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Back for its 11th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writers Drew Markol and Todd Thorpe. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (https://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school) and Courier Times (https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/) web sites, which will feature a live blog on football Fridays.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennridge earned an impressive win over Coatesville in the District One 6A semifinals. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Pennridge beating Coatesville in the district semifinals is just a huge win for Pennridge. A lot of us wondered, including myself – when you play Coatesville you’re stepping up in 
class. They won district titles in 2017 and 2018, and they were in the district final last year. They were good, and all the Pennridge kids would know they were good. It wasn’t like they were good 20 years ago, and people like us knew how good they were. Everyone knows how good Coatesville is, and Pennridge came out and scored right away and just battled them back and forth, took every shot they could give them. Senior quarterback Bobby Croyle, who really wasn’t asked to do much during the regular season – they rarely threw the ball, but he threw for close to 300 yards and two touchdowns against Coatesville. They were rushing him, and they were hitting him. He got banged around, but he stuck in there. That was one thing I thought about watching Pennridge during the regular season – I saw them beat Abington, I saw them beat Central Bucks South, and you saw a one-dimensional team that just ran the ball. Well, they ran the ball last week against Coatesville too, but they also showed a passing game, and that’s how you have to win in the playoffs. You have to have more than one way to attack a defense, and they showed that they did.
“You mix in Shane Hartzell – we weren’t even sure if he was going to play, and he comes out and he plays. He had a 97-yard touchdown run after Coatesville had pinned Pennridge on its own three-yard line, and it looked like Pennridge was going to have a three-and-out, the momentum had shifted, and instead, Hartzell goes up the middle, which looks like a simple dive play. The next thing you know he turns it upfield down the sideline, and he outruns the Coatesville defense. I was talking to people around the Coatesville team, and they all said – ‘Running backs don’t do that to us, we run them down. They may get a 25-yard gain, but they’re not going to get a 50-yard gain.’ Hartzell – all 230 pounds of him – outran them all 97 yards for an absolutely unbelievable touchdown, one of the best high school plays I’ve ever seen. Just a good job by Pennridge all around – not to be intimidated and to go right at it with Coatesville. This is a good Coatesville team. That Coatesville team had beaten both Downingtowns. They were legit. Pennridge deserved to win and did a great job.”
Todd Thorpe: “A lot of people had question marks whether Pennridge could take the step up to the next level against a powerhouse program like Coatesville. I think they answered all the questions. They got in a shootout, and they were the better team in the end. That’s the bottom line. Everybody has known that Shane Hartzell is a really good player, and he’s on a different level. He’s had one of those years where you just look back and say – he’s the best player around, and I think Coatesville didn’t quite know how good he was until they played against him. You look at what he’s done to everybody all season long whether it’s Oreck Frazier, Chris James or anybody they’ve played – he’s shut them down. He’s just a very dominant defensive player. Offensively, he can make a big play. He’s a guy that if he hadn’t gotten hurt last year probably would have been a huge recruit. He was a big recruit as it was and ended up signing with Villanova. He’s a good one, and he makes them a favorite this week.
“Am I surprised that they beat Coatesville? Not 100 percent because I really didn’t think Coatesville had the team they’ve had the past few years, but they were still an unbeaten team and they were still Coatesville and they still had a lot of talented athletes and football players, a good coach and really could have given them problems, but give Pennridge all the credit in the world. They really had a remarkable year. Cody Muller really has the program where he wants it right now. It took a couple years, but I think he’s got it where he wants it. It’s his program now, and they proved that. It puts them in great shape to host the district final and do something no other Pennridge team has ever done before.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Souderton opened up a big halftime lead and went on to defeat Spring-Ford in the other district semifinal. The Indians now will face Pennridge. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “I was over talking to Souderton coach Ed Gallagher last week, and he even talked about it - there were questions about the schedule Souderton faced, through no fault of their own, but the teams they played did not have a very good season except for Quakertown, and they had to come back in the second half to beat Quakertown after trailing at the half in the season opener. So there were questions about how good was Souderton, and they proved it. Spring-Ford was the second seed, and Souderton had to go there. They built a big lead on them. They held on to win 27-24, but they were up three touchdowns most of the game before Spring-Ford fought back. That legitimized what Souderton has been doing. They’re 6-0 too. Gallagher said to me several weeks ago – ‘We lost a lot to graduation, but we have good players. They’re just young.’ Well, he wasn’t kidding. Jalen White, the senior running back, got hurt in that first game against Quakertown but he’s been back, and he gives them a big play threat. Good for them. Kind of like Pennridge, they needed to beat somebody of substance and they did.
“Now Pennridge and Souderton, who were going to play each other this week anyway – now they’re going to play for a district title. Neither team has ever won a district title or even played in a district title game, so you have both teams trying to win their first district title, you have the Pennridge coach Cody Muller playing against his high school coach in Ed Gallagher when Muller played at Souderton. They didn’t play during the regular season because of the realignment in the Suburban One League. Everything fell into place, and that’s pretty cool. I see a high-scoring game, and I think Pennridge is a little better, so I’ll go with Pennridge.”
Todd Thorpe: “Souderton at Spring-Ford was a crazy game with Souderton up 20-0 at halftime, and by the accounts that I read, Souderton had a great defensive game against Spring-Ford and got up and then held on late to put the game away. I was over at Souderton this week talking to one of their players. They believe in themselves, and they haven’t worried about their schedule and who everyone else thinks is good. They’re continuing to get better and better, and Spring-Ford was a huge win for that program regardless of what happens this week. Souderton is a very young team too. Not only does it put you in the district final but really adds a sense of legitimacy to their season. I think they’re a live candidate against Pennridge this week. They go in thinking they can win, and they beat them the last two years. These kids grew up playing one another with the Braves and the Green Jackets. You have two areas where the kids are real familiar with each other.
The kid I wrote a story about that was online Wednesday – Elijah Goods, their cornerback. He grew up going to elementary school in Pennridge. He moved down the street and ended up going to Souderton because he lives in the Telford area. It’s kind of a neat rivalry, and it’s neat they’re playing in the district final. A lot of ghosts with Wayne Helman, Drew Darrah and all the history behind those two programs is coming to a head this week, and it should be fun. It’s a shame it’s not going to be full capacity and a huge crowd at Poppy Yoder at the old high school, but it will be fun regardless for the kids, I’m sure.
“This week’s game – it’s which team can impose their style on the other when it really comes down to it. Pennridge has a lot of guys that they use differently running the ball, passing the ball. Obviously, they’ve got a defense that at times has been great this year. They threw the ball against Coatesville a little bit. You’d guess they’ll probably get more back to running this week. If they do throw, Souderton has two real good young cornerbacks that are more than capable of defending. How much offense can Souderton generate against Pennridge’s defense, which at times this year when they were playing Neshaminy or whoever the opponent was they shut them down completely.
“This probably is going to be a game that’s within a touchdown at halftime. We’ll see which way we go. I think Pennridge is a favorite, but who knows? This is the District One championship, and in this crazy year with abbreviated schedules and abbreviated playoffs, this is it. This is the game. What’s beyond this week really doesn’t matter. This is the game that matters to these two schools and to District One. We know what’s at stake, we know St. Joe’s Prep is in the next round, and really, at this point, who cares? You’re playing your archrival from the next town over for the district championship. It’s the biggest games these two teams have ever played.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin will face West Chester Rustin in the 5A final. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Class 5A should be interesting. You have a rematch of the district final from a year ago with Upper Dublin hosting West Chester Rustin. Rustin is in an area that has been growing, and they’ve been getting better in sports as the school district grows. I think this is a tough one for Upper Dublin. Last year, Rustin beat Upper Dublin 23-0, but Upper Dublin was without its starting quarterback Mike Slivka, who was injured. Both teams have a common opponent in Wissahickon. Rustin won big against the Trojans. Upper Dublin had a big lead before Wissahickon came back against the Upper Dublin reserves. It’s two good programs, and good programs get to district championship games, and these two teams are doing that. I just give a slight edge to Rustin in this spot.”
Todd Thorpe: “That’s a shame for Upper Dublin that Kennett forfeited last week. You have to wonder if there’s any starch out of their sails going into this week. I’d be the first person to tell you that I don’t know the first thing about Rustin, but it looks like they can put points on the board based on what they did last week. They’re usually pretty talented with some athletic kids, and they can play. That Ches-Mont League through the years has good players. It’s really going to come down to matchups and see how Upper Dublin does. Upper Dublin very quietly has had a really good season with their only blip that game to Souderton.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Moreland will face Oil City in a PIAA 5A game. Your thoughts.
Todd Thorpe: “It was not the fault of Upper Moreland that they played Archbishop Ryan (after Bonner-Prendergast could not play due to COVID). They probably should have just called it a forfeit, but I guess since they had a day or two, District 12 wanted to have a representative. That really wasn’t a competitive game, so it was pointless they even played it, but they played. Upper Moreland only has the one Quakertown loss, and in a year where they’re trying to limit travel, they could be looking at back-to-back trips to Altoona and then Hershey if they were to keep on winning. To play a team from Erie in the quarterfinals is kind of ludicrous in the COVID world.
“Oil City is 9-0 – somehow they got nine games in. By all accounts, this is going to be a real challenging game for Upper Moreland. We don’t really know how they match up against Oil City. One thing we do know about Upper Moreland – when you play at Quakertown, you played a really good team. We really don’t know what we’ll see until we see it. I’m going to be out there 240 miles later.
“A lot of other teams are out there playing this week trying to get some games in, and that’s nice to see. I feel for Council Rock North – they had a game cancelled earlier this year, they had last week cancelled and this week cancelled, and who knows if they’re going to play next week. A lot of teams are getting games in, and that’s important. William Tennent is playing Conwell-Egan, CB South is playing Neshaminy, and Quakertown is playing Perk Valley. It’s nice to see them playing at least. We don’t know what the future holds as far as winter goes.”
Drew Markol: “Upper Moreland has to drive all the way to Holidaysburg in the ridiculous way the PIAA has this set up. They don’t have enough teams in the west, so they have to have a team from the east move to the west in a lot of classifications, and Upper Moreland is that team this year in 4A. It happened to Archbishop Wood last year in 5A – they had to go to Altoona to play. Upper Moreland is playing Oil City from Division 10, which is up in the Erie area. Oil City is 10-0. They’ve scored over 500 points in those 10 games. They scored over 70 points twice, but you do have to wonder. They ran through their local conference, but they played Juniata in the first round last week. Juniata is 5-2, and they beat them 34-33, so you wonder about the level of competition. You look at Upper Moreland, a 4A program in the semifinals, and their only loss was to 6A Quakertown, which is a pretty good team. Let’s remember that Quakertown team had the lead against Souderton, which is in the district final, at the half. Upper Moreland playing against teams its own size has done pretty well.
“I was over at their practice the other day, and their coach, CJ Szydlik, said he doesn’t want to get in a slugfest with Oil City because they’re pretty big. He wants to make it more of a track meet – get his kids in space and let them try and run. We’ll see. It’s so hard to predict what can happen in these games. I’ll pick Upper Moreland, but I don’t know anything about Oil City – I didn’t see them play. Both teams have a long ride. Upper Moreland has a four-hour ride and Oil City has a three-hour ride, which further shows the ridiculousness of the PIAA having this tournament during a pandemic. I thought the idea was to keep the kids as safe as possible, but perhaps I was wrong, so instead, we’ll make them drive eight hours. Again, no one asked me.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West defeated Central Bucks South to win the CB Cup. Your comments.
Todd Thorpe: “Those three CB teams played that round robin, and the team that wins it has bragging rights. West won the CB Cup two years in a row now, and for West – they really have a young, young team, and they played a tough schedule early, and they stayed together. Don’t be surprised if West is back in the mix competing for a league title next year. To finish the season with two wins like that against your two rivals and to win at South – South’s a good football team that scores a lot of points. To go out and beat them is impressive. I’m impressed that coach Rob Rowan was able to keep that team together in this kind of year with COVID and realizing you have so many guys in talent positions you had to replace – to keep that team together to the point where they get six games in and close the season with two wins is pretty nice. It also shows what that rivalry means and what these three schools mean when they play against one another. Unfortunately, CB East got killed by injuries this year. Week one they were definitely good, but they got really decimated by injuries as the season went along. South had some good wins, but West is the team with bragging rights another year. That’s a credit to them. When they had that vicious tornado come through and wipe out their stadium back in August, who knew if they would even have a season? Then throw in all the COVID stuff – give credit to them for sticking through this year just like all these teams to get these games in for the players. And, yes, things definitely look bright for West moving forward.”
Drew Markol: “CB West had a tough luck of the draw the way their schedule came up. They had to play North Penn, they had to play Pennridge, they had to play Abington, they had to play Neshaminy. They were 0-4 when they had to go and play their archrival CB East and beat them. They wanted to make sure they had a chance to play CB South - the CB schools try their darndest to play each other. CB South played CB East during the regular season and beat them. CB West went and beat South, so you had an 0-4 team that in its last two games – probably its biggest two games emotionally – comes out and bounces back, and that’s hard to do. Considering everything with this crazy pandemic season, to bounce back the way they did and beat those two teams. That tells you that Rob Rowan, their coach, not only knows what he’s doing, but he also has those kids still believing and competing all the way, and that’s just a credit to them.”
Pick the winners:
Todd Thorpe (picks in bold)
Souderton at Pennridge
West Chester Rustin at Upper Dublin
Upper Moreland vs. Oil City
Neshaminy at Central Bucks South
Council Rock South at New Hope-Solebury
Conwell-Egan at William Tennent
Perkiomen Valley at Quakertown
Springfield Township at Wissahickon
Drew Markol
Souderton at Pennridge
West Chester Rustin at Upper Dublin
Upper Moreland vs. Oil City
Neshaminy at Central Bucks South
Council Rock South at New Hope-Solebury
Conwell-Egan at William Tennent
Perkiomen Valley at Quakertown
Springfield Township at Wissahickon