Blog Post

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.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennridge defeated Abington and – as the number one seed – hosts fourth-seeded Coatesville. Your thoughts.


Drew Markol: “The biggest game last week – Pennridge had to beat Abington to stay undefeated and get a playoff spot, and they did that, but it wasn’t without a struggle. Abington showed up to play. Kevin Conlin always has that team ready to go. They didn’t have much to play for because they really didn’t have a chance to make the playoffs. They would have had to leapfrog a lot of teams to get in, but Pennridge had gone three straight games without allowing a point, and Abington took the lead on them. It was the first time Pennridge trailed all season.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts heading into the final week of the regular season with district playoffs scheduled to begin next week.


Drew Markol: “We’ve talked about this before – I’m not a fan of the district or state playoffs, especially not this year in this pandemic-shortened five-day season for the Suburban One League teams. It’s not a big enough sample size. If Pennridge can beat Abington on Friday, they’ll be 5-0, and they’re very good, but the question will always linger – how would they do against North Penn? North Penn has been the king of the mountain forever and Pennridge and North Penn don’t play each other. That’s no fault of anyone. It was just the luck of the draw how they made up the schedules because when you can only play five games, you’re not going to play everybody when you have eight teams in your conference. You can’t take it away from Pennridge.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Neshaminy rebounded from its loss to Pennridge to hand Abington its first loss. Talk about that game as well as the other highlights from that conference.


Todd Thorpe: “That definitely was a bounce-back game for Neshaminy. They felt like they had something to prove coming off the Pennridge loss, and as we’ve learned, nothing is really engraved in stone this year. There’s no super power team that is just going to beat everybody easily and that’s that. Abington looked pretty good through the first several weeks, and defensively, they ran into a determined Neshaminy team coming off a shutout loss a week earlier. The way that conference is – obviously, Pennridge looks like the team shooting for that 5-0 and maybe a spot in the abbreviated playoffs. I think that’s a league that could have three 4-1 teams – it’s that good a league. It’s very balanced. I don’t think a ton separates Abington and Neshaminy.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your comments aftert week two in the SOL National.


Todd Thorpe: “I was at Pennridge/Neshaminy, and I didn’t see that one coming. It doesn’t necessarily surprise me that Pennridge won but the way it won – it was obviously a completely one-sided game. They beat Neshaminy physically, they beat Neshaminy athletically, they beat Neshaminy strategically. They had the best player on the field by far with Shane Hartzell, who completely shut down Chris James and the Neshaminy running attack. Neshaminy didn’t look like they were ready, they didn’t look like they had a plan B. The game was still relatively close at halftime, and you thought – maybe Neshaminy will regroup a little bit at halftime and come out and get a score, and it’s a ballgame again. Well, they didn’t. Pennridge came out and scored twice, and that was pretty much all she wrote. It was really a thoroughly dominant performance by a Pennridge team that’s now 2-0 along with Abington in what looks like an extremely competitive league.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts about opening week in the National Conference.


Drew Markol: “In the National Conference, you had two heavyweights going at in with North Penn at Neshaminy, and Neshaminy beats North Penn 35-19 in a game that was a two-point game at the half with Neshaminy up. Neshaminy scored the only points of the second half. Penalties hurt North Penn, which is rare for a Dick Beck coached team because they’re usually very disciplined, but again, it’s a different kind of year. These kids haven’t played because of the whole pandemic. It was harder to get teams ready. At the game I went to, there was just a lot of cramping, the kids weren’t ready. Chris James, their three-year starter at running back, had a touchdown and ran for 143 yards, which he normally does. Neshaminy has a big offensive line with some experience back, and that’s been their MO for a long time. If you have a good line and good running back in high school football, you can do well, and Neshaminy has that.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Thoughts about the 2020 football season that is unlike any other.


Drew Markol: “We finally have football in the Suburban One League beginning Friday in a completely different world than a year ago or any other year that we knew. I’ve been to a couple games where they have crowd limits of 250 and that includes the teams, the trainers, the refs, the coaches, and it leads to a very small crowd and hardly any noise. If your school allows fans and you’re going, be prepared to wear your mask, and if you have tickets, bring those. You may be asked for ID. I’ve been to games, and I’ve been asked to show ID more than once just to get in the gate.

SuburbanOneSports.com: In last weekend’s opening round of the District One 6A Tournament, the eight games were decided by an average margin of 30 points. Your comments.


Drew Markol: “This happens a lot. Seemingly every year, the first round is full of blowouts. It helps the argument that there’s too many teams in the field, but you look at the games, and number nine North Penn beat number eight CB South, and number 11 Plymouth Whitemarsh beat number six Abington. They may have been lopsided, but maybe there’s something wrong with the seedings. I don’t know what the answer is. My answer is always the same – if we did away with the district tournament, then you wouldn’t have this problem.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Seven SOL teams will be competing in the District One 6A tournament. Your thoughts.


Todd Thorpe: “There were a lot of huge games out there last week. You start with Abington at CB West. Both teams had clinched a conference title, but they were playing for a high seed in districts. It really had a playoff feel. CB West puts up 45 points and pulls away from Abington, which is another impressive win for West. They head into districts as the two seed. I don’t know if a two seed has ever been as doubted every week as much as they are. They head to districts, and you say, ‘Ridley has such a great playoff tradition,’ but West has just defied all odds all year, beating Abington. Especially since Abington has been playing so well in the previous weeks. It was just huge for them, and they should be very confident going in, and Abington has to look at it as a wake-up call – ‘You know what, we didn’t play our best game, but that’s going to recharge us now for the playoffs.’ Abington gets a home game with PW. There are no secrets when you play teams that are so close by.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Abington defeated Pennsbury 49-28 to clinch sole possession of the SOL National title. Your thoughts about that conference.


Todd Thorpe: “You’re got to give credit to Abington. They’re a team that constantly has had to prove themselves to everybody all year – they’re not going to beat Neshaminy, they’re not going to beat Truman, they’re not going to beat Pennsbury. Well, not only have they beaten these teams, they’re thumping these teams. Abington is the real deal. They have explosion at the quarterback and the running back positions that nobody else in that league has, and that’s the difference. Andrick Wesh, in the last two weeks, has been one of the best running backs around. He is an explosive one-play, home run hitter at running back. Last week, Pennsbury gave Abington everything they had. Pennsbury had some really impressive drives where they just ran the ball right down Abington’s throat, and every single time Abington would answer with a huge play. Pennsbury never really was able to make it competitive after the first quarter. That’s a credit to Abington and what they’ve done. I think Abington has clearly established themselves as the best team on this side of District One.