By Scott Huff
Newtown – Council Rock North own the keys to the penthouse in the Suburban One League National Conference standings after the Indians (2-2, 1-0) defeated visiting William Tennent (1-3, 0-1) in the conference opener for both teams – 20-9.
“To come out and win this game was so huge for us,” said Council Rock head coach Adam Collachi. “This game will give us some confidence going into next week’s game with Abington. They are the defending (conference) champion and to be able to have this opportunity to play them next week coming off a win is a great feeling.
“I thought that we did a good job today of throwing some people around on the line of scrimmage,” added Collachi. “If we are going to be a good football team, we are going to have to continue to attack people.”
The Indians attacked defensively on the first William Tennent offensive series as senior corner Alex Yardley deftly stepped in front of a Panther pass on the edge and jetted 60 yards untouched into the end zone. Max Pedinoff was perfect on the placement, and Rock North had a sudden 7-0 lead.
“I almost felt that I was cheating,” smiled Yardley. “I have to give complete credit to my defensive coaches. We saw that on film, and I knew pretty much what was coming.
“To be able to help get us off to that good start felt great,” added Yardley. “It seemed to get the whole team pretty excited.”
The Indian defense gave the Rock North great field position on the next series as captain AJ Garboski recovered a William Tennent fumble on the Panther 30-yard line. It took the Indians six plays to cover that 30-yards as senior running back Steve Sroba bulled in from the two-yard line. The PAT was blocked, and Rock North settled for a 13-0 lead.
The most impressive drive of the game for the Indians came in the second period. Rock North went on a relentless 12-play, 98-yard drive that concluded with a 10-yard touchdown burst by Sroba. Sroba – who rushed 22 times for a game-high 114 yards – carried the ball nine times from a modified ‘wildcat’ formation and accounted 81 yards in the scoring drive.
“Being able to take the snaps from that formation made it easy for me to read the defenses,” said Sroba. “We were very confident in what we were doing in that drive, and we were able to move the ball down the field.”
The Indians took the decisive 20-0 lead into the half. The Rock North dominance, though, surely did not carry over into the second half.
“We lost some momentum, we lost some focus in the second half,” said Collachi. “Our defense was on the field too much in the second half.”
Tennent – who had a dormant offense in the first half – had a superb offensive series to begin the second half.
The Panthers – with the aide of two costly Rock North penalties – pieced together a punishing 15-play, 79-yard scoring drive. The highlights of the drive were a 17-yard pass from Joe Lutz to Jeff Ledford; a 13-yard run by Cameron Jenkins; and a 14-yard scoring pass from Lutz to Ledford.
“We can’t wait to be motivated to play until the second half,” said William Tennent head coach Biz Keeny. “We need to play with energy the whole game. We played only about one quarter of good football today. We have to be able to respond to adversity.”
The good news for the Panthers was the touchdown march - the bad news was that it took almost eight minutes of the third period.
The final points of the game were scored on a bizarre special teams’ play.
Rock North was in punt formation deep in its end of the field. The ball was snapped well over the head of punter Pedinoff, and he decided to kick the ball – which was on the five-yard line - through the end zone. A lengthy discussion between coaches and officials took well over 20 minutes before it was decided that Tennent would be awarded a safety.
Rock North did manage to move the ball deep into Panther territory twice in the fourth period– but could not come away with any points.
However, when the scoreboard clock at Walt Snyder Stadium flashed 0:00 – it was CR North that was handed the key to first place in the conference standings.
And it was smiles all around Indian nation.
William Tennent Panthers 0 0 7 2 - 9
CR North Indians 13 7 0 0 - 20
CRN: Alex Yardley 60 interception return (Max Pedinoff kick)
CRN: Steve Sroba 2 run (kick blocked)
CRN: Sroba 10 run (Pedinoff kick)
WT: Jeff Ledford 15 pass from Joe Lutz (Mike Wasserleben kick)
WT: Safety
William Tennent CR North
9 First Downs 12
83 Rushing Yards 237
67 Passing Yards 21
150 Total Offense 258
4-33 Punts / Avg. 2-46
4-25 Penalties / Yards 8-65
William Tennent Panthers
Rushing: Cameron Jenkins 11-41; Pat Lydon 7-23; Connor Geiger 7-18; Chai Smith 1-5; Joe Lutz 1 (minus 4). Totals 27-83.
Passing: Lutz 5-15-2; 67 yards & TD – Chuck Delago 0-2-0; 0 yards. Totals 5-17-2; 67 yards & TD.
Receiving: Jeff Ledford 3-46 & TD; Geiger 1-17; and Anthony Brunell 1-4. Totals – 5-67 and TD.
Interception: Anthony Mackell
Council Rock North Indians
Rushing: Steve Sroba 22-114 & 2 TD; AJ Nielsen 10-94; Jake Yardley 3-12; Trevor Guzy 3-14; Joe Eick 1-3; John Devine 1-0; AJ Garbowski 1-0. Totals – 41-237- 2 TD.
Passing: Eick 2-4-1; 18 yards – Guzy 1-3-0; 3 yards – Totals 3-7-1; 21 yards
Receiving: Bill McAlister 2-18; Devine 1-3. Totals – 3-21.
Interceptions: Alex Yardley (TD) and Devine.
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