Back for its 15th 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.
SuburbanOneSports.com: CB South rolled to a mercy rule win over Spring-Ford in last week’s opening round and now will host Plymouth Whitemarsh. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “District playoffs started last week, and not surprisingly, CB South – the number one seed and undefeated defending district champs – just steamrolled Spring-Ford 49-7. Spring-Ford was the 16th and final seed. Those lower seeds – only one lower seed in the whole 6A tournament won. Again, I’m not going to go into my whole rant again how the tournament is just too bloated. South had a 35-0 lead at the half, and they were up 49-0 before Spring-Ford scored. That was just a destruction.
“Sophomore running back Braylen Cape – he doesn’t look like a sophomore. He’s a big bruising kid, and he had 156 yards and one touchdown on just 14 carries. He’s only going to get better and better. He was worked in slowly at the start of the year, and now he’s become one of the main guys on that offense. You look at Owen Pinkerton, the quarterback – he had two rushing 
touchdowns, and he threw for a touchdown. Again, the story with South is really its defense. They just do not let other teams do anything. They’re allowing 7.1 points a game, and most of those seven points come in the fourth quarter when they’ve got 42 points. They’ve allowed the fewest points of any 6A team across the state, which is very impressive. Leading the South defense was senior Matt Harmon. He returned an interception 85 yards for a touchdown, and that really was a backbreaker for Spring-Ford. He also forced a fumble, and on the other side of the ball, he had a receiving touchdown. He had a tremendous game. Harmon gets overshadowed by defensive lineman Ed Bowen, Jimmy Wade and Danny Gies, but Harmon back in the secondary – it’s rare that a team has two really good corners, and that's what South has. That’s how they shut down teams because they’re good at every level on defense. Jimmy Wade, the linebacker, fell on a fumble.
“They’re going to get tested this week when they face the eight seed Plymouth Whitemarsh, which knocked off the ninth seed, Souderton, last Saturday in their first round game. In that one, it was the story of Plymouth Whitemarsh forcing six Souderton turnovers – five of them interceptions. You can’t win if you turn the ball over. It’s always about the turnovers, and that’s magnified in the playoffs. You turn it over once or twice – you’re in trouble. You turn it over six times, you don’t have a chance. Plymouth Whitemarsh is up from 5A. They’re a small 6A enrollment-wise, but they’re doing a good job.
“That’s a nice win over a Souderton team that had a win over CB West during the season. They do it with a bunch of guys. Kevin Hegerty had nine or 10 tackles and returned an interception for a touchdown, and Marcus Laffredo had three of the interceptions. That is just remarkable that one player could do that. That’s what is called a good game plan by Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Dan Chang, who had his team ready. That was an eight-nine game. It’s supposed to be close, and it really wasn’t. PW had a 19-0 lead in the second quarter, and they win the game 33-14. In Souderton’s defense, they did get it to 19-14, but then Christian DiCiurcio from PW had a 53-yard touchdown run that made it 25-14 and PW had control from then on out. DiCiurcio finished with 125 yards rushing. Again, just a good solid team effort. It will be interesting to see how they do against CB South. It’s hard – you have to go to South and face a team that’s 1 1-0 and the number one seed. I think that one will be closer than people think. I think South wins it, but I think it will be closer than people expect.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West is coming off a dominant defensive performance in its win over Pennsbury and will face Downingtown East Friday. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “CB West was the third seed and played number 14 Pennsbury and shut them out 17-0. Vance Morelli and Ryan Clemens had touchdown runs for West, and Clemens also kicked a short field goal for the offense, but the story of the game was just the defense. It’s hard to believe that Pennsbury, which is known for its ground and pound, had 19 total yards rushing in the game and only had two first downs – one in the first half and one in the second half. They finished with 78 yards of total offense. You have to give Pennsbury’s defense credit for keeping it 17-0 because they couldn’t move an inch against West.
“I talked with AJ Gerace, who’s a lineman for West, after the game, and he said – ‘This was the best defensive game we’ve played all year,’ and he just credited the coaching staff with a great game plan. Pennsbury and West had played during the regular season, and West won that one 26-7, but Pennsbury had a couple of new wrinkles that West coach Rob Rowan said they threw in there, but West was ready for whatever they tried to do.
“Another name for West on that defense is sophomore Nick Miletto, who had eight or nine tackles. They don’t have many sophomores that get into the lineup. Ryan Clemens, who is now a senior linebacker, is the exception. Miletto looks like another in the long line of stud West players.
“West plays Downingtown East this week. Rob Rowan, the coach of West, has been there for seven years, and he’s never played Downingtown East, so this will be a first for him. Downingtown East came back from 10-0 and beat Perk Valley 17-10. East is a perennial district power, but they were an 11 seed this year and didn’t have a great year. They’ll give West a test. They brought a freshman, Jules Robinson, as their running back in the middle of the year, and he’s become their guy, so we’ll see what West does to try and stop him.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Ridley and will face Haverford. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “The fourth seed in the tournament, North Penn, played number 13 Ridley and beat them 24-14. It sounds closer than it was. It was 24-0 North Penn in the third quarter. Both of Ridley’s touchdowns came in the fourth quarter when the outcome was already decided. Junior running back Matt Pownall for North Penn had a huge game. He had 225 rushing yards. Junior quarterback Matt Bucksar had a couple of touchdown passes and really played well. This was kind of a vintage North Penn type of playoff game where they just pound you with the running game, eat up the clock and don’t really give you a chance to breathe offensively, and that’s what it was. Just a good job all around by North Penn.
“It will be interesting – this week North Penn plays Haverford. Historically, Haverford does not make a lot of noise in the district playoffs, but they have a running back, junior Liam Taylor, who had four rushing touchdowns and over 200 yards rushing in the first half last week against Quakertown. Haverford beat Quakertown 56-0. Taylor has 2,400 rushing yards on the season and 29 rushing touchdowns and has really been their offense. North Penn head coach Dick Beck is really good at taking away a team’s main weapon and making other parts of the offense beat them, so it will be interesting to see how that one goes. If North Penn runs Pownall as much as they did last week and if Haverford runs Taylor as much, this game might be over in an hour.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin defeated Unionville and will travel to Phoenixville in Class 5A Friday. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “In a 5A first round game, Upper Dublin, the sixth seed, played #11 Unionville, and Upper Dublin picked up a 31-21 win. Unionville led 7-0 midway through the first quarter before senior quarterback Kevin Etkin for Upper Dublin threw an 18-yard touchdown to senior Eric Berman to tie the score, and then Jordan Fields had a 50-yard run for a touchdown to make it 14-7 in the second quarter. Unionville, to its credit, comes back on a long scoring pass to tie the score at 14. Fields scores again on a short run at the end of the second quarter to make it 21-14. He finished with 175 rushing yards, scored three touchdowns. That’s a nice combination between Fields and Etkin at quarterback. Berman is a really good receiver. Upper Dublin can do different things, and that helps. Again, we get back to the kicking game – their kicker Matt Miller is also exceptional. He kicked a 26-yard field goal in the third quarter to make it 24-14. Having him is really, really big.
“Unionville does fight back, makes it 24-21 in the fourth quarter, but Fields scored on a 40-yard run to account for the final margin. Berman, who also plays defensive back, had an interception late to stop a Unionville drive and secured the win. Just a solid win for Upper Dublin. Now they play Phoenixville in the quarterfinals. Phoenixville is the third seed, so Upper Dublin’s going to have to go on the road for that one as the six seed. That’s a solid team. I don’t put anything past Upper Dublin. I don’t think going on the road bothers them.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Springfield Twp defeated Bishop Shanahan and will face top-seeded Pope John Paul II in Friday’s District 1 4A title game. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Dropping down to 4A, Springfield just continues its super season. They took care of a pretty good Bishop Shanahan team 42-21, and now they’re playing for the 4A title for the first time since 2015. This score might be the surprise of last weekend. Running back CJ Johnson, who’s been really, really, really good all year, had 214 rushing yards, he scored four touchdowns, caught five passes for another 73 yards in just a total stud performance. The quarterback, Jack McGuckin, who gets overshadowed by Johnson, only missed on four passes. He threw 15 passes, completed 11 of them, and he ran the ball 17 times for 88 yards and scored two touchdowns. Not to be forgotten is senior Bobby Hartman. He’s the placekicker, he’s the punter, he plays on defense – he had six tackles and two interceptions. He made all six of his extra points, he recovered his own on-sides kick to start the game, and he had three receptions. It’s just a remarkable performance by him, and again, having a reliable kicker, especially in the playoffs, is huge because not every game is going to be 42-21 like this one was. It was just a tremendous effort.
“Springfield has a lot of good pieces. They put it all together.”
Drew Markol’s picks
(Winners in bold)
Plymouth Whitemarsh @ Central Bucks South
Downingtown East @ Central Bucks West
Haverford @ North Penn
Upper Dublin @ Phoenixville
Springfield Twp @ Pope John Paul II
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