
“Having J-White (Justyn White) – they always bite on his fakes, so play-action fakes to J-White always gets the linebackers down, and over the top was wide open.”
Five different players scored touchdowns for the Patriots on Saturday. None of them was named Justyn White.
“The last two weeks, Justyn has carried the ball 18-20 times,” East coach John Donnelly said. “You have to feed him the ball for all the different things he can do, but by the same token, teams are really starting to pack the box. We have to be able to spread them out a little and use play action, which we have been doing.
“We were much more effective at it today. I think that speaks to the fact that this is the third week in a row that we had our ‘O’ line intact. We had injuries like all teams do and hadn’t established that continuity. It was real important for us to get that.”
While Bernard was guiding the offense to a big day, East’s defense was getting the job done as well. It didn’t hurt the Patriots’ cause that Quakertown’s star quarterback Zac Gravelle was on the bench for the first half for what coach George Banas called a ‘life-learning experience.’
By halftime, the Patriots had a 13-0 lead.“Certainly he’s a very explosive player, one of the best in the area,” Donnelly said of Gravelle. “Obviously, it didn’t help having him on the sidelines for them, but when he did come back in the second half, I thought we did a really good job on him.
“They obviously still have a lot of other weapons, so even without him in there, they’re still very dangerous.”
Not nearly as dangerous as the Patriots, who set the tone for the game with a 68-yard touchdown drive on their opening possession. Highlights of the methodical 12-play drive included a 17-yard Bernard completion to White on a third-and-10 play. White also had a 12 yard run, but it was Bernard’s keeper around the right side for 16 yards on third down to the Panthers’ three that proved to be the back breaker.
One play later, Nick Chilson took it in for the score. The extra point by James Dawkins put the Patriots on top 7-0 at the 6:16 mark.
Late in the quarter, an eight-yard punt gave the Patriots possession on the Panthers’ 33-yard line, and after White picked up three yards on first down, Bernard found Eric Brink for a 30-yard completion and a 13-0 lead.The Panthers responded with a drive of their own, marching all the way to the Patriots’ 11-yard line as quarterback Erik Jones twice completed passes for key third down conversions. The play stalled when Sean Trymbiski ripped the ball from the would-be receiver on the goal line.
“It was close to a touchdown for them,” East middle linebacker Weston French said. “Seany T ripped it out of the kid’s hands, which was huge. It let us go into halftime with zero points on their side.”
“That’s a huge turning point,” Banas said. “It wasn’t the only one.”
Another one came on the Panthers’ opening drive of the second half. On a first-down gadget play, Gravelle was thrown for a 15-yard loss.
“We came out and didn’t know what to expect from him,” French said. “We heard he’s a real good player, but on that first play, we got great pursuit and dampened his spirits a little bit, I guess you could say.
“That was a big play for us. It really got us fired up.”
A bad snap on fourth-and-long resulted in the game’s most bizarre call after the Patriots’ were whistled for a late hit on punter Damon Lightner out of bounds.
The Panthers celebrated, believing the personal foul would give them a first down, but instead, the officials ruled that since the hit occurred out of bounds, the Patriots would get the football.They needed just seven plays to find the end zone when –on third-and-long - Bernard found Brandon Sparks with a 36-yard touchdown pass to cap the 53-yard TD drive. Greg Hermann’s extra point made it a 20-0 game.
A fumble recovery by East’s Tim Hughes set up yet another touchdown – this one took just one play as Chilson took it in from 19 yards out, putting the Patriots on top 26-0.
The Panthers broke their scoring drought early in the third quarter, thanks to an 87-yard scoring drive that featured a whole lot of Gravelle. The Panthers’ QB opened the drive with an 11-yard completion to Nick Barndt and also found Nick Perinne for a pair of completions, but it was Gravelle’s 17-yard run to the Patriots’ 26 that was one of the game’s most dazzling plays as he bounced off of one would-be tackler after another.
Gravelle capped the drive with a 10-yard pass to Barndt, making it a 26-6 game at the 9:42 mark of the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t play particularly well,” Banas said. “Even on that drive, we were blowing assignments. Mentality-wise, we weren’t in the game. We just came (out) and laid an egg today.
“We showed no emotion in a Saturday afternoon game, and this is the result you’re going to get when you blow gaskets left and right.”
When Bernard broke through the line for a 50-yard gain on a quarterback sneak, the Patriots went on top 33-6, and a 38-yard TD run by Chris Lavin closed out the scoring, putting the finishing touches on the big win.
“Right now, if we win out, there’s a chance to play in playoffs, and that’s a huge deal for us,” French said. “I’m a senior, and for all the seniors – that’s what we wanted since we started here.
“We wanted to win this one big for coach Donnelly. He didn’t change that much this week – he’s always a serious guy, always into the game, but the whole team knew we wanted to win this for coach Donnelly. It was a big game for us.”Saturday’s game pitted Donnelly against his former squad for the first time.
“We talked about how the game needs to be played with emotion,” the Patriots’ coach said. “There was going to be a little more this week, but when we go to Souderton next week, there will be more emotion next week for all the implications there.
“Like I’ve said many times – Quakertown has a special place in my heart. That coaching staff before the game – we all went to midfield and talked, shook hands and hugged. We root for those guys all the other weeks of the year, and I think they do the same for us.
“It was tough. I wanted to talk to more of the kids. That’s a good football team we beat. They had North Penn on the ropes the other week.”
While the Panthers saw their record fall to 2-2 in league play (3-5 overall), the Patriots improved to 3-2 in the league (4-4 overall).
“We leveled off the record,” Donnelly said. “I think we played really good football. We established the things we wanted to coming in – we wanted to play a brand of football that is tough, physical and blue collar.
“I think the teams that have gone up against us will say that we’re well on our way to making that happen.”
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 40, QUAKERTOWN 6
Quakertown 0 0 6 0-6
CB East 7 6 13 14-40
CBE-Nick Chilson 3 run (James Dawkins kick)
CBE-Eric Brink 30 pass from Josh Bernard (Kick failed)
CBE-Brandon Sparks 36 pass from Josh Bernard (Greg Hermann kick)
CBE-Nick Chilson 19 run (Pass failed)
Q-Nick Barndt 10 pass from Zac Gravelle (Pass failed)
CBE-Josh Bernard 50 run (Greg Hermann kick)
CBE-Chris Lavin 38 run (Greg Hermann kick)
Q CBE
First Downs 13 10
Rushing Yards 118 189
Passing Yards 110 83
Total Yards 228 272
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties-Yds. 6-55 6-51
Punts-Avg. 4-25.3 3-43.3
RUSHING:
Quakertown: Zac Gravelle, 11-59; Mike Potynski, 6-28; Joe Able, 8-18; Damon Lightner, 1-7; Erik Jones, 2-6.
Central Bucks East: Josh Bernard, 8-75; Chris Lavin, 2-41; Nick Chilson, 4-31; Justyn White, 11-37; Sean Trymbiski, 6-9; Eric Riva, 3-(-4).
PASSING:
Quakertown: Erik Jones, 6-9-42, 1 INT; Zac Gravelle, 8-17-68, 1 TD.
CB East: Josh Bernard, 3-10-83, 2 TDs.
RECEIVING:
Quakertown: Nick Barndt, 4-46, 1 TD; Nick Perrine, 3-24; Joe Able, 2-17; Justin Wieder, 1-14; Cole Schmidt, 1-11; Brodey Wambold, 1-0; John Keller, 1-(-2).
CB East: Brandon Sparks, 1-36, 1TD; Eric Brink, 1-30, 1 TD; Justyn White, 1-17.
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