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BENSALEM – Corey Majors smiled when the subject of his 21-yard touchdown run came up during a post-game interview after Neshaminy's 35-20 win over Bensalem in an SOL National Conference game on Saturday afternoon.
“It felt good,” the Redskins’ sophomore said. “It was my first. It was a lot of fun.”
Majors was filling for Jay Colbert (knee injury) at fullback.
“I went out there kind of shaky, kind of nervous, and the whole offense told me to calm down and just run the ball and do what I do best,” Majors said.
Showing no trace of nerves, Majors rushed for 44 yards on six carries, but his real value to the team is on defense where he is the Redskins’ leading tackler.
That’s impressive by any standard but especially for a sophomore.
“It’s been hard, but I have a lot of people supporting me, especially coach French,” Majors said of linebacker coach Neil French. “I have a lot of friends on the varsity, and they really welcomed me and showed me everything I needed to do.”
Majors is just one of many reasons the Redskins are 8-1 after nine games and will be playing for the SOL National Conference crown when they face Pennsbury on Friday night.
Another is gifted tight end/defensive lineman Paul Carrezola, who admits that the Redskins’ season-opening 14-13 loss to Souderton may have been the defining moment for this football team.
“At the time, I was playing linebacker, and coach French called us over and said, ‘This could either be the worst thing that happened to you guys or the best thing that happened to you guys,’” Carrezola said. “We realized we got hit in the mouth. It gave us a wake-up call. We caught stride after that.”
Carrezola, listed in the program at 6-3, 255 pounds, is an imposing presence on the football field. It was his pass rush that forced Ron Vogelei to get rid of the ball quicker than he’d hoped early in the third quarter, resulting in an interception by Matt Knorr that all but killed any thoughts of an Owl upset.
Knorr returned the ball to the Owls’ 17, and three plays later Bryan Dean took it in from three yards out, giving the Redskins – after Seth Jeffries extra point – a 28-7 lead.
Bensalem wide receiver Tom Vogelei – Ron’s twin brother - acknowledged that facing Neshaminy is a daunting task.
For starters, there’s the not so little matter of size. The Redskins are big. The Owls aren’t.
“In the Bible it says, ‘Fear no man but God,’ but they’re a big team,” Tom Vogelei said. “It’s hard to believe that you should fear no man. They’re huge people, and they can hurt people. It’s like a car hitting a person.
“It’s very hard.”
The Redskins also have numbers. The Owls don’t.
“There’s an army over there,” Vogelei said. “We don’t have any backups. I don’t know what their depth is, but a lot of our team plays both ways. We have to keep the intensity and go 100 percent. It’s really hard for a small team to keep their heads up. It’s all about the heart really.
“We go in there and play our hardest, but they’re a good team. The better team wins all the time.”
The Redskins wasted little time establishing themselves in Saturday’s game. They took the opening kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown. The drive included five Quilan Arnold runs and two big pass plays from quarterback Brian Titus – the first a 21-yard completion to Tyler Orr on third and long, and the second, a 20-yard touchdown strike to Rick Brebner.
On their second possession of the game, the Redskins marched 67 yards. Again, Titus (9-of-13, 110 yards, 3 TDs) had a pair of big completions. This time it was Majors hauling it in from 21 yards out for a touchdown that – after the extra point – put the Redskins on top 14-0.
The Owls had an answer.
On Bensalem’s ensuing drive, Camryn Lasalle, who finished the day with 119 yards, had carries of 19, 21 and 12 yards. Ron Vogelei took it in from four yards out, and when Jerry Davis nailed the extra point, it was a 14-7 game.
A three-and-out for the Redskins set the stage for another impressive Bensalem drive. This one began at the Owls’ 20. Big plays included a 17-yard Vogelei to Vogelei pass and a 19-yard run by Lasalle. The Owls were on the Redskins’ five-yard line when Neshaminy came up with a huge fumble recovery, which allowed the Redskins to go into halftime with their 14-7 lead intact.
“If we’re the underdog, we have to play perfect to beat a team like that,” Tom Vogelei said. “One mistake like that brings our competitiveness down, and sometimes that can change the momentum.
“Once you’re on a drive, you have to stay on it, or the dominoes start falling. “
On their opening drive of the second half, the Redskins needed just five plays to cover 46 yards. Arnold, who finished the day with 107 yards, had a 17-yard run, and Majors had a 15-yard carry. The drive culminated with Titus finding Brebner for his second TD of the day – this one from seven yards out.
Then came the Knorr interception, and things were never quite the same.
The Redskins led 35-7 after Titus found Carrezola with a 10-yard touchdown strike.
The Owls needed just one play to get that touchdown back when Vogelei hit Davis in stride for a 51-yard highlight reel score.
“With the wind at our backs, we had to take a shot,” Vogelei said. “I threw that ball as far as I could because I knew the wind was going to take it and the line was blocking.”
After a rare Redskin punt, the Owls one again needed just one play to get it in the end zone. This time Vogelei found Lewis Vincent for a 45-yard touchdown pass that made it a 35-20 game.
“We’re obviously an underdog,” Bensalem coach Dan McShane said. “We had to get a couple of first downs coming out in the second half to stave off their momentum.
“They’re very good. They’re well coached. Our kids gave us all they had. That’s all you can ask for.”
Bensalem’s 13 second-half points were the first points Neshaminy allowed in the second half of a game this year.”
“I kind of felt a little bit of a letdown when it was 35-7,” Neshaminy coach Mark Schmidt said. “I thought we did a real nice job at halftime coming out there, playing good defense and doing good (things) on offense, and then it got ugly.
“But (give) all the credit to Bensalem. They made all the big plays. We knew they had weapons. It was how they happened that bothered me because we weren’t playing. We were just standing around, and that’s not who we are.”
While the Owls fell to 2-4 in league play (3-6 overall), the Redskins upped their league mark to 6-0 with one game remaining against undefeated Pennsbury.
NESHAMINY 35, BENSALEM 20
Neshaminy 14 0 14 7-35
Bensalem 0 7 0 13-20
N-Brebner 20 pass from Titus (Adams kick)
N-Majors 21 run (Adams kick)
B-R.Vogelei 4 run (Davis kick)
N-Brebner 7 pass from Titus (Jeffries kick)
N-Dean 3 run (Jeffries kick)
N-Carrezola 10 pass from Titus (Jeffries kick)
B-Davis 51 pass from R.Vogelei (Davis kick)
B-Vincent 45 pass from R.Vogelei (kick failed)
N B
First Downs 18 16
Rushing Yards 176 156
Passing Yards 110 193
Total Yards 278 349
Passing (C-A-I) 9-13-1 12-20-2
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 1-1
Penalties-Yds. 4-25 2-10
Punts-Avg. 3-35.3 1-19.0
RUSHING:
Neshaminy – Arnold, 23-107; Dean, 9-48, 1 TD; Majors, 6-44, 1 TD; Titus, 1-1; Williams, 4-(-24).
Bensalem – Lasalle, 19-114; R. Vogelei, 10-32, 1 TD; Farlow, 2-10.
PASSING:
Neshaminy – Titus, 9-13-110, 3 TDs, 1 INT.
Bensalem – R.Vogelei, 12-20-193, 2 TDs, 2 INTs.
RECEIVING:
Neshaminy – Orr, 3-40; Brebner, 2-27, 2 TDs, Carrezola, 2-20, 1 TD; Arnold, 1-14; Kervick, 1-9.
Bensalem – Davis, 7-114, 1 TD; Vincent, 1-45, 1 TD; T.Vogelei, 2-15; McMillan, 1-12, 1-7.
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