Blog Post

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Downingtown West 35-21 and now will take on second-seeded Coatesville at Pennridge in the District One 6A title game. Your comments.

Drew Markol: "Most people are looking at the North Penn/Coatesville game and saying, 'Coatesville is the number two seed, but they're the best team and might be the best team in the state,' which I don't think they are. I think that's St. Joe's Prep. North Penn is a number one seed, but they haven't played at home in the mud at Crawford Stadium the entire playoffs. They kept moving the games. They went to Wissahickon twice, they actually shifted the game against Downingtown West, which was supposed to be at North Penn and then it was at Wissahickon. Then it snowed so they had to go to Downingtown West to play a good Whippets team whose only loss was to Coatesville. This week a North Penn team that had home field advantage throughout the playoffs will play at its third different field, this time at Pennridge.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Truman saw its successful season end with a heartbreaking 24-22 loss to Downingtown West. Your comments.

Todd Thorpe: "I said in my story and on Game On that this is a game that I'm sure Truman really thinks they let get away. They were in good position to win this game right off the bat when they dominated the first half astronomically and put up two touchdowns in the first quarter but had a couple of drives stall in the second quarter. Coach LaPalombara said after the game - he thought they should have been looking at probably 28-0 at halftime instead of 14-0 because of the way they dominated.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Harry S Truman won its first ever district game with its 27-12 win over Council Rock South. The Tigers will travel to Downingtown West on Friday. Your comments.

Todd Thorpe: "The Truman/Council Rock South game was just what you expected between two teams that were real familiar with each other. I kind of suspected that Truman was going to have the advantage in weapons and in terms of the score, and in the end, they did, but it was an interesting game. Rock South has a really good defense, and they can do different things. In the end, Truman had a few too many weapons, and I give assistant coach and offensive coordinator Galen Snyder a ton of credit for recognizing that the fullback up the middle with Enzo Poulson was going to be so successful. That really was the difference in the game. There were some crazy moments in the third quarter with a blocked punt and several turnovers, and South made it interesting. As I said, they're a very good defensive team, and they play awfully hard. I thought this time around - especially when you throw in the emotional factor of playing at home in a playoff game, I think that favored Truman from the beginning. The big star of the day has to be Enzo Poulson, the fullback. He was saying after the game that when they played South before the fullback between the tackles was pretty successful. I think that was their game plan.

SuburbanOneSports.com: In a battle for a share of the SOL National title and district seeding, Neshaminy defeated Pennsbury. Your thoughts about those two teams heading into the district tournament.

Drew Markol: "That was an important game - you have the rivalry. They've played 87 times now - Pennsbury has won 40, Neshaminy has won 40, and they've tied seven times. It really is a good rivalry. It doesn't get better than that. I'm a little surprised by the 35-7 score. I thought it would be closer. I haven't seen Neshaminy for a while, but from everyone I've spoken to, they've gotten progressively better, and that's what you want to be doing. By getting that win and with the way a couple of the other games fell, Neshaminy grabbed a home game that they probably didn't expect to get. I'm sure they were hoping for it in the back of their minds, but now they got it as an eight seed.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts about what has been a very interesting SOL National Conference.

Drew Markol: "Let's start with Neshaminy/Council Rock South. That was a game that both teams had to have. We started the weekend with a four-way tie for first between Truman, Council Rock South, Pennsbury and Neshaminy. Each of them had one loss, and Neshaminy - with a nice defensive effort - shuts out Council Rock South 9-0 and gives Council Rock South a second loss in the conference. Neshaminy remains alive for the conference title, and if they beat archrival Pennsbury on Friday, they can knock Pennsbury out of a share of the title and will probably end up sharing it with Truman. If Truman plays well, which they obviously have been doing, they can most likely beat Bensalem, only have the one loss and get a share of the title. On the flip side, Pennsbury had to beat a pretty good Abington team that's been a little under the radar. Abington gave them a fight in very close game. Pennsbury had to have that game too in order to set up its game against Neshaminy. Now it looks like you're going to have co-champions with Truman and the winner of Pennsbury/Neshaminy.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts about Pennsbury's come-from-behind win over Council Rock South and the SOL National Conference race.

Todd Thorpe: "You look at the Council Rock South-Pennsbury game - South obviously in first place has a lot to play for, has a lead going into the fourth quarter and it gets away. Pennsbury has been waiting for that win. They've been so close in the games that they've lost. I covered their game against Truman two weeks ago, and they were right there. They've been frustrated, and they've lost games late, but they still feel they're a pretty good team and they're just as good as any of these teams. That's their feeling, but they just haven't found a way to win these games, and low and behold, they did.

"Now Pennsbury has a chance with two weeks remaining to really hold their playoff destiny in their own hands. Even at 6-4 if they win these next two games, I think they're in the playoffs. I look at these brackets and I see the seeds 14 through 19 in a 16-team bracket, and you may see a 5-5 team make the playoffs this year. It wouldn't surprise me if that came out of the National Conference with a Pennsbury or any of the other teams.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Todd, you covered Truman's come-from-behind 29-24 win over Pennsbury. Your thoughts.

Todd Thorpe: "I think that was a big time statement game for Truman. That was an opponent, just like Neshaminy a couple of weeks earlier, that they hadn't beaten in an awfully long time, and if you want to prove you're one of the teams that's a contender, you have to beat those teams. Especially in the second half of that game, Truman came out with a little something to prove and scored on their first two possessions and really dominated the line of scrimmage. They're mostly a running team, but they even threw the ball a little bit. Truman got it all together in the second half of that game. It was a really good game to watch. Pennsbury, at one point, did drive down the field and retook the lead, and Truman came back and took the lead again. Pennsbury was driving and Javeer Peterson just makes a great interception on the five-yard line towards the last minute or so to seal the win for Truman.

Drew Markol: "We talked about this before - the SOL Continental is really close. You have the three undefeated teams with North Penn, CB South and Souderton. Souderton needed that win. They started 0-3, and one of those losses was a one-point loss to Hatboro-Horsham, which was a bit of a head scratcher, although they were without DeAndre Wakefield in that game because of an injury.

"Wakefield is a huge part of their offense. In the first half, Souderton didn't play too well offensively, but he caught a touchdown pass - his only catch of the game. It was a nice throw by Andrew Vince but an even better catch by DeAndre Wakefield that tied the game 7-7 at the half. In the second half, he broke two long runs, and once he got in the secondary, he was just gone. He had another gear that East couldn't stop. John Donnelly had talked about him all week being the problem trying to stop Souderton. Well, they got to the game, and he was right.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Cheltenham knocked off previously undefeated Quakertown. Your thoughts about that game.

Todd Thorpe: "That is crazy, and that is why they play the game. Cheltenham beat Council Rock South earlier this year, and you didn't really know. You kind of think - 'It's Cheltenham,' but maybe the Cheltenham program has turned the corner. They're 4-1 right now, and that was a big win. Quakertown was riding high. I guess a lot of people thought they were going to cruise into that Upper Dublin game, and they kind of got the stop sign thrown up in front of them at home. It's certainly not the end of the line for Quakertown, but it's a hiccough. It will be interesting to see how that conference plays out. Cheltenham plays Upper Dublin this week, and the team that wins that game can be in the driver's seat in that conference. Upper Dublin did lose to Penn Charter - I'm not sure what that will do to their power points.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Drew, you covered the Pennridge/North Penn game last week. Your thoughts.

Drew Markol: "Before the season, most of us thought in the Continental Conference the challenge for North Penn would be Pennridge. Well, it turned out it wasn't that much of a challenge. Pennridge scored early - they got a sack of the quarterback, they recovered a fumble in the end zone, and they had a lot of momentum, but North Penn just reeled off four or five straight touchdowns in a very short amount of time and made what looked like a very interesting game early not so interesting because they just put the pedal down and really did a nice job. I tell you what - this is the first time I've seen North Penn live, and they've got a lot of weapons, they've got a lot of speed, and there's a lot of skill. The passing game, as coach Dick Beck has said, is not there yet, but if it gets a little better, they are going to be a really, really tough out because they're disciplined - they don't run that many plays. I don't want to say their offense is bland, but it kind of reminds you of the old CB West teams.