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Back for its 10th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writers Drew Markol and Todd Thorpe.
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SuburbanOneSports.com: The SOL Continental boasts a pair of undefeated teams in Central Bucks West and Souderton with two marquee games coming up this weekend. Talk about that conference.
Drew Markol: “Good job by CB West (a 35-0 winner over Pennridge). They got a big lead on Pennridge – they were up 28-0 at the half - and took it to them right away. West is 6-0, and they probably clinched a playoff spot already. They haven’t been 6-0 since they went to the state finals in 2000 when they were 14-0 and they lost in the state final. It’s just been a remarkable season for a team that only has a roster with 40 players. You don’t see 6A programs that small. Jack Fallon, their running back who has been a touchdown machine, scored a couple of touchdowns against Pennridge, and they barely played him in the second half. They know they can’t play him because if he gets hurt they’re in trouble. They go out and build big leads, and they’ve been able to do that. I don’t know if they’ll be able to keep doing it, but it’s working so far.
“On Friday, they host CB East, their biggest rival. They’ve already beaten South, so if they can beat East, they’ll win the Central Bucks Cup which goes to the team that beats the other two. This matters to these kids. This cup is very important. If you talk to any player from South, East or West, that’s their first goal – to win this cup. West hasn’t had it since 2013. Now they have a chance to get it back if they beat East. It should be a good game. East is not bad at all. They gave unbeaten Souderton a battle until the fourth quarter when Souderton was able to pull away. If you’ve ever been to an East/West game, the atmosphere is very intense, and it will be the same way this Friday because obviously East wants to ruin West’s undefeated season. We’ll see what happens. I think that’s one of the more intriguing games of this coming weekend as should be Souderton/North Penn.
“Souderton is 6-0 after only winning four games last year, but the team everybody measures themselves against in the Continental is North Penn, and until somebody beats them, it will always be North Penn. Can Souderton – who hasn’t beaten North Penn in forever – beat them? Those are two games I’m looking forward to. It’s nice to have conference games this late in the season that have title implications.
“Pennridge hasn’t been able to score any points this season. They won their first game of the season against Delaware Valley, and since then, they’ve lost five in a row. It just looks like they almost play waiting for something to go wrong. That’s a hard way to do it. They ran into a buzz saw in West last week, and they fell behind early on. They don’t have enough offense to recover. Their running game has been sporadic, and they’ve struggled with their passing game. They need to keep every opponent to 10 or 14 points, and that’s hard to do. They haven’t been able to do that.
“If we had to make predictions, I would go with North Penn winning a tight one against Souderton. I think West beats East – it will be close, but I think West has a little too much balance for East. East is very reliant on the passing game, and they’re good at it, but everybody knows they have a hard time running the ball. Anthony Gioardano, the junior quarterback, has done a great job for East playing against opposition that all know he’s going to be throwing. With CB South, I just think Pennridge is struggling so much and South is trying to find a way to get a playoff berth. I like South there. Pennridge is going to miss the playoffs, and they’re going to have a long wait until they play Quakertown. It’s going to be about a five-week wait, which is a nightmare for a coaching staff. That’s why a lot of the Thanksgiving games went away because the season ends so soon, thanks to the PIAA and the beloved state playoffs that they have to have. If you didn’t make the playoffs, you had to wait forever to play on Thanksgiving, and teams didn’t want to do that because it’s hard to keep kids interested for five weeks without a game. Quakertown and Pennridge might be facing the same thing if both don’t make the district playoffs. That could make for a very sloppy Thanksgiving game. They’ll try and play contingency games and all that stuff, but it’s still a long wait.”
Todd Thorpe: “In the Continental, we’re still looking at the two undefeated teams in CB West and Souderton, and then you’ve got North Penn. They’re all rolling, and they continue to roll every week. It’s kind of interesting how it’s panned out because you have CB West and Souderton having these breakout seasons, but you don’t know where they stand because they haven’t played the big bad wolf yet. That’s the big one – when you play North Penn. Drew and I were talking about it – when you look at CB West’s schedule from here on out, they have a pretty tough schedule. They have CB East, and that’s never a gimme by any stretch of the imagination. You look at it on paper, and that’s a pretty close game. They also have to play North Penn, they have to play Souderton, they’ve got to play Abington. They have a really, really tough schedule to close the year, so it’s good for them that they’ve got those six wins in the bank.
“Souderton is another one. They don’t win by 35 points every week, but they win. They’re just finding ways to win, and they’re scoring points too. This week they have North Penn. How close are they to North Penn? That’s the question because when you go back and look, it’s been an awfully long time since Souderton has won this game. There have been years when you thought Souderton had some really, really good teams, but yet they go down the street to Towamencin or they welcome the Knights to Souderton, and the result has been pretty much all in North Penn’s favor. You have to think this is the year they’re looking at because North Penn is inexperienced. We’re six games in, and Dick Beck said it last week – how inexperienced are they. The quarterback, Ryan Zeltt, is not a freshman anymore. Well, he really is, but he’s gotten a lot of experience, and their running back, sophomore Khaloni Eaton, has just been tremendous. Souderton is a very experienced team. They’ve been through the battles. A lot of the guys on this team were on the team last year that went through that game against North Penn (a 29-27 North Penn win that Souderton saw slip away at the end). This is their chance. This is the one you build for, and this is what you do the whole offseason for. That’s a great rivalry too. There are two really good rivalry games in that conference.
“In the East/West game, I’m going with CB West – East has lost three in a row, and there’s not anybody West has played that’s been able to stop Jack Fallon. As for North Penn/Souderton, I still like North Penn. Until somebody beats North Penn, I’m not going to pick against them.
“La Salle – the only team to beat North Penn - was completely manhandled by St. Joe’s Prep on Saturday. I was at that game, and it might have been the biggest mismatch you could think of in the Continental Conference. Every single thing went right for St. Joe’s Prep. It looked like jayvee against varsity, and the fact that La Salle handled North Penn – you have to really wonder if everybody else in 6A is playing for second place. La Salle was a 5-0 team, it’s a huge crowd, and the Prep comes out and just kills them. La Salle’s got a pretty good team, but Prep’s got a team with not only Division I talent, they may have some NFL players on that team. Marvin Harrison Jr is a phenomenal wide receiver. Their quarterback is really good. There are no boundaries there, and that’s just a sign of – where is La Salle? Are they that much better than North Penn? Should we really judge that much on that game? Is North Penn a better team now than they were in week two when they played La Salle? We’ll find out certainly when the postseason comes up. I expect North Penn to win Friday night by a couple of touchdowns.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: In the National Conference, Abington earned a convincing win over Neshaminy. This weekend Truman takes on Pennsbury. Your thoughts about that conference.
Todd Thorpe: “The Abington/Neshaminy contest was a close game for one half, but Abington was unstoppable in the second half. It was a 14-7 game at halftime. Neshaminy had a chance late in the half to knock one in and tie it up or get a field goal, but they lose their wide receiver and playmaker Ian Sheehan. I don’t know what his status is this week or going into the rest of the year, but that’s a big loss for them. He had 168 yards receiving at the time he got hurt, and it was still the first half. Abington comes out in the second half, and it’s the Tamir Berthau show. He’s a dynamic two-way playmaker. He throws a really nice ball, and he’s good at running as well. They’ve got some weapons. Their wide receiver, Caleb Baker, has good playmaking ability. He can really go get the ball. I thought that was impressive, and Andrew Wesh is pretty good too. He had a touchdown run in the first half. I said this before – the thing I was most impressed about Abington was their line play on both sides of the ball. They had huge holes on offense, and defensively, they did a good job of disrupting Neshaminy. I thought their line play was really good in that game. They’re a lot more of a force than I anticipated, and that’s a positive for them as they mstart to get into the part of their season where they’re going up against teams with some pretty good interior play. That was a big win for Abington. It puts them in a spot where they’re 5-1, and they still have a chance for a couple more wins. They have a tough schedule left. Three of their last four games are going to be tough games, but that’s a big one to get under their belts.
“If they’re healthy, Neshaminy is in pretty good shape, and you’re thinking – ‘They lose two straight and they’re 2-4. How could they be in good shape?’ Well, they’re in decent shape these next three weeks if they take care of business. They play William Tennent, Bensalem and Council Rock South. They should be 5-4 going into the Pennsbury game, probably playing for a playoff berth. At 2-4, all is not lost for them, but certainly the Ian Sheehan injury is a big one if he misses more time than just the end of last week’s game. Chris James coming back at running back was huge for them.”
“As far as the rest of the conference, Pennsbury at Truman is the game this week. Last week they both had set-ups for it and worked towards it. That’s the tale of two styles. Right now Truman’s offense looks unstoppable. They’re running the ball and whether it’s TJ Harris of Dajuan Harris, they’re just very, very tough to stop. Dajuan Harris had five more touchdowns last week. This is a kid that’s really, really hitting his stride and getting used to playing in this offense. TJ Rogers is almost forgotten sometimes, but he had a long touchdown run last week too. The ability to throw the ball with quarterback Dave Wilson with a couple of receivers they have would be big too. We’ll see.
“The contrast to that is Pennsbury’s defense very quietly having a huge season. People didn’t think of that because they were 0-3 to start the year, but it’s a defense that only one of their six opponents have scored more than 14 points and that was their Penn Wood loss. Every other opponent, including North Penn, including Academy Park has been held to 14 points or lower. We thought Pennsbury’s defense was going to be good going into the year. Sam Burke, their middle linebacker, is really good. They’ve got a big line, and they have an experienced secondary. We kind of thought they’d have a chance to be pretty good defensively. It was just going to be a matter of whether the offense came around. It helped as they started getting to the part of their schedule where they could try some different things with their offense. That’s been a big boost for them to try and put points on the board.
“This week – it’s tough to say. Can Pennsbury’s defense hold Truman down? If they can, you have to think they have a very good chance to win. If it ends up being a track – kind of like last year’s game, which was more of a track meet, then you have to favor Truman. Does Pennsbury have the offense to keep up with them? They may. It’s a real interesting game they’re playing on Saturday night because it’s Homecoming at Truman, so it’s a little bit different setting. That should be a fun one, and it really does set the tone for the next couple of weeks. As I wrote about in Monday’s paper, the National Conference has one big game every week from now until the end of the season. That’s kind of what makes it fun. Abington is going to play Truman, and Pennsbury is going to play Abington, and Neshaminy and Pennsbury at the end. There are so many big games coming up, and that’s what’s going to decide things.
“If you look at the District One 6A power points right now, Abington and Truman are the only teams in the conference that are in the playoff hunt. I don’t take that much consideration with the playoff points this early because it’s a 10-game schedule, and everybody has to play each other, so points are going to fluctuate. It could be interesting in terms of the league title. I’m looking forward to it going forward, but Truman/Pennsbury is a great game this week.
“I’m probably going to go with Truman in that game. I think Truman is probably able to score 28 points and win it 28-24 or 28-21. I think when push comes to shove, they’re going to force Pennsbury to score a lot of points. You can probably score on Truman – Neshaminy scored a ton of points off them, but does Pennsbury have the kind of attack that’s going to score that many points? We don’t know yet, we’re going to find that out.”
Drew Markol: “We wondered about Truman with its new coach whether they could sustain what they’ve been building. The answer is ‘yes.’ Two weeks ago, they put 50-plus against Neshaminy, and now they get to play Pennsbury on Homecoming on Saturday. You have to favor Truman the way they’ve been playing. If they win that one, now you vanquish Pennsbury and Neshaminy, and the big game in the National Conference will be Truman-Abington when that one comes along. They’ve had a great season. They have a dynamite offense. You have to try and keep the ball away from them because if you don’t they score at will. Pennsbury is playing better, but I don’t know if they have the firepower to keep up with Truman. That Truman offense has been prolific. Right now I would put them even a notch above Abington. That all could change, but as far as the pecking order goes in the National Conference, they are the team to beat. I would favor them over Pennsbury. As far as predictions go, I like Truman over Pennsbury by two touchdowns.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Cheltenham defeated Upper Dublin on Friday and now will take on Plymouth Whitemarsh this week. Your comments about the SOL American.
Drew Markol: “You look at what Cheltenham did – they’ve obviously shaken off their loss to Abington a couple of weeks ago. They played Upper Dublin in what was basically the biggest game of the American Conference season, and they drilled them (41-7). They came out flying. Upper Dublin is without quarterback Mike Slivka, who was injured a couple weeks ago. They were shut out by Penn Charter, and then Cheltenham goes and lays it on them. It just shows you how good Slivka is and how much he did for that team. Without him, they’re just not the same. But that’s not Cheltenham’s concern - they just play. That was a big win for Cheltenham. They’ve already beaten Quakertown. Now they knock off Upper Dublin, and that leads us to the unexpected team in the American Conference mix which – good for them – has been undefeated Plymouth Whitemarsh. Dan Chang has done a great job with them. They won their first couple of games, and you wondered about their schedule and who they’re playing, but at this point in the season, that’s no longer pertinent. They’re 5-0, and I believe there are only six teams in District One 6A that are undefeated, and they’re one of them. That’s saying something. I lean towards Cheltenham in this one maybe because Cheltenham has been tested a little more than PW has been, but when you’re 5-0, you’re fired up as a team. You don’t look back at who you’re playing. It’s kind of like CB West. They don’t care who they played early on. They’re just excited about their season and they should be and so should Plymouth Whitemarsh. Who’d have thought they’d be playing basically what could be the American Conference championship game in week seven in early October. They’ve been underappreciated, but they’ve been one of the stories of the year in the SOL for what they’ve been able to do after last year when they won one game. A turnaround like that does not happen often. I think Cheltenham might be a little much for them, but as they say, that’s why they play the game. We’ll find out.”
Todd Thorpe: “Hat’s off to Cheltenham. We knew they were talented. Whether Upper Dublin was shorthanded or not, that’s a win last week they really can hang their hat on program-wise. Now you look at Cheltenham – they only really lost to Abington, and Abington is a 5-1 team. Cheltenham is clearly the favorite now in their conference, but where are they postseason-wise? How far can they go? This week Cheltenham plays PW, and PW is a team that’s kind of just flown in under the radar all year. People don’t even realize what they’ve done.
“Upper Dublin losing Mike Slivka changes the whole dynamic of the conference. It’s an interesting conference, but it’s very top heavy. You have the programs like Wissahickon and Hatboro-Horsham that – I won’t say rebuilding but building mode. The difference between them and the top teams is pretty stark this year. Even Quakertown and Upper Moreland are not on the level of the really strong teams.”