Back for its 14th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writer Drew Markol. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (http://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school/) and Courier Times (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/) web sites.
Join Jeff Nolan for the WPHT High School Football Scoreboard Show as they recap the night of high school football on Friday at 10 p.m. on 1210AM/WPHT and the Audacy app.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks South handed Central Bucks West its first loss of the season in the District 1 6A semifinals. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “Every team has injuries, but West’s seemed just glaring. It started at the beginning of the season losing quarterback Ganz Cooper, but Cooper Taylor stepped in and did a fabulous job all year at quarterback. Then Matt Cleland went down, and then Conor McFadden went down on the opening kickoff in 
the first round of the district playoffs. I think the injury to him may have been the last straw because he was a two-way player who is one of the fastest kids in the state. One thing you didn’t see against West was long touchdown runs because no matter what side of the field he was on – teams would usually run to the other side, and whoever got in the clear, he would just run them down and make a tackle. Instead of a 40-yard touchdown, you might have a 15-yard gain. No touchdown and then you had to work again and again. He was a ball hawk in the secondary, and offensively, they could do so much with him. He drew double coverage all the time because he was one of those rare kids who was a touchdown waiting to happen. They lost him, and they gutted it out, and they got to the district semifinals. They were 12-0, and it was a pretty darn good season.
“South has just been rolling along all season. They were overshadowed by West because the history of West and the whole thing. They came out on Friday night, and they’ve got that giant offensive line, they’ve got three running backs – Anthony Leonardi, Corey Moore and the quarterback Owen Pinkerton that can all hurt you. Those three ran for 450 yards against West. Leonardi had 300 of them and averaged almost 13 yards a carry that game. He broke three long second-half touchdown runs that put the game away, and Corey Moore had the other three touchdowns. The South defense – their linebackers Sean Moskowitz and Adam Oscar, and they got Jimmy Wade back from injury. You don’t get to a district title game being average.
“In the first meeting of West and South in week nine, South made some early mistakes, and West turned them into touchdowns, and before you knew it – it was close, but it wasn’t that close. South took the second half kickoff down and scored, but West answered that touchdown with a touchdown of its own and eventually won 40-29. There were a lot of people there then who said – if these two teams meet again, it’s going to be closer. It actually wasn’t closer because South was able to take it to them.
“It was interesting that you had West and South in the one semi and Downingtown East and Downingtown West in the other, and both the underdogs won. Now you have the fifth seed in CB South hosting the district title game against the sixth seed Downingtown West. Both won their semifinals over teams they had lost to. Downingtown West had gotten smoked by Downingtown East 35-7 in the last week of the regular season, and South had lost to West in week nine 40-29, so both of those teams turned the tables. That’s why they play the game.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Both CB South and Downingtown West are coming off emotional wins. Your thoughts about Friday night’s District 1 6A final.
Drew Markol: “Downingtown West and East went right down to the wire in their semifinal. It was nip and tuck. As big as the rivalry is between West and South, I think the rivalry between Downingtown East and Downingtown West is bigger. The emotions Downingtown West spent – now they have to get on a bus, and you’ve got to drive on Black Friday from Downingtown to Warrington, and it’s not easy. South always has a huge student section at their games. They’re going to have a home field advantage. South’s game with CB West – nobody was sitting on the edge of their seats because that game was pretty much over well before it was over. It was just a matter of what the final score was going to be. That’s a credit to South for taking control. The South players said before – to them, it was a road game, but it was a 10-minute drive. They had plenty of people there. South’s offense is relentless, they just pound and pound. They are no secrets – that’s what they do. We’ll see what happens. It’s something different because it’s not the number one versus the number two seed. You’ve got teams that probably didn’t expect to get this far, but they both did.
“I think the emotional edge would go to South in Friday’s district title game, and I think that will be the difference. It’s two good teams. I’ve heard from a couple of coaches off the record saying, ‘Oh, South is going to win a district title.’ We’ll see. I’ll take their word, and I’ll pick South, but I also picked West to beat South last week.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown will travel to Pennridge for the annual Thanksgiving Day game. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “This is Kyle Beller’s first Thanksgiving game as head coach. It will be interesting. Pennridge didn’t make the playoffs, so they haven’t played since Oct. 27. That’s a long time – that’s a day shy of five weeks. It’s hard to keep a team sharp for that long of a stretch. You’re just practicing against yourself. How sharp can they be. Whereas Quakertown played a first round district game. They lost to Perkiomen Valley, but it gave them another week of competition. Quakertown head coach George Banas has been through this a lot, playing at Quakertown and coaching in his 13th or 14th year.
“Last year Quakertown won 22-6. I think it will be closer than that. I could see it as a touchdown game. I give an edge to Quakertown. Their quarterback Vince Micucci is a terrific player. He had a good game last year, and he’s a difference maker. Ed Bittner is a good running back for Quakertown. He’s stepped in and has done a nice job. Anthony Ferrugio, the defensive end/tight end, was a first team Continental Conference tight end and defensive end. He has 9 ½ sacks this season and three interceptions and returned a couple of them for touchdowns. He’s a dominant force – 9 ½ sacks is a lot of sacks for a high school football player. For Pennridge, a lot of it revolves around Sam Kuhns, the running back and defensive back. He returns kicks and punts and does it all for them. They’re going to look for him. He’s going to get the ball a lot.
“Pennridge has a very big lead in the series. I think it’s something like 58-30-6. Quakertown’s trying to win three straight for the first time since 1949, 1950 and 1951. Think about that. Players in that game were born in 1933. It’s a long, long time ago. If you’re a senior on Quakertown and you beat Pennridge in 10th grade and 11th grade, it’s quite an incentive to beat them again, and you can say, ‘Hey, we swept them while I was there.’
“It’s fun. I love Thanksgiving football. I’m just glad they’re still playing it. I was at Quakertown last week, and George Banas said they’re already talking about plans for the 100th meeting – what they’re going to do, and we’re six years away from that.
“On paper, they had four common opponents, and Quakertown was 2-2 against them and Pennridge was 1-3 against common opponents. It’s going to be tight as always. When you have a game like this between a National Conference team – they’ll say they play better competition – and a Continental Conference team like Quakertown – if you’re Quakertown, it’s ‘we’re the little guy,’ and I think that helps them. It gives them a little more incentive. I think it’s close. I think it’s much closer than last year’s 22-6. That outcome was decided long before it was over. I like Quakertown in a close one.”
Drew Markol’s picks
(Winner in bold)
Quakertown @ Pennridge
Downingtown West @ CB South
- Log in to post comments
