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This week’s Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ features high school football beat writer Kevin Cooney as well as Chris Felton, who is now providing color on WNPV 1440 AM’s high school football broadcasts. Felton boasts 10 years of coaching experience at the high school level and two years at the collegiate level. Cooney, who also is the Phillies beat writer, continues to cover schools in the Intelligencer area. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the web site www.PhillyBurbs.com.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Share your thoughts about North Penn’s big win over La Salle in last Saturday’s PIAA Class AAAA Eastern Final.
Kevin Cooney: I think the one thing that impressed me most about the way North Penn handled things on Saturday was the idea that they did it with defense. The offense was not bad, but it certainly was not what we have seen through the district playoffs. We have seen a North Penn team that has put up a lot of points and has been dominant, but on Saturday, North Penn’s defense held its own.
At the end of the first half La Salle goes down and scores to tie the game (14-14), and you’re thinking, ‘Here we go. This is what happened last year.’ For North Penn to hold La Salle scoreless in the second half was huge, especially when you consider that there were three built-in momentum turners, and after all of them, they found a way to get the job done. The three-and-out after La Salle’s goal line stand was huge. On the next defensive series, North Penn recovered a fumble, and after La Salle stopped North Penn on another fourth down late in the game, Gozur came up with an interception with La Salle in North Penn territory to basically end the game.
North Penn’s defense is driving the engine, which is not what was expected when you saw this team the first three weeks. You thought for sure that the offense would take them as far as they went, and the defense would be their weak link. It’s been the complete opposite. I think their defense has been the strongest part of the whole thing through districts.
North Penn hasn’t had a mercy rule game, and for all the years that North Penn has been THE team, that’s stunning that they haven’t had a mercy rule game through the whole postseason.
North Penn’s offense did a good job of controlling the ball. There was a lot of ball control. They kept La Salle’s offense off the field enough that North Penn’s defense didn’t get worn down, but whenever they needed to, it was the defense that made the biggest plays of the game.
SuburbanOneSports.com: There weren’t many who predicted North Penn would be playing for a state championship. Your comments about that the fact the Knights will be playing for a state title after a 1-2 start.
Kevin Cooney: I thought I would be going to Hershey, but I knew it would be with Archbishop Wood. What has been so remarkable about this run – it feels like yesterday that North Penn won the state title, and then you realize it was eight years. You look at the good teams they’ve had, which talent-wise probably were better than this team. You look at last year’s team with the three running backs and all the offensive weapons they had and, probably on paper, had a better defense. You look at the ’08 team that had a lot of weapons. Dick Beck mentioned the ’04 team – the year after the state title was really good until they had some issues down the stretch. You look at all the North Penn teams that didn’t get there or fell a step short, and this is probably the most unlikely team of Beck’s coaching career to go, and they’re the favorite going into this game. If they had played North Allegheny, North Allegheny would be the clear favorite. Central Dauphin is tough. They’re gritty and all that, but North Penn is the favorite. You have to figure North Penn has overcome a lot to get to this point, and they’re playing on such an emotional high.
The one fear I have coming into this game – and I know it’s the state final and it seems silly to say this, but that La Salle game was so emotional, was so physical. Beck said they’re as healthy as they’ve been all year when I talked to him, but you wonder how much emotionally you have left in your tank after a game like that. North Penn is doing the ride in one day – they’re not staying out at Hershey. There are some intangibles that concern me.
Everybody points out – well, they’re 18-year-old kids, and they’re playing for a state title. Yes, but you saw what happened to La Salle last year after they played that meat grinder 38-35 game against North Penn. Granted, La Salle’s offense is based on a different dynamic than North Penn’s. La Salle was chuck-and-duck and throw it all over the yard, and they had a cold and windy day, and that hurt. That’s a fear of mine – that the emotion of the moment of last week leads to a hangover this week.
The one thing that has helped North Penn is they haven’t played a meat grinder playoff game. If they had three or four of these, I would be concerned. La Salle had a game against Nazareth the week before they played North Penn that was that kind of game, and even their Catholic League title game against Roman was an emotional game.
You look at it, and North Penn didn’t play a close game for a number of weeks. Their first round game against Rustin was closer than anyone expected, but Neshaminy wasn’t close, Pennsbury wasn’t close and CR South wasn’t close. That does help them that they haven’t had to go through this on an every-week basis to the point where it becomes emotionally draining. By the same token, I’m going to be interested to see how the first quarter of this game plays out – if there’s a hangover.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about Saturday’s game against Central Dauphin?
Kevin Cooney: District 3 hasn’t sent anyone onto this stage for a long time, since 1995. It’s not the traditional team you would expect. They were helped out last week – North Allegheny had seven or eight personal fouls and got penalized. That’s one thing North Penn has really avoided – the penalties.
One of the things I’m going to be interested in is where are the officials coming from, and I say that with all due respect. If it’s WPIAL crew, they’ll call a game different than a District 2 crew out of Scranton. How much are they going to let teams get away with on holds, especially a power football team like North Penn that is going to use its line to try and wear you down. That may be the first indicator of how the night is going to go when you see which district this crew is from. I thought last week’s officials from, I believe District 3, let them play. I thought they were really good. It will be interesting to see where Saturday’s crew comes from and how they handle the early going.
You have to figure Central Dauphin, because of its close proximity to Hershey, is going to have a huge crowd, and I want to see if the officials get a little bit intimidated by a big crowd representing basically the home team.
Prediction: North Penn 27, Central Dauphin 17
I’ll be honest – if they played North Allegheny, I’d pick North Allegheny, but the way they’re playing right now – at some point you throw football logic out the window. What I mean by that is quite simply – if you matched them up on paper, I think North Penn is the better team. I think they have a lot of intangibles going their way right now, and there’s a sense that I can’t see them being denied. Is that the most sound logic in the world? No, but it’s kind of what I see right now. I think both teams will turn the ball over a little bit.
What I think this year has proved – and we’re looking at a grand overview of the year – is that very different methods work. It used to be everybody was so into the Mike Pettine model of pound and pound and pound and throw only when you needed to. It was not a necessity (to throw), and you kind of grind teams out. Now we’ve gone into a model where you have a CB South that runs a spread offense. You have North Penn, which is a little more of a traditional set, and it adapts a defensive philosophy to fit the personnel at hand. You have Archbishop Wood that has all these D-1 players and basically punches you in the mouth.
All these different ways – you have private schools, public schools, and it’s a lot different than it was 10 years ago. I think all of them have a bit of versatility. Everybody thinks with a spread offense you’re throwing the ball all over the field. CB South ran the ball very effectively. Everybody thinks of the old Pettine model of running, but then you look at North Penn. What North Penn has done is they have found a way to throw the ball effectively, play good ball control as far as they don’t turn the ball over – they put a premium on keeping the ball and not giving short fields. Wood has all these D-1 players, but some of these little guys who won’t be going D-1 have stepped in and made big contributions for them.
To me, that’s the storyline of the year. There’s not a single method anymore. It’s more sophisticated, there’s more adaptation and gray area than there’s ever been in this game, and we’re going to see that this weekend.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about Kevin’s suggestion that – unlike in the past – the methods of winning programs are more varied than they were a decade ago?
Chris Felton: In terms of offense, your system needs to be adaptable to your current talent, and they need to be able to execute the system. Successful coaches have a learnable and likable system. The key here is a system that is adaptable to your talents rather than just a collection of plays and formations.
Offensively, Mike Pettine was successful not because he had a huge team and ran a smash-mouth approach but because he ran a system that was adaptable to the talents of his team and he knew how to put his players in positions to be successful.
It was the right system for the right players in the right time.
Today many feel that CB South has the right system. The system worked for South, but every year is different. South will have new players, and opposing defenses will adjust to their schemes. I have no doubt that coach Dave Rackovan will adapt. As their offense is adopted by more teams, other defenses will adapt. That is the nature of the game.
Look at CR South - they have many defensive coordinators scratching their heads, but if this was the 1970s, all defenses would have an answer.
The most important key to any system is execution. Great coaches view execution as a strategy in of itself.
One other concept to consider is this idea. Football has adapted in much the same fashion as war has adapted. In the past, the general idea of war was to outman your opponent at the point of attack. Battle lines were drawn and all resources were dedicated to capturing your enemy's capital. We have seen this approach throughout history. Recent wars have seen the enemy utilize space more than manpower. We saw this in Vietnam where the enemy utilized strategies that forced us to "cover" the entire country. This proved to be an immensely difficult task.
We are seeing the same concepts in football. The trend today that many teams are adopting is not outmanning at the point of attack but instead forcing the opponent to cover the entire football field. Remember the field is 53 1/2 yards wide, and it is difficult to defend it all at the same time. CB South does a great job of winning the spacing battle.
SuburbanOneSports.com: After watching North Penn defeat La Salle 21-14, what were some of your observations?
Chris Felton: I thought North Penn had improved from their week one performance against La Salle. Probably the biggest difference was they limited the big plays. Although La Salle had its opportunities and seemed to chip away at North Penn’s defense, there was never that big play that kind of turned the tide for La Salle. They had one big play early in the second quarter, but besides that, you never thought La Salle was going to threaten deep, particularly in the second half there after North Penn made some good adjustments.
I thought North Penn played a little looser in the secondary in the sense of alignments. They didn’t get impatient, La Salle was trying to hit them with shorter patterns but at no point did you see them cut their alignment up to take away the seven or eight-yard pattern. I thought Dick Beck and Eddie Harkins did a nice job of scheming. They did a nice job of taking away the run, the inside and outside zone play away from La Salle. Shayne Watson had a great game. The outside backers, particularly Danny Wynne, also played well, and I was impressed to see them use Ralph Reeves on the outside at times. To take away the run they used a heavier front called a 50 front. This is the right scheme against the outside zone run. There were some great timeouts - for example, before the fourth down play late in the game, the North Penn coaching staff noticed that Wade was lined up at fullback, and they called a timeout. La Salle came out in the same formation and attempted to run trap with Wade at fullback, but North Penn was ready. They called an all-pinch and stuffed the play.
SuburbanOneSports.com: In what areas do you think North Penn is most improved?
Chris Felton: Their secondary is much improved. Additionally, North Penn did a nice job of getting pressure on the quarterback. They did a very nice job of stopping the run. Offensively, James Fielder had a terrific game running the ball hard. North Penn did a nice job of utilizing all of their weapons.
Overall, this team and specifically, these seniors are going the state championship because they are people with character, they are resilient, and they didn't quit when times got tough. In short, they are good people who happen to be good football players.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts on North Penn’s upcoming state title game against Central Dauphin?
Chris Felton: I know that Central Dauphin has an exceptional defense. For them to beat North Allegheny, they must have played a terrific game. I think North Penn needs to follow the same recipe they’ve been following since week three and specifically in the playoffs. They need to control the football, they can’t turn the ball over and they need to play good defense. You take a look at North Penn – they avoid penalties, they don’t turn the ball over, they don’t give up sacks, and for the most part, they prevent big plays. I think when you have those four things going for you plus good talent and good coaching – it’s a pretty good combination, and it’s one championship teams have followed in the past.
Prediction: North Penn 21, Central Dauphin 13. I see North Penn improving every week, and they beat one of the top teams in the state in La Salle. I still think District One is one of the better districts in the state. I see a tight game, a defensive battle.