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 earned an impressive 27-7 win over Downingtown West to win its first District 1 6A title. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You go back to last Friday – CB South is the fifth seed in District 1 6A and gets a home game against #6 Downingtown West. CB South dominated early. They had a long drive on their first possession that led to a touchdown. Downingtown West had four turnovers in the first half, and it was still just a 13-7 game at the half. You thought South with all the turnovers by Downingtown West should have had a bigger lead, but they didn’t. In the second half, 
South just shut Downingtown West down whatever they tried to do, held them scoreless and tacked on two fourth quarter touchdowns – one by Anthony Leonardi and one by Corey Moore, both senior running backs, just to put the game away. Leonardi had a 79-yard touchdown run with about nine minutes to go in the game that all but sealed it for South, and South gets its first district title.
“South linebackers – led by seniors Sean Moskowitz and Adam Oscar – are very active. They’re all over the place, making a million tackles, and they make the whole thing go. Downingtown West was a passing team, which a lot of high schools don’t see, and South junior Danny Gies had two interceptions. It was just a good all-around effort. South had to get itself emotionally back up after beating rival CB West in the semifinals. Downingtown West beat its rival, Downingtown East, in the other semifinal. Both teams had to get back up for it, and South came out ready to go.
“I think it’s a bigger rivalry between Downingtown East and Downingtown West than it is between CB South and CB West, for sure. South has done a nice job. They knocked off Coatesville in the first round, Spring-Ford in the second round, CB West was undefeated at the time, and they beat them. They absolutely earned it, and now they’re in the PIAA state round for the first time ever.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks South now will face nationally-ranked St. Joe’s Prep in Saturday’s PIAA 6A semifinal. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Until something is done about St. Joe’s Prep – I’m not sure what you can do. People say you should put them in their own non-public conference or state division, but there’s only a handful of 6A Catholic schools across the state. You’d have an eight-team tournament because there are very few. It’s just a really, really tough spot for anybody. They’re so dominant. You look at Prep’s roster on the school web site – they list the hometowns of the players. They got players from three states – Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. They’re ranked number eight in the country. Their only loss was the IMG Academy, and IMG Academy recruits nationally, whereas, St. Joe’s Prep is pretty much the tri-state area. They lost to IMG Academy 17-14 in their season opener. IMG Academy did not lose a game. They’re ranked number four in USA Today’snational poll.
“You look at last week – St. Joe’s Prep beat District 11 champion Nazareth, a really good team, and Nazareth upset Parkland, also a very good team, in the District 11 final. Prep beats Nazareth 59-21 in the quarterfinals last week and scored every time they had the ball except the last possession. It was 28-0 with four minutes to go in the first quarter. Prep’s been in nine of the last 10 PIAA finals and won seven of them. In that quarterfinal round where they play the District 11 champion, they’re 9-0 in those meetings against the Parklands, Nazareths and Bethlehem Libertys of the world – all really good teams. It’s a hand-picked all-star team, but that’s what we’re stuck with. I’ve said this also before – if you’re Prep or you’re La Salle, the PIAA knew how you operated before inviting you to join. I’ve been told this by several people – their number one goal is to keep their building filled with students. The PIAA let them in. I’ve covered Prep/La Salle forever. They’ve had kids from all over the place long before they joined the PIAA. I don’t blame them. Prep has figured it out. Winning football programs also draw students – kids want to go there. It’s like colleges. If you have a winning football program, it never hurts getting people to go to your school. I just wish it wasn’t like this.
“It’s just a huge, huge mountain for South to try and climb. You go out and play your best – that’s all you can do.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennridge defeated Quakertown 21-7 for its third straight Thanksgiving Day win. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Those programs have sort of shifted. Now Quakertown had more success and has just been the better program the past couple of years. They hadn’t won three in a row since the late 40s early 50s when they won five in a row. It just looks like when you watch that game that Quakertown wants it more. It was 21-7, last year it was 22-7. Quakertown just made plays. The quarterback from Quakertown, Vince Micucci, is a tremendous high school quarterback. He made some plays in that game that you don’t see at the high school level. They got it done. They took an early lead, and Pennridge just really couldn’t get anything going. It’s been lean for Pennridge. They had three wins this year, they did have a couple of really close games, but they lost them all. It’s hard. It’s hard when you’ve had a bad season, and you have that long layoff after a bad season and you have to play in Thanksgiving. Human nature tells you – okay, let’s put the pads away. In that game, there wasn’t a doubt who was the better team.”
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