SOL Football Notebook (11-1-16)

Quakertown is featured in this week’s SOL Notebook that also includes the final regular season standings as well as points allowed/points scored.

George Banas calls it the “tale of two different seasons,” and for a Quakertown team that found itself staring at a 1-5 record after six games, the Panthers’ 5-5 record after week 10 is impressive indeed.

“Coming into the year, 18 of 22 starters from last year’s team were gone, and we were trying to find out who was going to be playing, who could make plays on Friday nights,” Banas said. “Then we just went through a slew of injuries.

“At one point, we had five defensive starters out. We couldn’t afford that this year, we really couldn’t. We had to stay healthy this year, and we had to make the kids grow up fast. I think it was that whole snowball effect, and we played some really good competition early.”

The Panthers lost three straight games to open the season before picking up a 40-28 win over Wissahickon in their SOL opener. A week later, Quakertown had defending district champion Upper Dublin on the ropes and took a 7-6 lead into the fourth quarter when the Flying Cardinals closed it out with 12 straight points. A low point in the season might well have been the Panthers’ 27-6 loss to Hatboro-Horsham the following week, dropping Quakertown to 1-5.

“I don’t know if it was a letdown because we lost to Upper Dublin, but we had one of the worst practice weeks and then we had one of our worst games against Hatboro,” Banas said.

It would have been understandable if the Panthers’ season had unraveled completely, and the team – with its injuries and inexperience – certainly had a built-in excuse if it had.

That didn’t happen.

“We got to a point where we said, ‘You know what, we can’t use this as an excuse anymore,’” Banas said. “We started mixing some different kids in and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to try to put the 11 guys on both sides of the ball that we feel are going to be the best 11 athletes and just put them in positions where they fit.’”

Things started to come together the week before the Panthers travelled to Cheltenham.

“We had a really good week of practice,” Banas said. “We said we could either go down this road of being 1-10 or we can say, ‘You know what, we’re going to have fun at practice, but we’re going to work our tails off, and we’re going to go in the right direction and turn this thing around.’

“We said, ‘What do we want people to say about us when they think about the 2016 season,’ and they made the right choice.”

A 43-6 win over Cheltenham put the Panthers on the road to recovery, and they followed that with a win over Upper Moreland (21-7). On Friday night, the Panthers got a win that validated their turnaround when they upset a Plymouth Whitemarsh team that had clinched a share of the SOL American Conference title, breaking the Colonials eight-game winning streak.

“We knew coming into this week – yes, we were 4-5, but we didn’t have the win to really make a statement this year,” Banas said. “That was basically our thought process on Friday night that we needed to make a statement.

“We needed to beat a team that was 8-1 and won the conference championship just to be able to say we didn’t just beat teams our ability or a little bit under.”

If the Panthers needed added incentive, they were celebrating Senior Night

“That’s an extra special night that you want to have that memory to look back on, and it’s a positive one,” Banas said. “I actually went to a bunch of kids during the week and told them, ‘Listen, we have to play very emotional. I want to see kids getting excited. I want to see after every play linemen picking up their running back or quarterback.’

“I wanted to see them being happy, high fiving, chest bumping and everything else and just having fun. It’s a struggle when you’re 1-5 to do that. They’ve been coming to work, and sometimes it’s hard at 1-5. Now it’s getting a lot easier.”

It’s a safe bet 5-5 never felt so good.

A night to remember – It didn’t look like the Panthers would be doing a whole lot of celebrating on Friday night when the visiting Colonials jumped out to a 10-0 lead after one quarter.
“After the first quarter, we were a little bit in shock, but we were able to hold them to that 10 points until halftime,” Banas said. “We just said, ‘We’ll shut them out in the second half, and we can cause some turnovers and really change momentum.’
That’s what ended up happening.”
Michael Terra came up with a fumble recovery, and the Panthers turned it into a touchdown when Christian Patrick took it in from two yards out. A Nick Cass interception set the stage for a 22-yard TD run by Nick Lefkoski that gave the Panthers a 14-10 lead heading into the final quarter.
Austin Clarke’s two-yard touchdown pass to Lefkoski made it a 20-10 game before the Colonials scored a TD to pull to within three. Senior Noah Wood put to rest any thoughts of a comeback with a 56-yard touchdown run for the 26-17 final.
“Our rock has been Noah Wood,” Banas said. “He’s the voice at practice, he’s the voice at a game. He sets the tempo of how practice goes, both verbally and physically.
“He started as a sophomore on that championship team and started last year. He was like, ‘This is not going to happen our senior year. We’re not going to allow this to happen.’ He’s been a rock.”
Nick Levinski, according to Banas, had a big game at defensive end to spark the Panthers on that side of the football.
Friday’s game marked the return to the lineup of senior inside linebacker Bryce Wadsworth.
“I thought he was done for the year,” said Banas said. “We lost him at Wissahickon with a really nasty dislocated elbow.
“I was so shocked that he got released on Monday. I’m happy for him because it was Senior Night.”
Jared Kishbaugh also is back in the lineup after being sidelined for an extended period of time.

Clarke steps into big shoes – To say senior quarterback Austin Clarke stepped into a tough spot this season would be an understatement.
“He stepped in this year after having two extremely good quarterbacks in (Alec) Vera and (Tom) Garlick,” said Banas. “He has given us more than what we could have asked.
“He has been physically getting it done and showing kids, ‘Look, I’m taking my opportunity and making the most of it.”
Both Vera and Garlick are seeing playing time at Ursinus College – Vera at wide receiver and Garlick at quarterback.
“Last year when a kid went down, you looked at the next kid, and he’d be starting anywhere else,” Banas said. “That group of kids last year – you looked across the board at our skill positions, and we’ve never had so many toys in Quakertown like we did last year offensively and defensively at every position.”

That’s a community – The football team’s turnaround hasn’t been Quakertown’s only success story this fall. The girls’ soccer team captured the SOL American Conference title, and when the Panthers took on Downingtown West in a second round district game, Banas and the football team were in attendance.
“We support each other,” the Panthers’ coach said. “All the teams do. They came back and supported us on Friday night along with our student body.
“Our band – under Frank Parker – does a great job. It’s just a great atmosphere because the bleachers are right on top of you on the sideline. You’re right in the middle of town, so you see all the houses and the lights. For our kids on a Friday night, it’s easy to get up for a game.”
The Panthers have two games remaining on their schedule. They will host Norristown on Nov. 11 and will close out the season with a home game against archrival Pennridge on Thanksgiving Day.

This week in District One 6A
#16 Haverford at #1 North Penn
#9 Central Bucks East at #8 Spring-Ford
#12 Plymouth Whitemarsh at #5 Ridley
#13 Abington at #4 Coatesville
#11 Souderton at #6 Downingtown East
#10 Garnet Valley at #7 Central Bucks South
#15 Pennridge at #2 Neshaminy
This week in District One 5A
#12 Strath Haven at #4 Upper Dublin
#14 Upper Moreland at #3 Marple Newtown

2016 Suburban One League Standings (Final)

National Conference

Continental Conference

American Conference

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