(CR South/Souderton photos provided courtesy of Dave Oakill). CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports’ FOOTBALL GALLERIES.
SOL Continental Conference
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 14, SOUDERTON 7
It was a win that vaulted the Golden Hawks to the top of the conference standings, and while most in the Delaware Valley were lamenting a disastrous night for Philadelphia’s professional sports teams, the Council Rock South football team was celebrating its thrilling win over Souderton in Thursday’s conference showdown.
“I’m just happy with our win,” Rock South senior Nate Szydlik said. “It feels great. All these emotions hit you all at once. You really can’t describe the feeling.”
Szydlik and his teammates have endured some not-so-pleasant losses at the hands of the Indians, including last year’s 35-6 beatdown. Over the last three years, Souderton had outscored Rock South 65-6 in three straight Golden Hawk losses.
Still, Szydlik and his teammates never doubted their time would come as the program showed continual improvement under head coach CJ Szydlik, Nate’s uncle, who took over the program in 2022.
“Our coaches – they’ve been preaching this for years now – we’re special,” Nate said. “We’ve been building toward this for years, and now it’s time to go out and play and have fun.”
Stealing the spotlight in Thursday’s win was a Rock South defense that limited a Souderton team that had outscored its opponents 188-32 in its last four games to just one touchdown.
“Our scout team did a great job, helping us get prepared,” Szydlik said. “They were running all the right formations, right plays, so we got really good looks this week, and our D-line played great today. They just did their job, allowed us linebackers to be free, and our DBs played good on their receivers too.”
Rock South’s stellar defensive outing should not have come as a surprise. The Golden Hawks had allowed an average of just 12.6 points a game through seven games.
“I’ve said a couple of times – we’re pretty good on defense,” coach Szydlik said. “We’re pretty strong up front, and we run and we tackle well, so that’s a plus for us.”
The Golden Hawks’ defense pitched a shutout in the first half, and their offense put seven points on the board late in the first quarter when junior Chris Guinter punched it in from three yards out. The Hawks took that 7-0 lead into halftime.
“It was a longer drive – we started near midfield,” coach Szydlik said. “We used multiple running backs. We both knew we were going to have to run the football at each other. Fortunately for us, that’s the way it broke.”
Souderton scored its only touchdown in the third quarter when Timmy Meehan scored on a short shovel pass from quarterback Ben Walsh, knotting the score 7-7.
Late in the game, a Rock South punt pinned Souderton on its own one.
“It was 7-7 – they stopped us midfield,” coach Szydlik said. “We were lined up, and we were going to go for it and then decided to punt the ball while we were out there.
“Brody Walker punted the ball, and it wound up all the way down to about their-one yard line, which obviously pins them deep with three minutes left. The defense played well and got a stop, and then Owen Oakill returned the punt down to the 15- or 20-yard line on a fantastic run by him. Then we had to muscle our way in.”
A key play on the short drive occurred when the Hawks elected to go for it on fourth-and-one. Szydlik got the first down.
“I knew I was getting the ball,” he said. “We had called a timeout before, but he had already told me. I had it in my brain – ‘Go get a yard, that’s all we need. Go get a yard and get a first down,’ and I executed.”
The decision to go for the first down on fourth-and-one instead of choosing to try for a field goal was – according to the Golden Hawks’ coach – an easy one.
“We missed two field goals earlier, and honestly, I think you get into that situation, and you’ve got to put it on your offensive line and your all-state football player (Nate Szydlik) to get you a yard,” coach Szydlik aid.
On the very next play after Szydlik got the first down – first-and-goal from the eight-yard line, quarterback Marley Emerson found Joey Madara for what turned out to be the game-winning score.
“At that point, we thought we were going to have to throw the ball, and we might want to do it on first down rather than on fourth down, and we did, and it worked,” coach Szydlik said.
All that remained was for the defense to shut down the Indians one last time, and the program’s biggest win under Szydlik was in the books.
“We set out on this four years ago – we took baby steps early,” the Golden Hawks’ coach said. “This group of kids – they were our freshmen when we got here. They were undefeated as freshmen.
“When they came up to varsity and we lost a game – even though we were 7-3 or whatever we were – to them, losing was like ‘I can’t believe we just lost,’ so that’s been kind of the mentality since.
“We didn’t have the year we wanted to have last year (4-6), but we played with all juniors and sophomores and only a couple of seniors, so you know you’re getting to that point where you’re basically running the same plays you ran a year or two ago, and now you’re completing them and you’re making those plays now.”
The Golden Hawks’ dazzling defensive effort began up front.
“The defensive line was fantastic again – they have been all year,” Szydlik said. “Chris Guinter, Anthony Cimino, Gavin Sailer, Michael Smith and Declan Small who comes in and spells some of those guys.
“Then obviously you have an all-state linebacker (Szydlik) who runs around and cleans things up, and Ben Myers, our junior middle linebacker, was phenomenal. He was humungous, and then big Joey Madara makes the sack at the end of the game basically to ice it – things you expect from your kids that have been playing here for four years.”
The Golden Hawks (7-1) are alone atop the SOL Continental Conference with a 5-0 record and just two games remaining. Next Friday, the Golden Hawks will travel to Quakertown, and they will close out the regular season against Council Rock North.
Souderton (6-2, 4-1 will host Council Rock North next Friday and then close out the regular season at home against Upper Dublin.
Souderton 0-0-7-0 7
Council Rock South 7-0-0-7 14
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