Hatboro-Horsham and Pennridge were winners in Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day rivalry games. Hatboro-Horsham/Upper Moreland photos provided courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography. Pennridge/Quakertown photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko. Check back for photo galleries.
Stats used in the wraps are provided courtesy of the Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times. For complete high school football coverage, visit the web sites: http://www.theintell.com/sports and http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports.
HATBORO-HORSHAM 28, UPPER MORELAND 12
Jordan Collazo had just walked away with defensive MVP honors for the Hatters when he headed to the Upper Moreland sidelines in search of Caleb Mead, UM’s offensive MVP. For those who think it’s time to bring an end to Thanksgiving Day games, Callazo would beg to differ.
“(This game) means a lot,” Colazzo said. “We do this every year. I play against people I know and have been playing against since I was a little kid like Caleb (Mead). I’ve been playing with them since I was little, and all the way up – it’s just been a nice ride. At the end of the day, it’s bragging rights, the best versus the best.”
Somehow the players on both sides managed to ignore the sub-freezing temperatures to deliver a spirited rivalry day contest for those willing to brave the elements.
“At first when we came out to warm up, it was cold,” Collazo said. “Once we started playing, all that went away. All the pain, cold, whatever just goes away.”
“Towards the beginning of the game, you feel it the most,” senior Patrick Chapman said. “When the adrenaline kicks in and you’re in your zone, you don’t really feel it.”
Collazo stole the spotlight for the Hatters, finishing with 212 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns. He surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
“He’s an animal,” H-H coach Michael Kapusta said. “The amount of yards after contact – this whole season really, but today was a great job capping it off. He runs so hard, and he has very subtle little cuts and vision that it’s very difficult for opposing defenders.”
Collazo wasn’t the only star for the Hatters, whose defense spent the day stymying UM’s offense.
“They did a great job of containing their big play guys – number 24, Caleb (Mead), is one of the premier backs in all of District One,” Kapusta said. “We held him inside the contain pretty well all day, and they’ve got some weapons on the perimeter, and our defensive backs also played well. I was very proud of the defensive effort today.”
Mead surpassed the 100-yard mark yet again, finishing with 111 yards and two touchdowns. He closed out a stellar senior season with 1,653 yards and 15 touchdowns.
“The biggest thing was just contain,” said Chapman, who earned defensive player of the game honors for the Hatters. “He’s very shifty, but we just had to keep contain, and he wasn’t going anywhere.”
The Hatters – who led 7-0 at halftime – lost quarterback Will Reimenschneider after a 19-yard scramble to the UM 12-yard-line with 7:27 remaining in the third quarter. Three plays later, Ryley Robinson took it in from seven yards out, and the Hatters – after Jake Schalki’s extra point – led 14-0. The Golden Bears made it a 14-6 game three minutes into the fourth quarter when Mead scored from three yards out. Chapman blocked the PAT.
The Hatters – with Chapman behind center – needed just one play to get that touchdown back when Collazo scored on a 45-yard touchdown run. Schalki’s extra point put the Hatters on top 21-6.
“I was quarterback towards the beginning of the season,” said Chapman. “Will started today, and when he went down, it was just next man up. I played quarterback before, and I did what I had to do.”
The Golden Bears answered with a 52-yard scoring drive that was highlighted by a pair of Jon Knight to Jahaire Johnson passes – the first for 15 yards and the second, a 30-yard completion to the Hatters’ four-yard line. Mead took it in from there. The pass for the two-point conversation was incomplete, and the Hatters maintained a two-possession lead, 21-12.
The Hatters put the finishing touches on the win when Amir Bookard raced 17 yards for a touchdown.
The win was the third in as many years in the Thanksgiving Day series for the Hatters.
“This was awesome,” Kapusta said. “It was a lot of fun to coach. Obviously, the conditions are tough, but both teams are playing in it. The only way to stay warm is to be running around, and you tend to feel the cold less when you’re on the plus side of the scoreboard.”
Hatboro-Horsham closed out its season with a 6-4 record (4-2 SOL) while Upper Moreland finishes its year with a 3-7 mark (2-4).
Upper Moreland 0-0-0-12 12
Hatboro-Horsham 7-0-7-14 28
PENNRIDGE 37, QUAKERTOWN 6
Some traditions never get old.
The Pennridge/Quakertown Thanksgiving Day showdown clearly falls into that category. Forget the fact that temperatures never got out of the 20s with a bitterly cold wind and a chill factor in the teens. This game always draws a crowd. Thursday’s rivalry game at Quakertown’s Alumni Field once again played to a full house.
“You might have thought it was 45 and sunny,” Pennridge coach Cody Muller said. “There were people lining the fences – it was packed. They very well could have stayed home and stayed warm, but everybody was out. It was awesome.
“Being out there and just that atmosphere of that game is second to none. I’m sure it will rival what you see tomorrow night with Coatesville and North Penn (in the District One 6A title game at Pennridge), just the way the communities come out for it. It’s unreal.”
The Pennridge faithful had reason to celebrate from the outset, and interestingly, it was a called back touchdown that – although waved off – established that the Rams meant business.
“With this game, not a whole lot has to be said before it,” Muller said. “The kids are already jacked up. It’s something they’ve known and wanted to be a part of since they were little kids.
“When we got out there, our first opening kickoff unfortunately was called back for holding, but Ryan Garner taking off on kick return and scoring – I think that kind of set the tone for our guys. The juice was there.”
The juice never left for the Rams, who won their third straight rivalry game.
“You have to look at Brian Lafty up front,” Muller said. “At one point in the fourth quarter because he landed on a fumble in the end zone and scored a touchdown (in the first quarter), he comes up to me and goes, ‘Coach, not for nothing, but I’m pretty sure I’m tied for the leading scorer of this game.’ Here’s a 300-pound kid telling me this. It was funny.
“The way he played, the way our linebackers played – Chris Feralio and Shane Hartzell, our D-backs. Honestly, there’s not one kid I could name that didn’t have a tremendous game. Our offensive line – Jake Tarburton, Zack Tarburton, Eli Kantor, Brian Lafty and Joel Hartzell – was coming off the football and being physical. Seth Kerrigan and Phil Long also played on the offensive line for a couple of series. Our backs had holes to run through. We just did a tremendous job all around, all three phases.”
Garner’s kickoff return for a touchdown may have been waved off, but the Rams got on the board on a 27-yard field goal by Alex Lelii. Lafty’s fumble recovery in the end zone gave the Rams a 9-0 lead after one quarter.
In the second quarter, Zak Kantor hooked up with Connor Pleibel for a 30-yard touchdown that sent Pennridge into halftime with a 16-0 lead. In the third quarter, the Rams tacked on a pair of touchdown runs by Shane Hartzell (three yards) and Jack Ferguson (one yard) to go on top 30-0.
An 11-yard touchdown run by Quakertown senior Christian Patrick in the fourth quarter broke up the Rams’ shutout bid, but freshman Brayden Landherr answered with a seven-yard touchdown run to put the finishing touches on the big win for the Rams.
Garner’s 84 rushing yards led a balanced Ram ground attack.
Thursday’s win allowed the Rams to rewrite the ending to their season. They closed out the regular season with a heartbreaking 24-20 loss to Central Bucks East that saw the Patriots score the game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds. The loss kept the Rams out of districts and gave the Patriots a bid instead.
“It’s nice for the team, it’s nice for the seniors to go out with such a big win like that,” Muller said. “I was really proud of the way that they led in this game and the way the team responded to the numerous challenges of having that three-week layoff basically.
“Losing to CB East in heartbreaking fashion, and to respond with the kind of energy that they had – it was one of the best games I’ve been able to coach.”
The win also sent the Rams into the offseason on a positive note.
“It’s a nice send-off for the seniors, but it also gave us an opportunity – we had guys that we put in, younger guys, that really didn’t play a whole lot throughout the season and to see how they were going to respond and how they played on such a big stage is something we can truly build off of,” Muller said. “Just the momentum of this game and the win that we had, it puts us on a good note going into this offseason.”
Pennridge closed out its season with a 5-6 record (3-3 SOL) while Quakertown finished its season with a 9-4 record (4-2).
Pennridge 9-7-14-7 37
Quakertown 0-0-0-6 6
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