Blog Post

SuburbanOneSports.com: This weekend's marquee SOL game is Quakertown and Upper Moreland with the top spot in the SOL American Conference on the line. Your thoughts.

Drew Markol: "We said weeks ago the most interesting conference was going to be the American Conference, and that's kind of been the case because the Continental is North Penn and the National is going to likely come down to Pennsbury/Neshaminy in week 10. The American Conference you had Upper Dublin, Hatboro-Horsham, Upper Moreland and Quakertown. Well, now basically, for all intents and purposes, you're down to this game on Friday - Quakertown/Upper Moreland. Upper Moreland has its brand new turf field finally ready to go. I saw it the other day. It looks really nice. One of their players said to me he feels like a kid on Christmas morning. The new field is ready. There were a couple of delays, and they were afraid they wouldn't get a chance to play on it.

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Central Bucks South 40-9 in a key Continental Conference battle. Your thoughts.
Todd Thorpe: "Obviously, North Penn really took it to CB South. I can't say that's not expected. I thought North Penn was a pretty heavy favorite in that game, especially with Jack Johns not playing with an injury at quarterback and having to go with a sophomore who's pretty promising, but that's a tough, tough assignment for a sophomore to go against a North Penn team at this time of year, which is when they hit their stride. Say what you want about it, but at this time of year, the teams that have played that rugged non-league schedule are really stepping to the front. You see that in the National Conference too. Neshaminy and Pennsbury - all of a sudden they're right there. Pennsbury has a huge game this week against Truman, but those are the teams that are right there.�

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Pennridge 45-35 in a classic battle. Your comments.

Drew Markol: "I think both of those teams are playoff teams and both of those teams can actually do a little damage in the playoffs, but North Penn had an answer for everything Pennridge was able to throw at them. I just thought the last team with the ball was going to win because that's what it looked like because there wasn't much defense being played. North Penn was able to make enough stops, and they made some big plays. Justis Henley was banged up a little bit and didn't play much, and Josh Pinkney from Pennridge wasn't able to play because he has that bone bruise from the Souderton game, so each team was missing a key cog. Sometimes with North Penn, it looks like teams can get intimidated, but it didn't look like that. It just looked like North Penn had a little bit more firepower. Now if they can beat CB South, it looks like clear sailing to another Continental Conference title.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Truman and Bensalem continue to be a big story as both teams improved to 4-0 last week. Your comments about Bensalem's come-from-behind 41-18 win over Abington that saw the Owls score 41 points in the second half.

Drew Markol: "I know it's only a month into the season, but you can call it the year of Truman and Bensalem in the National Conference. I've been much more of a Truman supporter, and I still do think they have a better team than Bensalem, but all Bensalem is doing is going out and putting up impressive wins. Is it a great Abington team? No, but they still have some tremendous running backs on that team, and Abington is never a bad team. Bensalem goes out and does that to them - imagine if you're Bensalem, if you had any doubts at all about how good you were, those are probably gone, for sure, because you're proving yourself. Abington is a team that seven out of 10 years if you looked at it and think Neshaminy, Pennsbury and who's the third team? I don't want to say it's a failsafe, but it's Abington because it's a good program.

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn earned an important win over Pennsbury. What are your thoughts?

Drew Markol: "Talk about a team that needed a reversal, it was North Penn. They go down to Pennsbury - they've had a lot of success against Pennsbury. It's been well documented. I think they've beaten them like 4,000 times in a row, but you still have to go out and do it. Pennsbury is pretty good, and North Penn was staring at 0-3, but instead, they went out - they blocked a field goal and Justis Henley, who's as good as any player in the area, recovered the ball and ran it back 95 yards for a touchdown. It was just a huge turning point.

SuburbanOneSports.com: The popular pick last week was Pennridge over Neshaminy, but Neshaminy won that game to go 2-0. Your comments.

Drew Markol: "Neshaminy had a tough game with Roman Catholic, and they pulled out a win, thanks to Marcus Griffin who returned an interception. We don't know about Roman Catholic, whether they're good or bad or half decent, so you wondered what Neshaminy was made of. Then you had Pennridge, which handled a Norristown team that is struggling the week before. Most people went with Pennridge, including myself, to beat Neshaminy last week, and that didn't happen.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Looking back at week one of the season, were there any surprises?

Drew Markol: "I think Quakertown beating CB East was a nice win for them. I did not expect that. Quakertown's George Banas is building a program. Last year they were .500ish, and he said, 'There's help coming.' Again, I don't put too much stock in the first week of the season, but that was a good non-league game. It was a good job by Quakertown. I think East is decent and a potential playoff team. If you're Quakertown, when you get into the American Conference, which is good, you're going to have games against some teams that are struggling, and you need all the help you can get as far as the power points. You beat a team like East, which I think will do okay in the Continental - that's a great way to start the season. Any coach will tell you in any sport that 1-0 is so much better than 0-1. It just makes the next week of practice that much easier to handle, that pressure of having to get that first win out of the way is gone.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Are there any games that jump out at you in week one of the season?

Drew Markol: "One of the big games would be La Salle at North Penn. This is the eighth time they've met in the opener. North Penn finally beat La Salle last year after La Salle had won the first six. It's like a recording, but both of these teams are loaded again. I think North Penn will be more balanced than last year. They had the quarterback, Reece Udinski, and he covered up a lot of warts in the running game by being able to throw the ball so well. I think this year North Penn will run it and throw it well enough. To me, North Penn is just about an overwhelming favorite to win the district title. You just go down that roster, and the names jump out at you, and you say, 'Oh, I remember him, I remember him, and I remember him.' That's rare for high school football, which so many times is senior dominated.

SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn came up just short in its game against St. Joe's Prep in the state semifinals. Your thoughts as the Knights' remarkable season comes to an end.

Drew Markol: "It's rare but it's a nice treat when a game lives up to the hype this one had. This was a game we'd been talking about in August. We knew it was coming down to these two teams. I don't think we knew in August that North Penn would be undefeated, but once we saw them play, we quickly knew they would be. We knew Prep would be undefeated and you'd have this huge matchup with a huge crowd. It was just a great game between two great teams.

SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts about North Penn's district title win over Garnet Valley as well as Saturday night's PIAA Class 6A semifinal game against St. Joe's Prep.

Kevin Cooney: "The other night on WNPV we all commended Garnet Valley for the way they fought, but in actuality, it never got to that danger point for North Penn. It was always a double-digit game. I think there was one point where it was 21-14 or 21-13, but there was never a point where you thought 'North Penn is in real danger here.' That being said, the mistakes that North Penn has made since the Spring-Ford game - we keep waiting for them to play a perfect game, and they haven't done it yet, which is good because they keep winning by these huge amounts, but it's bad because if you make any mistakes against St. Joe Prep you're in trouble. Personally, I think maybe it's lack of focus, and when you get out to a big lead maybe you lose your focus a little bit, and that's what has happened a couple of times in the tournament.