Check also for SuburbanOneSports.com’s complete coverage of Friday night’s Council Rock South/Neshaminy contest as well as Saturday’s William Tennent/Truman game.
Rob Basile hasn’t forgotten last year’s 49-13 loss to North Penn. Neither have his Quakertown teammates.
On Friday night, the two teams will meet again, and the Panthers – just as they were last year – are 5-1 while the Knights are undefeated. The Panthers’ only loss came at the hands of Hatboro-Horsham. Again, just like last year.
That, according to Basile, is where the similarities end.
“Last year was our first year winning, our first year getting on a roll and having a good season like that,” the Panthers’ middle linebacker said. “We were still coming together as a young team, and we had a lot of success coming off our 1-11 season.
“I think we came together even more as a team this year. It’s basically the same group of guys as last year, and we’re even tighter this year and much stronger in all aspects.”
The Panthers know they can ill afford the kind of start they had in last year’s game, which was all but over before halftime. “I’m not going to lie – North Penn is an amazing team,” Basile said. “They have a great, strong program down there.
“We went into the game last year, and we thought we were ready, but the score showed we weren’t ready. We came far, but we weren’t ready for them. I think it’s different this year.”
The Knights, the state’s top-ranked team according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, boast an arsenal of weapons. Senior quarterback Todd Smolinsky has thrown for 767 yards and 12 touchdowns during a stellar season. His favorite receiver, senior Dom Taggart, has 15 receptions for 263 yards and five touchdowns.
In last week’s rout of Central Bucks West, the senior QB was just about perfect, completing 6-of-7 passes for 167 yards and four touchdowns.
“The more I play the more comfortable I feel with the offense,” Smolinsky said. “The whole team is coming together. Me and the receivers are all on the same page now, we’re trusting our offensive line to block, and everything seems to be clicking better.
“As the season goes along, we’re picking up more confidence and feel like we can do more and more each week.”
Throw in junior running back Craig Needhammer, who has close to 700 rushing yards and is also a dangerous receiver out of the backfield, and the Panthers’ defense faces a daunting task.
“Todd’s been great, and Dom Taggart is really starting to come into his own offensively,” coach Dick Beck said. “Obviously, everybody now knows who Needhammer is and what he can do.
“I think we have developed a pretty strong receiving crew with Gerard Windowski, T.J. Gill and Dom Taggart. Those three guys are all about 6-0 or 6-1. They all can jump, they have great hands, they run good patterns and have pretty good speed.”
So how do the Panthers prepare for the Knights?
“Our coach even said – we prepare in much the same way we prepare for every team,” Basile said. “We’ve been working hard all year.
“They play the game great, but we can’t put them on a pedestal and act like they’re so far above us, which they’re not. We practice hard, and in the end, we’re just going to go out there and give it all we’ve got.”
No team has scored more than 14 points off the Knights this season, and they have outscored their opponents 215-45.
Despite their success, the Knights are not satisfied.
“It’s not always preparing for the other team – it’s about getting better and taking steps forward,” Needhammer said. “Our defense has just been fantastic all year.
“Everybody is doing their responsibilities, and teams are having trouble scoring points on us. Our offense is really good, and the ‘O’ line has been great all year. We had so many new faces coming in, and everyone stepped up.”
The Knights are coming off a pair of wins that saw them outscore their opponents 90-7. They welcome the challenge of facing a talented Quakertown squad.
“They’re a solid team, and we really have to be hitting on all cylinders if we want to win,” Needhammer said.
“We’ve been real focused this week,” Smolinsky said. “The coaches have been making sure we realize we’re playing a very good team this week.
“We’re having long practices and watching a lot of film. As a team, we love playing these kinds of games because there’s nothing better than playing another good team.”The Knights’ defense will have to contend with a potentially explosive Panther offense that features running back Tony Latronica, who already holds the school record for all-purpose yards and career rushing yards. This season he has rushed for 558 yards with 10 touchdowns.
Last week, Tyler Burke stole the spotlight for the Panthers with his 137-yard effort out of the backfield. The Panthers received a major boost with the return to the lineup of senior quarterback Ryan Tincknell , who was sidelined with a dislocated elbow in his non-throwing arm.
Tincknell threw for 94 yards and three touchdowns.
“Ryan was great through the weeks that he was injured,” Donnelly said. “He did a great job of helping Kurt Roberts and was very productive. On top of that, he rehabbed extremely hard to get back to where he is.
“When he got back in the lineup, it allowed us to put Kurtis back outside. It just made us stronger as an offensive unit.”
Beck recognizes his team is facing a Quakertown squad on a mission.
“They have some guys that are dangerous, and we have to keep them in front of us and not give up the big play,” he said. “We also have to continue to do what we’re doing offensively.
“We have to keep scoring and making big plays. One of the reasons our defense is so good is because our offense has been scoring points and putting us ahead, so our defense can be more aggressive. Hopefully, that can continue on Friday night.”
Donnelly’s game plan against the Knights is pretty basic.
“They’re going to try and impose their will as they do many weeks on a team early,” he said. “What we have to do – we have to make some big plays on special teams early.
“Offensively, we have to take care of the football and we have to put points on the board and put stress on their offense. When it comes time for our defense to take the field, we can’t let them have two or three-play drives that result in touchdowns. We have to make them work for every yard they earn.”
Does last year’s loss serve as motivation?
“That’s the only thing we can use it for,” Donnelly said. “You don’t want to live in the past too much, but we pulled out some plays from last year’s game that we included to show the guys on Monday. You could see the blood was boiling a little bit.
“The biggest thing we’re trying to do is embrace the situation we’re in but not feel an enormous amount of pressure. We don’t want our guys to feel they have the weight of the world on their shoulders.”
Kickoff at Quakertown is at 7 p.m., and the school community is expected to turn out in force to support their football squad.
“We have really good spirit at Quakertown,” Donnelly said. “There’s a lot of buzz right now in the school. It’s been that way since Monday.
“I know the town is excited. Between the team, the cheerleaders and the band – those three groups do such a great job of making Friday nights fun, and this Friday night being ‘Band Night,’ you have all three important phases of the school coming together, and that doesn’t happen in any other sport.”
“I don’t think you can be any more excited for any game,” Basile added. “Our coach has said it’s the biggest game in Quakertown history.
“For us, it’s really an honor to play a team like this that’s proven they’re so good. If we can beat them, it will just make it all the better. I know they’re a great team, I know we’re a great team, and I’m just excited to go out there and maybe prove a lot of people wrong tomorrow night.”
The Knights are accustomed to creating extra excitement when they come to town.
“We love that,” Smolinsky said. “We expect that every year – we expect to be the best team on every team’s schedule, so when we do hear about how fired up other teams are to play us, that makes us want to play even harder.”
Last year: North Penn 49, Quakertown 13
Last week: North Penn 49, Central Bucks West 7 (QB Todd Smolinsky completed 6-of-7 passes for 167 yards and four touchdowns. Dom Taggart hauled in five passes for 107 yards and three TDs. Troy Brosky had 85 yards rushing.)
Quakertown 42, Central Bucks South 23 (Ryan Tincknell completed 5-of-9 passes for 94 yards and three touchdowns. Tony Latronia ha 68 yards rushing, 51 yards receiving and scored 3 TDs. Tyler Burke had 137 yards on the ground and one touchdown.)
*Statistics courtesy of The Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times.
On the air…
On Friday night, WBCB 1490 AM will broadcast the Pennsbury at Bensalem football game live at 7 p.m. with the pre-game show beginning at 6 p.m. The Neshaminy at Council Rock South game will be streamed on the internet at www.wbcb1490.com, beginning at 7 p.m. with pre-game beginning at 6:45 p.m. The Pennsbury/Bensalem game will be re-broadcast on the web following the CR South/Neshaminy game.
At 7 p.m. on Friday night, the North Penn at Quakertown contest will be broadcast live on WNPV 1440 AM.
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