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Back for its 13th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writer Drew Markol. 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.
Join Jeff Nolan and Kevin Cooney for the WPHT High School Football Scoreboard Show as they recap the night of high school football on Friday at 10 p.m. on 1210AM/WPHT and the Audacy app.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin staged a remarkable comeback to stun North Penn 32-28. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “What Upper Dublin has done – when they beat CB West 35-7 in their second game, they opened people’s eyes. It was the real test against North Penn, which opened the season as a top five team in Class 6A, and Upper Dublin – which moved all the way up to two in 5A only behind Imhotep Charter – goes 
out and beats North Penn 32-28. The Upper Dublin program has been good for a long, long time. Now as a 5A school, they have quarterback Colin O’Sullivan – CB West coach Rob Rowan was just raving about him – how he’s calling formations at the line of scrimmage, changing plays. When you have that trigger, there’s a kid who started as a freshman at Hatboro-Horsham, and you knew he was pretty good. You don’t get many freshmen quarterbacks starting. Then he heads over to Upper Dublin, and you look at them now – in Class 5A, you’ll have the two best teams playing before the state title game in the semifinals if form holds.
“Upper Dublin is the story of the year so far. I know it’s only three weeks in, but you’re knocking off North Penn, which is the likely favorite in the SOL National Conference, and you really put it to CB West, who is also right in that same mix in the National Conference. You’re talking 6A teams in those two that are going to make it to districts and do well. CB West is not bad. They lost to Garnet Valley and they lost to Upper Dublin, and there’s very little shame in that. Those teams are a combined 6-0. Where’s the next loss on Upper Dublin’s schedule? Is it the state semifinals against Imhotep, and who knows if Imhotep is going to make it. Maybe Archbishop Wood gets to that spot or Roman Catholic.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: CB West bounced back to defeat Quakertown 56-14. You were at the game – your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Eli Boehm and Vinny Cherubini ran pretty much at will against Quakertown. Connor McFadden – they couldn’t cover him, and Ganz Cooper, West’s quarterback, completed all five of his passes to McFadden and three of them were for touchdowns. McFadden, as Rob Rowan said, is one of the fastest kids in the state too because track is probably his first love – that’s what he said after the game. West is pretty good, and they’re going to get better. They played two really good teams.
“Quakertown – after the run they had last year with such a senior-laden team, there’s growing pains, and their inexperience shows. I’ll tell you though, their quarterback, Vince Micucci, replaced Will Steich, who’s now playing at Widener. West was hitting him all over the place, and he just kept getting up, and he really did a good job. He got battered and beaten in that game, and he never gave up. That’s a good piece for them to build around. He’s only a junior, and he can play. He just needs some help. John Eatherton, the running back, saw some action. He didn’t get many carries, but it was the first time he played all season. He was one of their stalwarts last year. If they get him back with his speed, hopefully, they’ll win a couple of games down the road.
SubrubanOneSports.com: Central Bucks East defeated Souderton in its first night home game in program history. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “We wondered about East – the first couple of games they played, their opponents were not exactly the toughest ones out there. Then they had Souderton, and Souderton is legit. East was playing their first night football game at the stadium. That was a big deal for them. Ethan Shine – as good as he is as a linebacker, and he’s really good, he had 266 rushing yards in East’s win over Souderton, and he has 545 yards rushing in just three games. The thing is – quarterback Pat Keller can throw it too, but if you don’t need to show it, why tip your hand with passing if you’ve got somebody running like Shine is this season. That was a good litmus test for CB East, and they have another one this week when they played at CB South. I think what it was last week for East playing Souderton is what it will be for South this week playing East – the team is coming in 3-0 and sky high with momentum. Obviously, you have the natural rivalry with Central Bucks schools.
“South is always big up front. Their receiver Tommy Donnelly is a lot of fun to watch. Their quarterback Bart Szarko has had some big games. I think that’s the highlight game of this week.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: There have been a lot of lopsided games in the SOL so far this season. Your thoughts about the difficulty teams are having in crossover games.
Drew Markol: “That’s a problem you run into. You look at Quakertown with all the success they had last year where they finished first, and now they have a two-year cycle of this where they have to play the top teams from the other conference. When you get hit hard by graduation, you’re going to get pounded. That’s what happened. Quakertown had to play North Penn and CB West back-to-back, and they combined to score over 100 points against them in those two weeks.
“I kind of like the way they do it, but maybe it sounds better in theory than it does in reality because you are getting so many blowouts. Like Connor McFadden said – ‘We look at Upper Dublin, they’re a smaller school, a 5A school, and the next thing we know – we find out they’re really good.’ It does work both ways, thanks to Upper Dublin.
“The bottom line is these teams need to get games, and getting games is hard. When you can get eight games built into your schedule – that’s why you do it. If you’re an athletic director at any of these SOL schools, all you have to worry about is scheduling two games, it makes it a lot easier.”
Markol’s Picks (Winner in bold)
Pennridge @ Abington
Upper Dublin @ Bensalem
Central Bucks East @ Central Bucks South
Pennsbury @ Central Bucks West
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy @ Cheltenham
Council Rock North @ Souderton
Council Rock South @ Harry S Truman
William Tennent @ Hatboro-Horsham
Lower Moreland @ Nativity BVM HS
Neshaminy @ North Penn
Jenkintown @ New Hope-Solebury
Plymouth Whitemarsh @ Quakertown
Simon Gratz Charter @ Wissahickon
Phoenixville @ Springfield Twp
Upper Moreland @ Executive Education Academy Charter