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Back for its seventh season, the popular Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features Kevin Cooney, Drew Markol and Jen Wielgus. Cooney, the Phillies beat writer, will handle the Bucks County Courier Times coverage area and also is part of a panel each Friday night on the WNPV/Intelligencer Scoreboard Show. Markol is the football beat writer for the Intelligencer area. Wielgus is a video sports reporter for the Intelligencer and Courier. All three are regular contributors on the weekly Game On show. To view this week’s show, click on the following link: http://www.theintell.com/videos/hsgameon/ To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (http://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school/) and Courier Times (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/) web sites. Check out the picks by our panel of experts: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/football-forecaster
SuburbanOneSports.com: Garnet Valley upset Neshaminy 42-14 in the quarterfinals. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “You look at Garnet Valley as the 10th seed - they’re playing all road games. They needed a miracle finish to beat CB South in their first round, and they did. They scored twice in roughly the last three minutes, and the last one came with 11 seconds to go. Neshaminy had blown out CB South a couple of weeks earlier in a game that really was no contest. People said Neshaminy was beat up, but everybody’s beat up at this time of year. Everybody has injuries, that’s part of the game unfortunately.
“Garnet Valley doesn’t throw the ball. I think they threw one pass against Neshaminy, and it was incomplete. They just run, but they run that triple option, and the quarterback – Nick Juliano – does a nice job with it. If you have a quarterback who has some deception, teams don’t see that offense that often. Council Rock South runs that option. I was shocked by that game. I really thought Neshaminy would win going away and find themselves in the semifinal, and that didn’t happen.
“I know Zach Tredway apparently had a bad leg, and he couldn’t play much at all, but again, missing one player – as good as he is – shouldn’t mean you’re going to get mercy ruled. For that to happen, I guess it calls into question the teams they played. The teams in their league are not their fault, but that’s another reason they should go back to an enrollment-based alignment instead of geography because then you’d play schools your own size. A lot of the coaches in big enrollment schools don’t want to do that because they claim they get beat up during the course of the season and come playoff time they’re spent. Well, the reverse of that happened to Neshaminy. What was their best win? You look at their win over Pennridge and maybe CB South the week before. They fell behind to Pennridge, and maybe that should have told us something.
“There was a good group of seniors at Neshaminy that had a lot of wins – Tredway, Mason Jones and Will Dogba. That was the core of the team for a long time. There really is no shame in going 11-1, but I think they thought and I think we thought maybe they would go further, but that’s why you play the games.”
Kevin Cooney: “Watching the video feed of that game, the turnovers came back and haunted them. Sometimes when you turn the ball over like they have the past couple of weeks, the snowball gets rolling, and that’s kind of what happened. Look, Garnet Valley had a good matchup against them. They were able to play up tempo and really seemed to keep Neshaminy back on its heels. In the end, they just looked like a team that ran out of gas the last couple of weeks.
“We sometimes forget these are 15, 16, 17-year-old kids, and sometimes when you’re perfect through a season, it takes a lot out of you emotionally, having to defend that at a certain point going forward. I think with Neshaminy it just got to a point where they looked spent the last couple of weeks – at least watching the video feed, they looked spent. It’s still a hell of a year, but it looked like a team that just ran out of gas.
“Neshaminy had a very good season. You don’t go 11-1, win a conference title and go undefeated in the regular season and – say, oh, it’s a bad season. Thinking back, their tight games were non-conference games except for the Bensalem game. Bensalem was the one tight conference game. Everybody else they kind of took care of fairly easily. I’m wondering if, in a way, when all your non-league games are tight and all your conference games aren’t, if that kind of threw them for a loop and then you have back-to-back weeks where someone is laying a haymaker at you. Look, it’s still a heck of a year.”
Jen Wielgus: “I didn’t think the Pennridge game was a fluke (a 26-21 Neshaminy win) as much as I thought that Pennridge just played the way Pennridge could play, but Neshaminy’s defense had no answer for Garnet Valley’s option attack. Again, it brings us full circle to what we talked about at the beginning of the season, which was overvaluing our local Suburban One teams. Really, looking at who Neshaminy played – did we really get a feel for how good they really were? I don’t know. I don’t think so. Even in that CB South game which ended up being a blowout (a 42-14 Redskin win), they left CB South move the ball up and down the field, but South could not score.
“Garnet Valley really took it to them on the ground, and Garnet Valley is a one-dimensional team. They had one pass attempt that fell incomplete. They just ran it and ran it and ran it, and Neshaminy couldn’t stop them. Now Neshaminy hurt themselves. They turned the ball over and could not get anything going offensively. They were missing Zach Tredway for much of the game. He caught one pass, but that kid was hobbled and probably shouldn’t have played anyway. I don’t know if his absence was the difference in a 42-14 game, but he definitely makes a huge difference because he’s their best player on defense, and he’s a team leader. I know it takes some of the air out of your sails if you don’t have a kid like him on the field.
“I definitely think that I have been guilty – and all of us on the ‘Game On’ show have been guilty – of overvaluing our local Suburban One teams and taking lightly some of the other teams in the district. Garnet Valley, as a 10 seed, really looks like they belong here based on what they’ve accomplished.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn looked like it was on its way to an easy win, but Spring-Ford came back to make it interesting before the Knights earned a 28-19 win. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “They were just making it look easy. They were picking them apart and running all over them. The game was barely five minutes old and it was 21-0 North Penn, and you’re thinking – do they start the mercy rule in the first quarter because, obviously, that’s where it looked like it was headed. I was on the Spring-Ford sideline, and there was nothing – there was no emotion, they were stunned, and then all of a sudden, they get a little life to them. Boy, to their credit, they came back flying, and before you know it, it’s 21-19, and you’re like, ‘My god.’ Every ounce of momentum was on Spring-Ford’s side at the half, and to see that happen at Crawford Stadium – it never happens.
“Spring-Ford was getting the ball to start the third quarter, and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘They’re going to get the ball, they’re going to go down and score, and they’re going to have a lead.’ You start doing the math – should they go for two if they score and all that kind of stuff and what kind of trouble North Penn might be in. And then, boy oh boy, did North Penn just absolutely squeeze them in the second half. They couldn’t do anything. Spring-Ford had one first down in the second half, and they had barely 50 yards of offense in the half. They couldn’t move an inch. Ricky Johns had the best game I’ve ever seen him have. He caught a pass, and two of Spring-Ford’s defenders hit him at the same time on opposite sides, and neither one of them decided to wrap him up, so they both fell onto the ground, and he just ran into the end zone. He could have gone down – he got whacked, and he admitted afterwards that he got his bell rung. I’m sure he did because he got hit pretty hard by both of these guys, but neither one of them wrapped him up, so he was able to stay up, he ran into the end zone and that was it. He also made a great interception on a tough play that really sort of sealed everything.
“I think it was good for North Penn to be pushed. They hadn’t had that. In their non-league games, they had a nice win over La Salle to start the season, but as we’ve learned, it was a pretty good La Salle team but not a vintage La Salle team. Then they went and beat Downingtown East, which lost to Perk Valley in another quarterfinal, which was a good win for them, and then they beat a Pennsbury team that struggled this year.”
SuburbanOneSports: North Penn takes on a Coatesville team that defeated Ridley 42-21 in a quarterfinal game. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “This game with Coatesville, to me, is the de facto district title game. You look at Perk Valley playing Garnet Valley in the other semifinal – I have not been a huge Perk Valley supporter all season, and I think they’re going to beat Garnet Valley. Of course, I thought CB South would beat Garnet Valley, and I thought Neshaminy would beat Garnet Valley, but I think Perkiomen Valley will beat them, and I think they’ll play North Penn.
“You look at Coatesville, and people have said they’re a year away because they have a lot of good young players. They took Ridley apart, which is very impressive. Coatesville has the freshman quarterback, Ricky Ortega, who I haven’t seen. He’s supposedly really, really good, and his father is the coach, so you have that father-son dynamic that you had last year with the Stovers at Upper Dublin – the coach and the quarterback. That’s a pretty good combination. You wonder – this is a high school freshman, a 15-year-old kid coming into North Penn, and you’re facing players like Ricky Johns. He’s a man going to West Virginia. Two years ago, you could see him emerging, and now he’s truly emerged.
“I just think it’s a lot for Coatesville to come in here. Coatesvile has a ton of speed, but North Penn has the speed to keep up with anybody. North Penn had a lot of penalties in its win over Spring-Ford. Coach Dick Beck talked about that. The way they were jumping offsides – it was uncharacteristic stuff. I’ve been covering North Penn football for 25 years, and in the Pettine era and the Beck era, there are very few penalties like that. They had over a 100 yards in penalties, and they may have been able to get away with it against Spring-Ford. If they do the same against Coatesville, which I don’t think they will, maybe they don’t get away with it.
“We’ve talked about it before – I still think we’re destined for a state semifinal/Eastern Final with North Penn against St. Joe’s Prep, but again, my predictions have been a little shaky. I’ve been behind North Penn since the start of the season. I’m not exactly going out on a limb, I understand, but I think they’ll be fine. The weather is supposed to be nice. North Penn likes to throw, and you don’t want 25 degrees and snow. I think it will be a good game. I just think North Penn has a little bit too much for Coatesville.”
Kevin Cooney: “Let’s call it like it is – this is the unofficial district title game. When this bracket came out, we always wondered what would North Penn-Coatesville look like because Coatesville’s speed is one that can match up against North Penn in District One and especially North Penn’s skill position players. You can read a lot into each game. Coatesville blew out Ridley, who in theory is a much higher level opponent, and North Penn struggled with Spring-Ford.
“I think it was good that North Penn got pushed. I think part of it was a little sloppiness. They committed a ton of penalties, and I thought that was a big factor in what happened. It was enough to stem momentum on drives and keep them flat footed. Again, I think North Penn will play a cleaner game this time, and also, a part of this – as a team, you need a big challenge game, and this is the big challenge game. Everyone knows it’s the big challenge game. I’m going to be fascinated to see how they respond this week. I think this will be a good game.
“I think the one big factor that’s in North Penn’s advantage going into this game – besides the fact that they received a scare last week, Dick Beck at Crawford Stadium is almost unbeatable as we’ve seen through the years. The other part of this is Coatesville having to go on the road, having to make that long trip – which we know is a big factor at this time of year. People don’t talk about that, but teams having to get on the bus to come all the way to Lansdale – you can lose that game on the bus in a lot of ways just because it’s a lot of time you’re sitting and thinking, you’re anxious. Meanwhile, if you’re North Penn, you’re in familiar surroundings. I think home field is a big, big advantage for North Penn this week.
“I’ll give North Penn the edge, but this is the tightest game they’ll have in the district this year.”
Jen Wielgus: “It looks like the Coatesville-North Penn game is going to be a great game this weekend. Having been to North Penn, I know they’re confident going in, but looking at it from the outside, that looks to be a really good matchup because both teams are very versatile and can do everything. The home field advantage is huge for North Penn.
“Also big for North Penn is the fact that they were able to rally in the second half after leading by two at halftime against Spring-Ford. I think they showed a lot. Spring-Ford is a team that was scoring 30 points a game and only got 19 at North Penn. You can’t expect North Penn to go in and blow all these teams out. There’s supposed to be good games this time of year, and they needed something like this. If we’re all correct as ‘experts’ – which is a loose term, North Penn is eventually going to run into St. Joe’s Prep, which is the favorite to win the title in 6A, and lord knows they’re going to need those moments when they were up against it at halftime – they’re only up by two points at home, and it’s the possible end of their season. What did they do? They answered the bell.
“They’re probably going to have another chance to do that again this week because Coatesville can run it, they can throw it, they’re well coached. They’re probably really confident coming in despite the fact that they have to take that long bus ride to Crawford Stadium where North Penn has never lost in the playoffs. That’s a huge advantage for North Penn.
“Garnet Valley is at Perk Valley in the other semifinal – I think most people think Perk Valley is going to win that one. Obviously, we have been picking against Garnet Valley this entire time, and they’ve gone on the road and felled two of the top teams from our area, so who knows what’s going to happen.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin saw its season end in a quarterfinal loss to West Chester Henderson. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Good job by Upper Dublin to get as far as they did. They were decimated by graduation of last year’s district title team. We talked about the fact that the kids that are playing this year may have played, but they weren’t playing at the start of the game. For them to be able to get as far as they did after losing that many kids, that bodes well and tells you more about the program they have and not just the team. Every couple years you have a good team, but if you have a good program, you always have a good team. Sometimes you just have teams that are better than others.
“This is a case where they lose everybody and their brother from last year’s district title team and they still make a nice run. They shared the American Conference title, and they get to the District One 5A quarterfinals. That’s a good job by Bret Stover. He’s obviously got it working there. I also give him credit – a lot of coaches, when their sons leave or graduate, they also step down and go watch their kids play in college. I don’t blame them – if I had been at a place for a while and my son had come through and was going to play in college, I might do it too, but he didn’t. He stuck with that team, and they’re legit. Imagine how much this season is going to help them next season. It all just snowballs, and that’s how you do it. I was happy for them. It’s good to see.”
Kevin Cooney: “When this season came in, are you thinking Upper Dublin is going to be in two home playoff games? Probably not. Bret Stover deserves a ton of credit. Basically, his team changed styles. They were more defense-oriented than offense-oriented this year. They lost a tough game to West Chester Henderson, but it’s a hell of a year.
“If they hadn’t lost the game to PW, quite obviously they would have been a higher seed and maybe would have gotten a little better matchup in that tournament. That tournament was so top heavy that you’re only talking five or six deep, and they ended up with team five.”