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In this 11th edition of Coach Carey’s blog, ‘The Way I See It,’ the former coach takes an in-depth look at Friday night’s District One Class AAAA final between North Penn and Ridley.
SOS.com: What was the biggest surprise to you in Friday night’s district title game between North Penn and Ridley?
Coach Carey: There are so many factors when you get into a game like this. As I stated in last week’s blog, I thought the two teams were just very, very good. I had watched Ridley on film. I know a lot about their program, and so does coach Dick Beck and North Penn. They had a lot of respect for Ridley. I said I thought this might be North Penn’s toughest game of the season and maybe would have been their toughest game throughout the playoffs – including the Eastern Final and getting to the State Final.
Ridley is a superb team, first of all technically. I think they have a tremendous staff and it was like two heavyweights slugging it out. It was no surprise that Ralph Batty, the Ridley defensive coordinator, came up with a tremendous game plan, and he had the players to execute it. Ridley has a lot of speed and a tremendous amount of tough kids. What was really impressive was their tackling. You don’t tackle that way unless it’s taught and it’s a repetitive thing done at practice over and over. All of their kids tackled tremendously.
Many times during the game, holes would open up, and the D-backs would come up and make crushing tackles. Obviously, to play defensive back for Ridley, you not only have to be a pass defender, but you have to be a spot-on tackler. They were great tacklers. I think their D-backs had something like 19 unassisted tackles.
I thought it was a fabulous game to watch. As I said in my pregame on the air, I thought the playing field was like a chess match. You had Beck at one end and coach Dennis Decker and Batty at the other end. Ridley was the better team that night, but North Penn came very close to winning that game. A couple of things went wrong, and Ridley did a bunch of things right.
You look back – when you win a game like that, coach Decker will look at the film and say, ‘That was a great game. We played a great game and beat a hell of a team.’
SOS.com: In your opinion, what was the difference in the game?’
Coach Carey: The difference that night besides a great Ridley defense was the special teams of Ridley. North Penn forced Ridley to punt six times, which is unheard of, and yet their punter was GREAT…. fielding snaps that were all over the place and then being able to place the ball away from the lone punt returner, a couple of times placing it inside the 10.
There was also the great kickoff return by Ridley for a touchdown that changed the momentum right before the half. Little things like that separated the two teams that night. I think if they played two more times, they’d each beat each other. There’s no doubt in my mind – they’re two of the finest teams in the state, maybe the two best.
SOS.com: Talk about the impact on North Penn of losing star linebacker/tight end Ralphie Reeves less than three minutes into the game.
Coach Carey: Losing Ralphie Reeves was just a huge blow for North Penn, maybe more so on the offensive side of the ball because he was such a factor at a position that is so crucial to the Knights’ off-tackle plays and their getting-to-the-edge plays. The tight end is your most important blocker in the type of offense North Penn runs.
I’ve told many people behind the scenes – I think he’s the best player on their team on both sides of the ball. It was pretty much proven that night when he went out. Offensively, they really had to change their game plan, and they struggled at times.
Also, losing Reeves forced NP to insert Todd Smolinsky (their QB) at linebacker, and this was a HIDDEN FACTOR that really affected NP. With Smolinsky at linebacker and the added duties of going both ways, he seemed to lose a step of speed when at quarterback.
SOS.com: Your thoughts on the kickoff before halftime that Ridley’s Alex Nicolino ran back 92 yards for a touchdown. There’s a line of thinking that North Penn should have gone with a squib kick, but coach Beck did not second guess his decision.
Coach Carey: You go with what you did BEST all year long. North Penn is not a squib kicking team. The Knights have had a ton of success kicking off deep to the corner. They’ve been outstanding.
Coach Beck has a very unique kickoff style where he groups his people from the one hash all the way to the sideline. They kick it deep into the corner, and it’s really tough and not a lot of room to run it out. On that particular kick, of course, it’s not the kick you want. It reminded me of the kick in the 2000 state playoffs when we (CB West) kicked a line drive, and Tim Dance from Erie Prep caught the ball and was at our 30 before our guys got down here. It was the same thing with Nicolino - he reached up and snagged it over his head at the 10. He’s got great speed. He made one move like he was going to take to the middle of the field, and he broke back to the sideline. Once he got through the front wave of North Penn, he just had to deak the kicker and then he outran the rest of North Penn’s players.
It’s a tough call. Coach Beck and North Penn have been doing that all year. Different people have different philosophies on kickoffs, but surely that turned the momentum as you went from a great call and great execution on a trick play that has been in the NP playbook since 1998. That trick play for a North Penn TD was a Mike Pettine Jr. play that he put in and executed it at Crawford Stadium against CB West. It put the Knights up early in the game 7-0, and we (CB West) came back and won 13-7. I had seen that before, and it was executed great.
Coach Beck needed to juice his kids up. Losing so many kids to injuries – you have games like that, and you look at your play sheet and nothing looks good. A lot of nights you look at it, and everything looks good. On the good nights… anything you run is going to gain five, six or more yards. On the bad nights where you’re physically getting handled, you have guys that are hurt…your play sheet gets shorter and shorter. You look at it, and nothing looks good. Coach Beck was running some of his trick plays to try and get some momentum and get some juice for the team. On that occasion, NP scored a touchdown, and it worked.
SOS.com: How tough was it for North Penn to respond to the sudden change in momentum? One second North Penn was celebrating its go-ahead touchdown after struggling an entire half, and the next they’re heading into the locker room on the short end of a 13-10 score.
Coach Carey: It absolutely takes some of the air out of the balloon, and it brings you back to reality, and the reality was that when North Penn went in at halftime they were getting beat to the punch. Ridley was outhitting them and playing with more fire.
Again, I have been there in that situation. You lose a couple guys to injury and you’re getting outhit and everyone is searching…you lose one of your key players (Reeves)who’s really your toughest guy - it takes the air out of everyone. There’s not a coach on the sidelines – if he’s telling the truth – that doesn’t get a sick feeling in his stomach from the head coach on down, but you have to regroup. That’s why you have second team guys who get reps in practice so they’re ready to roll. I would have loved to have been in the locker room at halftime. I’m not sure how coach Beck approached that scenario, but it looked like the Knights needed a fiery speech.
I said on the air that the opening drive of the second half was going to be the biggest drive of the game for both teams. I knew North Penn was going to come out strong and with a lot of energy on that drive, and they did. They responded to the halftime adjustments, and one of those adjustments was to run fullback Mike Culbreath more and run him to the split end side. They marched down the field, and to me, the critical play of the game was the fourth-and-a-foot play at Ridley’s five-yard line. North Penn gets a first down there, and then you’re going to score and be up 17-13, and it’s a whole different ball game.
As it was, they got stuffed, and Ridley moved out to the 50, punts and changes the field position. North Penn never really threatened again. That was a huge play, a huge play.
SOS.com: Would you have considered a field goal in that fourth-and-short situation if you had been coach Beck?
Coach Carey: No, I would not have gone for a field goal. Absolutely not. We were all about power football at CB West, and so is North Penn. North Penn’s offensive line had done that play over and over. The Knights needed one foot. One foot. You have to get that first down. They were in the short yardage offense. I didn’t see the film, but two Ridley linebackers shot the gap, and Craig Needhammer never had a chance. The refs never measured...it wasn’t close.
That was the play of the game. Again, there are so many little factors when you look back. Obviously, as a coach when you lose a game like that, it leaves a really bad taste in your mouth the whole winter, but it can be a great motivator also in the offseason.
SOS.com: The play that created a great deal of controversy and discussion after the game was the cut block that ended the night for Reeves with an injury that was later diagnosed as a broken ankle. What are your thoughts on that play?
Coach Carey: I think the whole controversy is way overblown. First of all, that was not a chop block. A chop block is when one blocker stands up a defender, and another blocker comes down on his lower extremities. That was a cut block, and a cut block in that offensive zone – as coach Beck will tell you – is legal when it’s from the tackle to tackle, one-and-a-half yards on each side of the ball. That type of block is often used in there. As it was, the rule changed slightly because they were in the shotgun.
If the quarterback was under center, it would not have been a penalty. My understanding was a penalty was called because the ball was back outside of what they call the clipping zone. There are all kinds of different things going on inside that clipping zone. Sometimes there are people being clipped or blocked below the waist on consecutive plays in that zone on purpose because you know the rule, and you’re using it to your advantage, but when you put the quarterback in a shotgun and the ball is outside that clipping zone, then it is no longer allowed.
I personally don’t think any high school kid is trying to or can hurt somebody on purpose. As it was, he cut blocked him, and Reeves probably had all his weight on his ankle and it snapped. It’s a shame it happened, but those things happen in football. Football is a game of contact, and there will be injuries. You have to play through them.
Did it change the game? Absolutely. Was it intentional? I don’t think so.
SOS.com: Watching North Penn play week in and week out, it seemed safe to assume that at some point the Knights would figure out the mystery of Ridley’s defense, but it never happened.
Coach Carey: All year, North Penn basically had its way, and if you did stop the Knights, they had so many weapons, and at some point, you couldn’t defend THEM ALL. It was such a credit to coach Batty from Ridley. I thought he did a marvelous job game planning, which I knew he would. He adjusted to a lot of North Penn’s sets.
All offenses tip their hand on certain sets. They do certain things out of different sets, and an example is when North Penn had QB Todd Smolinsky over center and Craig Needhammer was snuck in at fullback - Ridley saw that North Penn ran the fullback trap from that set a lot of times, and Ridley was ready for it and stuffed it every time. Ridley also knew that when North Penn was in the gun, the Green Raiders had to be aware that QB Smolinsky was going to fake to Needhammer and then run it on the counter action off tackle, and they were ready for that. It was engrained in the heads of the defensive personnel like a good defensive coordinator will do, and they knew what to expect out of each set.
Ridley did a great job adjusting to North Penn’s offense. They moved and matched up personnel all night and held an explosive offense pretty much in check. With a team as talented as North Penn, you have to do that. You have to game plan versus their sets because if you just run your base defense, they’re going to chew you up…like they did to most teams during the season.
The ‘X’ factor in all of this again was the injuries to Reeves, Needhammer getting his shoulder busted up, Mercer breaking his collarbone, Culbreath getting knocked out, Jackson tweaking his shoulder and Smolinsky getting whacked in his ankle and slowing down. Again, you have to give credit to the fighter, and the fighter – Ridley – was throwing these haymaker punches and hurting North Penn’s skill guys.
When you play a team that’s as explosive as North Penn, you have to keep your intensity level up because at any point – you can hold them five, six times, seven times in a row, and all of a sudden, they’ll break one because they’re so fast. Someone told me after the game that he had never seen North Penn go down with so many ankle tackles. These Ridley kids were good. They would come in on runs and click your heels. It happened to Smolinsky a couple of times where it looked like he had an opening, and all of a sudden, from behind the guy would dive and click his heels. That’s not Smolinsky’s fault. That’s just a great effort by the Ridley kid. You could see the fire and desire just pouring out of them.
It was a great high school game to watch. I felt very bad for the North Penn team, but I was very excited watching the defense for Ridley because defense is so dear to my heart. They had a great game plan and the kids executed it. That’s how you stop great teams – get everybody on board defensively. There’s nothing more satisfying to a defensive coordinator…believe me.
SOS.com: North Penn’s performance was not a typical North Penn performance. The Knights uncharacteristically turned the ball over three times and couldn’t sustain drives.
Coach Carey: I agree. On that one night, when the heavyweight bout was set, Ridley played better in a lot of facets. Not all facets – North Penn played very well in a lot of facets, but when you lose a lot of the chess pieces, you don’t have the horsepower this engine had before, and you’re playing against a very smart staff. I was very impressed with them. They don’t have the numbers of North Penn, but what they have is a different type of kid. If you know football in the Ridley area - that’s a tough type of kid. It’s a different type of kid.
Ridley has a great program. North Penn has a great program, and I expect both teams to be very good next year. Ridley returns eight or nine starters out of 22.
On that Friday night, Ridley was the better team. If those two teams played the following week, it’s a toss-up who wins.
SOS.com: North Penn returns a lot of talent next year. How long before the team starts looking toward next year?
Coach Carey: I know coach Beck doesn’t want to look ahead, and it’s tough to look ahead because you’re still in a phase of mourning because you’re so concerned – Did we reach our potential? We were so, so close!!! You love your seniors so much. They brought so much to the table, and the few North Penn seniors that there were – they were such major parts of the season. Todd Smolinsky, J.D. Dzurko, Mike Culbreath, T.J. Gill, Andre Poe, etc.– these guys that gave them three great years, and some of them exceeded what I thought they were capable of this year. So you’re very concerned how they’re going out.
You get through the holidays, and in January when you get back to the weight room and 75 percent of your team comes back – that’s going to have an exciting impact. I think North Penn will be preseason number one in the state next fall.
There’s no pressure on North Penn there. Personally, I liked being ranked number one in the state. It goes with the territory. It’s not bragging if you can back it up. It took a long time to get up to that status of being ranked number one, and it’s an HONOR. I wanted to be number one. We were willing to back it up, and North Penn is such a great program at this point. They’re known statewide, and they’re becoming nationally known.
SOS.com: You attended the LaSalle/Easton game – could you share your thoughts about that game?
Coach Carey: It was probably the worst weather I have ever watched a game in. It was dry when the game started out, and at the end of the first quarter, Easton was up 14-0, and it started snowing. By halftime, there was two inches on the ground. By the end of the third quarter, there was three inches on the ground.
It was a great game, but absolutely the weather played a major, major factor. What was interesting to me was that LaSalle out-toughed Easton in its own type of game. I thought LaSalle’s game plan offensively was very, very good. The Explorers spread them out and ran a lot of quarterback draws, they ran the wildcat, they handed off to Jamal Abdur-Rahman, and they took a lot of guys out of the box with width offensively. Defensively, they did a nice job.
I couldn’t get over it. It must have been a psychological thing, but the one thing that jumped out at me was that the LaSalle guys just wanted it so much more. Even with the turf being totally covered with snow where you couldn’t see any of the yard lines, all of LaSalle’s players were running 50 percent faster than the Easton guys. Because the ground was wet, the Easton guys basically slowed down. When the Easton quarterback went back to pass, the receivers were running half speed. I knew right away – I said, ‘LaSalle is going to win this game.’
There wasn’t a lot of scoring. It was 14-14 at halftime, and LaSalle kicked a 39-yard field goal at the end of the third, and that held up for the win.
I know coach Drew Gordon and his son Brett, and they do a fabulous job at LaSalle. What a win for the program. Now there will be two similar teams playing Saturday in the Eastern Final at Northeast. Ridley and LaSalle’s quarterbacks over the years have been the focal point of the offense. They throw the ball, they’re in the gun a lot. They both have good running backs and receivers. I think again the defensive coordinators will be playing a huge part in this game, adjusting to the different tendencies- that, plus putting defensive pressure on each quarterback. Which defense will be able to put the most pressure on the quarterback will have a decided advantage. I look at it as a toss-up right now, an evenly matched game.
That’s it…keep the e-mails coming to SuburbanOneSports@comcast.net. I’ll answer all your questions with an honest answer. Until later...keep the hits coming. There’s no game in America like High School Football.
COACH CAREY