Blog Post

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn downed Quakertown 35-0. Your thoughts about that game?

Kevin Cooney: North Penn is back. They played about as well as they have all season. They kept things very simple - no fancy cuts, no end arounds, no nothing. They took advantage of bad field conditions and just ran it right up the gut. Quakertown is not ready to compete with that because they don't have the size. The size mismatch between Quakertown and North Penn was pretty obvious.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock North defeated Neshaminy in a major upset last week. Comment on that game.

Dan Dunkin: It's a feel-good story and one of the better games I've seen in a long time. Neshaminy made a businesslike long scoring drive to start the game, and you figure, 'Okay, they're going to win pretty decisively,' but what North showed from that point on was amazing in terms of resiliency and toughness and character. When you put it in the context of everything they've been through - and I'm sure their fans are tired of hearing about it - the injuries they've had the last two seasons, all the losses, the 1-9 season last year, not much depth. They got off to a little better start this year, but the subtlety was - even when they lost to Hatboro-Horsham in a low-scoring game - their coaching staff noted that their defense was improving, and that was essential because they lost Cal Parker and their offense was really compromised, so it was going to be essential that their defense keep them in games, and they did.

SuburbanOneSports.com: A lot of people picked Council Rock South to defeat Pennsbury. Share your thoughts about Pennsbury's win in that key SOL National Conference game.

Dan Dunkin: I would call that an upset based on South beating them handily and shutting them out last year. Galen Snyder himself said after the game on Saturday, 'They kicked our butts last year.' It was quite a reversal and really symbolic of Pennsbury's progress. They've really come on like wildfire defensively this entire season, and they're a force to be reckoned with. That was an old-fashioned slam-bang game of two similar offensive philosophies of run the ball 90 percent of the time. It rained, and it was who was going to be the most physical and execute the best defensively, and Pennsbury did it.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks South and Central Bucks West will be facing each other in a key Continental Conference battle. Your thoughts on that game since both are coming off losses - CB West to Souderton and CB South at the hands of North Penn.

Kevin Cooney: "You're already talking a little bit of an elimination game. You have two teams that are 0-1 in the conference who kind of felt they were in a pretty good spot last week. Obviously, it didn't work out. I think part of the problem is that the conditions really seemed to hurt both of them last week, especially CB South. That offense is not made to play in poor conditions like that.

SuburbanOneSports.com: In one of last weekend's key matchups, Abington defeated Souderton 38-17. What are your thoughts about Souderton after seeing that game?

Kevin Cooney: What we saw was that a really good, a really fast team gave Souderton a whole world of trouble. Souderton just couldn't keep up with the speed of Abington, and that's one thing - I'm not sure how much they're going to see of that in the Continental Conference.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Dan, you were at last week's Bensalem-Pennridge game. Talk about that game.

Dan Dunkin: Bensalem is a nice story. They're off to a 2-0 start under first-year coach Kevin Kelly, and I think they could make a little noise in the SOL National. They just have a new mindset there. He has done a very good job in a very short time of establishing a mindset and philosophy.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Kevin, you were at Friday night's Council Rock South-Central Bucks South game. Talk about the performance of Rock South senior quarterback Brian Donnelly in his varsity debut and the impact he could have on the fate of the Golden Hawks this season.

Kevin Cooney: Donnelly doesn't give them the same dimension as Fleming, but he gives them something that really could work well going forward. The thing that impressed me most was the way he read coverages, the way he read the gap. That's an instinct that you can't teach somebody, and he has that instinct. That was a pretty big revelation.

Returning for a second season is the Intelligencer/Courier Times 'Let's Talk Football,' featuring high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dan Dunkin. Cooney, who recently was named the Phillies beat writer, will continue to cover schools in the Intelligencer area while Dan Dunkin - who has been covering sports at the high school and professional level for 25- years will cover teams in the Courier Times area, filling in the spot vacated when Dom Cosentino relocated in New York City. Both beat writers share their thoughts about the upcoming football season. Joining Cooney and Dunkin this season will be WNPV 1440 AM high school football color analyst Chris Felton, who formerly was the head coach at Central Bucks West.
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