CB South edged Pennsbury in an SOL National Conference battle on Saturday. Photos provided courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography.
SOL National Conference
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 12, PENNSBURY 7
Defense.
It’s the calling card of both teams in Saturday’s conference battle and all but ensured that the Titans and Falcons would not be lighting up the scoreboard. Throw in a steady drizzle and wet, slippery field, and Saturday’s game figured to be a dogfight.
It certainly was.
“We say all the time – our schedule is legit,” South coach Tim Hetrick said. “We play some good teams. The conference alone, our non-conference schedule was pretty solid this year, so it’s a gauntlet. You’ve got to be able to push a button, reset and get after it again the next week.
“You drive down to Pennsbury on a Saturday, it’s a rainy day, and it’s after a big win against West (a week earlier) – you’ve got to be able to reset and go. Our kids were ready to roll. We knew what we were going to get from Pennsbury. They’re well coached, they’re tough kids, they play very good defense, so it was definitely not a pretty win, but at the end of the day, we probably should have scored a couple more touchdowns – would have, should have could have.
"I was sort of annoyed at the end of the game because we had some missed opportunities left out on the field, but our defense shut them out, so that’s a good thing. We’ll take any win, especially against good competition like those guys. It was not pretty, but it was a win.”
The Falcons opening possession of the game stalled at their own 48, and an errant snap on the punt gave the Titans possession at the Falcons’ 20-yard line. They capitalized on the short field, and after a four-yard loss on the first play, quarterback Owen Pinkerton had back-to-back runs of 12 and 11 yards, taking the ball to the Pennsbury one where Gavin Graham punched it in for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead after a missed extra point.
“Their punter in the first half hit a few punts that just completely flipped the field,” Hetrick said. “We started two drives inside of the (10). Our defense
was playing well, and he got into these balls that just rolled, so we did not have good field position, but we also didn’t sustain the drives that we wanted to be able to sustain in the first half, so it was 6-0 at the end of the half.”
The Titans took the opening kickoff of the second half 65 yards for a touchdown. Braylen Cape had a pair of big runs on the drive – the first for 25 yards and the second for a 24-yard touchdown. In between, Pinkerton connected on a 16-yard pass to Danny Gies. The two-point conversion failed, and the Titans led 12-0.
A Falcon fumble forced and recovered by South’s Dan McCusker at the Pennsbury 26 gave the Titans a short field, but a fumble was recovered by the Falcons at the Pennsbury one-yard line where the Titans’ defense came up with three straight stops.
After a short punt by the Falcons, the Titans took over at the Pennsbury 30 and were poised to add to their lead, but a fumble in the end zone was recovered by Antonio Pehlam, who raced 101 yards for a touchdown, and just like that – after Angelo Pereira’s extra point, it was a 12-7 game. That score stood the rest of the way.
Saturday’s win belonged to a Titans’ defense that limited the Falcons to just 48 total yards. The Titans held a 73-21 advantage in offensive plays.
“Our defense had a good game,” Hetrick said. “Eddie Bowen again played a very good game. He was very active. Nick Micewski had a good game.
“We had a rotation of defensive linemen that played. Guys like Isaiah Gardner has stepped up and is doing some good things for us this year.
“Linebacker Jack Bartolillo made some plays. Jimmy Wade missed the West game last week, and he was all over the place today. We freed him up to do some things, and he’s a pretty instinctive player, and he had a great game.”
Bowen’s seven tackles led the Titans while Wade and Bartolillo each had six.
On the offensive side, Pinkerton was the Titans’ leading ground gainer with 142 rushing yards on 26 carries. Cape had 107 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries.
Pennsbury’s Chris Karamis – whose punts twice pinned the Titans’ deep – had five punts for an average of 48.6 yards with a long of 57 yards.
Central Bucks South (6-0, 2-0 SOL) will host North Penn in a battle of undefeated squads on Friday at 7:30 pm, and Pennsbury (3-3, 1-1) will host Central Bucks West on Friday at 7:30 pm.
Central Bucks South 6-0-6-0 12
Pennsbury 0-0-7-0 7
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