Dan McShane insists he doesn’t create a game plan to stop one player.
“We play our system,” the Bensalem coach said. “It’s rare that we identify a player and make them the focus of our defense. We just play our system.”
That’s not to say he hasn’t given extra thought to the task his team faces when it travels to Pennridge on Friday night. Staring across the field from the Owls’ defense will be quarterback Brad Herrmann, who rushed for three touchdowns and passed for two more in the Rams’ huge 43-42 win over Archbishop Wood.
“Their quarterback – we have to contain in our pass rush lanes,” McShane said. “They’ll have a lot of designed runs for him that most teams don’t have for their quarterback.
“We have a lot of designed runs for our quarterback (Ron Vogelei) too, so we’re pretty familiar with what’s going on there.”
On the other side of the field, Rams’ coach Randy Cuthbert is devising a game plan to slow down the Owls’ offense that is led by senior quarterback Tom Vogelei, running back Camryn Lasalle and wide receivers Tom Vogelei, Louis Vincent and Jerry Davis.
“It’s a totally different game than last week,” Cuthbert said. “Wood is power football, and Bensalem has speed, so we have to contain them.
“We just have to limit the big plays. They’re aggressive defensively, and offensively, we have to be able to run the ball better than we did last week.”
While the Rams were notching a scintillating win over Wood last week, the Owls suffered a disappointing 28-21 loss to George Washington.
“We had some kids on the bench because of injuries and disciplinary measures,” McShane said. “We feel like with all our team back we should be a decent team.
“A lot starts with our quarterback, Ronnie Vogelei, and we have Camryn Lasalle back. Late in the Washington game he really played well.”
While Cuthbert was not happy with his team’s running game, McShane is concerned about his team’s defense.
“We have been playing really poor defense,” the Owls’ coach said. “We really think it starts there. We play pretty good first and second down defense and then cannot get off the field on third down, giving up some deep balls and things like that. We have to play well in the secondary.”
If the Owls are to win, they will need to put points on the board. Ronnie Vogelei points to his offensive line as the key – Keith Everett (center), Shane Ellingsworth (right guard), Eric Massington (right tackle), John Marcelline (left guard) and Dan Lieble (left tackle).
“We need a big game out of our line,” the Owls’ QB said. “That’s how we’re going to win every game this year – with a big game from our line. I call them my family.”
Tom Vogelei also pointed to play of the Owls’ line.
“We’re going to need to outside block because we didn’t do that great,” he said. “That’s where it starts. You can’t throw the ball if you don’t block.
“You’ve got to sell everything like it’s gold. We’re all fast athletes, and we can make plays, but if there’s no blocking, you’re at fourth down and punting the ball again.”
While Herrmann stole the spotlight in Pennridge’s season opener, he wasn’t the only player to come up big.
Linebacker Ian Walbridge, who also plays fullback, had 13 tackles. Dan Pasquale returned an interception for a touchdown.
“That really jump started our comeback,” Cuthbert said of Pasquale’s pick. “Jesse Knepp, a 10th grader, had a couple of big hits, and he ran the ball well and had a touchdown catching the ball for us in overtime. There were certainly a lot of guys that stepped up. I was a team victory.”
The Owls have had the Rams’ number the last four years,
“We’ve had a pretty good track record against them the last couple of years, but we’ve also played them late in the year after they’d accumulated some losses, and their spirits are down,” McShane said. “Obviously, they had a big win against Wood, and they’re going to be more motivated in the second week of the season than they were in the 10th week last year.
“We’re very conscious of that that they’ll be very inspired.”
Cuthbert acknowledged the magnitude of his team’s win over Wood.
“We played a lot of young guys last year in the back, and even this year, we started four 10th graders, and they really played well for us,” he said. “We’re going to have a real good year this year, and we also think the future is bright.
“We have a lot of young kids that are stepping up.”
The Owls hope to bring a halt to the Rams’ early-season momentum, but they know it won’t be easy.
“Everyone has to play as a team,” Ronnie Vogelei said. “We have to play perfect.”
Friday’s game will be played at Poppy Yoder Field with a 7 p.m. kickoff.
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