Check out the recaps for SOL football teams in action Saturday. CB West/CB East photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. William Tennent/New Hope-Solebury photos courtesy of Karla Donohoe. Check back for galleries of both games. CB West team photo provided by margebullock.com.
SOL National Conference
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 35, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 15
It was three-peat for the Bucks, who captured the coveted CB Cup for the third straight year after making it a clean sweep of their two games against CB schools.
“It’s the first goal we set every year, that’s the number one goal – to win the Cup,” West coach Rob Rowan said. “I mean that sincerely because those two games mean so much to our kids.
“It’s the first time in the Cup’s existence since South opened that a team has won it three years in a row. It’s a tremendous accomplishment to our guys, our staff. I’m just really pleased with the consistent effort everyone in our program gives.”
In what is always an emotionally charged rivalry game, it was the Patriots striking first when Ethan Shine took it in from a yard out. The successful two-point conversion gave East an early 8-0 advantage.
The Bucks were unfazed, pulling to within one late in the opening quarter when quarterback Ganz Cooper hooked up with Connor McFadden for a 12-yard touchdown strike.
“Our kids are so resilient,” Rowan said. “They just don’t get frazzled when adversity comes. We just talked all week – when you play games of this magnitude in a rivalry game, things are going to happen that go against you, and you just gotta keep playing.
“Our kids know we just have to stay within ourselves and do what we need to do. We talk about execution – execution wins, not emotion, and we just continue to play. Really, from (East’s) first drive – they came out and executed at a high level. I just thought our kids from that moment on took a deep breath, and we just started playing our brand of football.”
The sophomore combo of Cooper to McFadden connected again early in the second quarter, this time for a 65-yard touchdown and a 14-8 West lead.
“Ganz Cooper and Connor McFadden are both sophomores, and their timing and their rhythm is all starting to click right now,” said Rowan, who has seven sophomores in his starting lineup. “They have confidence in each other.
“It was a slant, and Ganz couldn’t have thrown it any better. Connor has pretty elite speed, and once he caught it and we saw he had a crease – we knew pretty quickly if he broke one tackle he was going to be gone.”
A six-yard touchdown run by Donte Mancini sent the Bucks into halftime with a 21-8 lead. That lead grew to 28-8 after Eli Boehm’s 11-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. Boehm’s second touchdown run of the game – this one from four yards out – put the Bucks on top 35-8 early in the fourth quarter. Pat Keller scored on a one-yard keeper for the Patriots to close out the scoring.
The Bucks – who finished with 368 total yards – showed remarkable balance, running for 210 yards and throwing for 158 more.
“We were talking as a staff after the game,” Rowan said. “Our offense is so balanced. You could point at Eli (Boehm) – yes, he ran really hard. Vinny (Cherubini) had a couple of really big runs and catches. Donte (Mancini) always runs the ball extremely hard.
“Ganz was extremely efficient when we threw the ball, and we hit for some big plays. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say it was just a team effort across the board. Up front we ask our guys to continue to play hard from snap to whistle for 48 minutes, and they do that, and we’re grateful for that.”
Ganz completed 5-of-9 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns. McFadden was his favorite target, hauling in three passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns. Boehm (17-84, 2 TDs) and Cherubini (9-80) led the Bucks’ balanced running attack.
“Ganz also threw a tremendous ball to Vinny Cherubini, who just made an amazing laid out catch,” Rowan said. “I just think they’re starting to get more comfortable with each other. That part of our offense makes us very difficult to defend because you can’t defend everything.
“When you’re starting to get the home run plays, the big chunk plays, it makes it very difficult to defend this offense.”
Shine’s 85 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries led East’s offense, and for the Bucks, a key to the win was the standout performance of their defense, which limited the Patriots to less than 200 yards of total offense.
“It was really a strong team effort defensively,” Rowan said. “The one guy that really stood out when they started playing with confidence as the game wore on was Cooper Taylor, our strong safety. He’s another 10th grader that seems to be getting more and more comfortable every week. I just thought he had some big-time plays.”
Central Bucks West (8-2, 6-1 SOL) is ranked eighth in the District One 6A power rankings that will be finalized Sunday. Not bad for a team, that according to Rowan, was picked to finish last in the National Conference.
“Going 8-2, outright second place with two losses to two of the better teams in the state in North Penn and Coatesville, I think we may have disproved that forecast,” Rowan said.
Central Bucks East (6-4, 4-3) is 11th in the district power rankings.
Central Bucks West 7-14-7-7 35
Central Bucks East 8-0-0-7 15
SOL American Conference
WILLIAM TENNENT 55, NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY 20
Not a whole lot has gone the Panthers’ way this season.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the team was not allowed inside the school until July 7, a late date to finally get into the weight room. When the season began, the Panthers lost games that could have gone into the win column to Palumbo and Hatboro-Horsham. Tennent started with 13 seniors but only six were healthy for the final game.
At Saturday’s team breakfast, the Panthers’ starting cornerback – Tony Ferro – was taken to the hospital for a medical emergency. Coach Rich Clemens accompanied him to the hospital and went directly from there to the game.
Ferro, according to Clemens, is doing well, and the Panthers went out and turned in a dominant performance on the gridiron to notch the resounding win in their season finale.
“It was a good way to end the season – I’m happy the guys were able to get a win,” the Panthers’ coach said. “We’ve been getting better as the season went on. The kids came together at the end. They played hard for each other. We ended the game with three freshmen on the field and four sophomores on defense, so we were really playing young. I’m glad we were able to put it together at the end.”
Rymeer Newkirk ignited the Panthers by running the opening kickoff back for a touchdown. That was just the beginning of a spectacular performance by the sophomore running back, who also ran for four touchdowns and threw for a pair of TDs out of the halfback option.
“If I’m not mistaken, Rymeer accounted for seven touchdowns, so he obviously had a good game,” Clemens said. “Our quarterback, Timmy Lawson, got a concussion last week. Zach Stanfield, who started the year for us, came back in, and he had a good game.”
A pair of Tennent players – senior Dan Patrick and sophomore LJ Rosales – both had two interceptions. Rosales ran one of his picks back for a touchdown.
“I couldn’t be prouder of how the kids played today,” Clemens said. “I’m glad they stuck it out and got a win. They actually played well against Wissahickon.
“The injuries – our tight end, our best lineman was out, our starting tackle was out, our quarterback was out, both starting corners were out, and a guy who was projected to be our other tackle never came back from foot surgery, so he was out. It was one of those years, but they kept pushing through and they got one tonight, and I’m really proud of them.”
In addition to the players who were sidelined, several others were playing at less than full strength.
“Our guard, Mason McGlinchey, was playing on a torn meniscus,” Clemens said. “Jeremy Ciborowski, a senior, played with a torn rotator cuff today. Connor Fithian, our tackle, was out sick for two weeks, and he was able to come back and play today. He was a shell of himself, just getting through on all heart.”
The Panthers started the year with 55 players but lost 25 to injury and ended up with 30.
“Dylan Dreulis was there for us all year, and he played well,” Clemens said. “Adam Chast was our noseguard – he was able to come back from a pretty severe illness to play in his last game too, so I was happy he got a chance to play.
“Brandon Steer played well for us at linebacker. We just had a whole team effort. It was nice to see them get a win.”
William Tennent closed out its season with a 1-8 record overall, 1-5 in SOL play.
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