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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: Pennsbury continued its impressive run with a big 28-6 win over Central Bucks South. You were at the game. Share your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Pennsbury and Central Bucks South both were 3-1 going into the game. Pennsbury’s the big story we keep talking about every week, and it’s worth talking about because they had that long losing streak, they brought back Galen Snyder to coach, and they dominated CB South. It was only 7-0 at the half, but it could have been and should have been a lot more for Pennsbury, but they came out in the second half and just put the game away. It’s vintage 
Pennsbury. It’s run, run, run – you run to set up the run, and it’s working. They’re 4-1 now. They lost to an undefeated Coatesville team in week one, and now they’ve won four in a row.
“G Mulbah, the senior running back, was sort of contained by South, but all of a sudden he breaks off a 91-yard-touchdown run, and Pennsbury just pulled away. Mulbah gets a lot of the credit, and deservedly so. He’s having a very good year, but that defense is really good. Chamar Wade, the linebacker, had an interception return for a touchdown. He was constantly in the backfield harassing Brett Szarko, the CB South quarterback. He’s just a good player. Pennsbury quarterback, senior Shane McGurrin, was a starter last year. He does a nice job. He’s not asked to throw much at all because they don’t throw, but he runs the offense very well. They move the ball around. It is remarkable for a team that lost 16 in a row, 0-10 last year and loses its opener this year – if ever a team needed to win its opener, it was them. That didn’t happen, and now they’ve won four in a row. It truly is night and day what has happened in such a short amount of time.
“They have another big one this week against undefeated CB East. It will be interesting to see how that one goes. With North Penn struggling and Pennridge, Neshaminy, and CB West kind of treading water, this game might decide the National Conference champion. That’s a pretty big game for week six of the season.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: CB West went into North Penn with a 1-3 record and handed the Knights their third loss of the season with a 35-14 win. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “On Saturday, the day after that game, I was at the Bensalem/Council Rock North game, and I had six or seven people, all independent of each other, all asking - what’s up with North Penn? They lost their opener to La Salle in a game they had the lead, but okay, La Salle’s usually pretty good, although La Salle has had its trouble in the Inter-Ac with a couple of losses there, but that didn’t seem like a bad loss. They lost to Upper Dublin, and you’re saying, ‘Okay, Upper Dublin’s the number one team in 5A. It’s a 32-28 game,’ but CB West was 1-3. I didn’t see the North Penn/CB West game, but there were people who saw that game, and they said it could have been worse. CB West running back Eli Boehm had 230 yards. I don’t know where the North Penn run defense is. La Salle ran all over them when I saw them in week one, and now West runs all over them. It’s not like you don’t know what’s coming from these teams. It’s not like all of a sudden CB West decided to be a running team. They don’t throw that many passes, but they just couldn’t stop them.
“North Penn has a four-year starter at quarterback in Ryan Zeltt, who’s having a nice year – he throws all over the place, and it seems he throws for 200 yards every week. It just goes back to the old football adage – you’ve got to run to win. You’ve got to run to keep the ball and run the clock, and they just haven’t been able to do that. CB West did to North Penn what North Penn usually does to everybody else. They ran Eli Boehm 30 times. There’s no trickery there.
“Now you’re at 2-3, and if you’re North Penn, you better go 4-1 the rest of the way. You still have to play CB East. They play CB South this week, and you’ve got to play Pennridge, who seems be playing better, taking CB East to overtime the other day. People ask me – when’s the last time North Penn missed the district playoffs when it was the full 16-team field, and I’m not sure they have. I’d have to check, but another loss or two, and they’re not getting in.”
SuburbanOneSports: You covered the Bensalem 22-14 win over Council Rock North on Saturday. Your thoughts?
Drew Markol: “Bensalem and Council Rock North are slugging away at each other. It was a little sloppy on both sides. Bensalem had a lot of penalties. Alex Houston, their head coach – it was driving him bananas, and I don’t blame him. They inserted a freshman, Thomas Bailey, at running back. He had two carries for 30 yards – one was for 21 yards and one was for nine yards, and both were for touchdowns. He starts at strong safety, and he had two interceptions. You just don’t see this out of a freshman. He’d been playing junior varsity, and Alex Houston said after the game, ‘I started three freshmen on defense. We need to go young and get these guys out there,’ and that’s what he did. Bailey didn’t look like a 14-year-old out there. He was delivering, and he returned one of the interceptions for a touchdown. It got called back for a penalty – on the return they clipped somebody. You see a player like that at that age, it’s just eye-opening. You hope he develops, you hope he stays at Bensalem. Just a nice little shot in the arm for Bensalem, for sure, and they came from behind and won after Council Rock North’s Gavin Papp scored on a nice pass play to give the Indians a 14-7 lead late in the third quarter. It was like a misdirection. He came out of the backfield. Everybody went left, and he split out down the right side, and they just lofted a pass to him. It was very well executed the way it was drawn up. He was wide open – Papp’s a nice player – a good linebacker who’s a hard hitter, and he’s probably known more for his defense. He came out of the backfield, made a nice catch and outran everyone to the end zone, but Bensalem came right back and won going away. “
SuburbanOneSports.com: CB East was extended to overtime by Pennridge in its 16-13 win. Your thoughts about those two teams.
Drew Markol: “The CB East/Pennridge game may have opened some eyes because CB East was undefeated and Pennridge was 2-2 coming in, but that’s a pretty good rivalry. Those teams don’t like each other, and they go at it pretty good. It always seemingly goes to overtime like this one did again.
“Looking forward, East had got to go down to Pennsbury. I’ll tell you what – those Pennsbury fans showed up in droves at CB South on Friday. They’re definitely going to show up this Friday because they’re 4-1, and they’ve got their swagger back. They’re going to have a huge crowd at Pennsbury for that 4-1 team with East coming in. Last year, East handled Pennsbury pretty good – a lot of teams did. It’s a different coaching regime, but it’s the same kids, and they remember. That will be a good one. You have the two best running backs in the SOL with Ethan Shine for East and G Mulbah pounding away. East quarterback Pat Keller can throw it. I think you’ll see a couple of wrinkles there out of East. That will be a good one. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. If it does, there will be a nice big crowd there.
“Also on Friday, you have 3-2 Neshaminy at 2-3 Pennridge. It’s almost kind of like North Penn – for Pennridge, this is a must win. If they go to 2-4, now you have to win out. I know people say you can get into districts with five wins. Well, yes, you can, but you’d much rather have six wins absolutely, for sure. Neshaminy went to overtime with North Penn two weeks ago, and they bounced back and shut out Abington. Pennridge at 2-3 lost to East but had to gain a little bit of confidence that they can play with anybody in the National Conference. Neshaminy looks at it and says, ‘Wait a second – we win this, we go to 4-2 and put ourselves in pretty good shape.’ Pennridge has to say, ‘We’ve got to win to get to 3-3, so we’ve got a shot of getting to districts.’ That will be a good one too. It’s basically an elimination game from districts for Pennridge if they lose, and Neshaminy can put itself in a good spot with a win.”
Markol’s picks (Winners in bold)
Vaux HS @ Lower Moreland
Central Bucks West @ Abington
Harry S Truman @ Bensalem
Central Bucks East @ Pennsbury (at Truman HS)
North Penn @ Central Bucks South
Cheltenham @ Plymouth Whitemarsh
Council Rock North @ Upper Dublin
Hatboro-Horsham @ Council Rock South
Neshaminy @ Pennridge
New Hope -Solebury @ Pennington School
Souderton @ Quakertown
Wissahickon @ Springfield Twp
Upper Moreland @ William Tennent