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Look for Chris Felton’s weekly columns over the course of the football season. Felton, who is providing color on WNPV 1440 AM’s high school football broadcasts, boasts 10 years of coaching experience at the high school level and two years at the collegiate level. Felton spent eight years coaching at Central Bucks West and one year each at Pennridge and Central Bucks East. He also had coaching stints at Delaware Valley College and Gettysburg College. In his weekly column, Felton will not only be sharing his insights into the game itself but also attempting to familiarize fans with the game.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Looking back at the North Penn’s win over Council Rock South in Friday’s district title game, what do you see as the turning point in that contest?
Chris Felton: You can’t turn the ball over in any game, let alone a District One championship. You can’t do it against any team, let alone a team that has consistently won District One like North Penn. Turning the ball over as many times as Rock South did in the game against the team they were playing against, that’s a recipe for disaster.
The one thing that needs to be understood, I think, is the fact that one of the reasons Council Rock South did turn the ball over was because North Penn was doing a terrific job of disrupting the mesh point. The mesh point is the point where the quarterback is reading his handoff key, and he’s going to ride the fullback and read the area. If you can disrupt that – you disrupt the handoff, and secondly, you can disrupt the timing of the play.
I couldn’t say enough about North Penn’s two defensive tackles – Derek Brandt and Josh Cook. They were just unbelievable on Friday night. It needs to be a team effort defensively when you’re playing against the triple option, but those two players had my first and second stars of the game. Ralph Reeves scored four touchdowns, and the offensive line played well, but again, you can’t turn the ball over in championship games. If you take a look at why teams lose football games, there are three main things that need to be avoided:
1) Turnovers
2) Penalties
3) Sacks
For Council Rock South, which doesn’t throw the ball much, sacks might not come into play, but you replace sacks with playing off schedule. What I mean by playing off schedule is you’re putting them in situations where, if they’re losing on first down, now they’re facing second and longs and third and longs, and that’s tough.
There was some discussion – I heard some people in the stands saying, ‘Throw the ball.’ You know what, people need to realize that Council Rock South was in the District One championship because those players ran a system very well throughout the entire year. It’s the type of system where – if they run it well, which they do – 14 points is nothing to overcome.
However, when you get down by three or four scores, they needed to start throwing the ball, which they did.
They did a great job throughout the entire year. Some people might not feel comfortable running that system, but the formula for success is there, and they have found it. They have it because they play good defense. They have a system of play that they’re grooming their players to run well. Their players have 100 percent buy-in. Take a look at the numbers at Council Rock South, and they’re near 100. This is going to be a program that’s here to stay for a while. This isn’t a one-and-done or a Cinderella season. Council Rock South is going to be a regular participant in the District One playoffs.
The North Penn players executed a good defensive scheme against Rock South. It wasn’t marvelous. There have been plenty of other teams that have tried to run a 44-tight or a 60 or whatever you want to call it against Council Rock South, and Rock South has racked up an unimaginable amount of yards against it. Give credit to North Penn’s coaching staff for keeping it simple and putting the kids in a position to execute, and give those kids major credit for execution.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about Saturday’s Eastern Regional final pitting North Penn against a La Salle team that has beaten the Knights in three straight games?
Chris Felton: The North Penn kids are excited about playing La Salle again, and that’s a good thing. These seniors are going to have an opportunity after they win on Saturday to say they beat every team they have ever played. They want to get to a point where they can say, ‘Hey, we beat La Salle,’ and as of right now, they can’t. They’re going to have to work hard for this win.
La Salle is 100 percent different than North Penn’s last three opponents. They couldn’t be any more different. North Penn can be real happy with their performances in the Council Rock South, Pennsbury and Neshaminy games, but this is a different animal with a completely different scheme and completely different players. North Penn is going to have to earn it. They’re going to have to earn it by playing great pass defense and putting pressure on the quarterback.
That’s what’s interesting and what’s so impressive. When you get to the Eastern Final, you’ve beaten a lot of teams and you’ve beaten a lot of different types of teams. It’s not the 1970s where you can win a state championship because you’ve beaten a lot of option teams. You have to beat a lot of good teams, a lot of good systems that are very diverse. It makes for a very interesting season. Now when they beat La Salle, they san say, ‘We beat one of the best spread teams in this area.’ Make no mistake about it – it’s going to be a challenge. North Penn is going to be challenged defensively in areas they haven’t been challenged since week three against St. Joe’s Prep. They’ve had a little bit of a break from it. Minus Central Bucks South, North Penn’s conference isn’t a pass happy conference. They beat Bayard Rustin, which likes to pass, but North Penn was the better team. This is going to be interesting. North Penn will be ready, no question about it, and they’ll play their best game of the year.