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: North Penn handed top-seeded Central Bucks South its first loss of the season in a District 1 6A semifinal. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You look at the North Penn/CB South game. CB South comes in 12-0, the defending district champions. They had allowed the fewest points and still have of any 6A team in Pennsylvania. They only allowed, I believe, 99 points all season, which is just remarkable. They take on a North Penn team, and all those cliches about how hard it is to beat a team twice, especially a good team, came true as North Penn wins 21-19.
“I was at the CB West game, and people were saying – can South beat a Dick Beck team twice in one season. It turns out they couldn’t. South went down swinging. They had a 13-7 lead at the half. At the start of the second half, South started moving the ball again and had a couple of first downs – I believe they had five plays and three first downs, but Jack Silvers from North Penn had a sack of CB South quarterback Owen Pinkerton. The ball popped up in the air, and Aidan Eves, who had an enormous game and is their best all-around player, intercepted the pass. North Penn didn’t score on that, but it was a momentum changer.
North Penn did score eventually after a fumble recovery. Junior quarterback Matt Bucksar had a 37-yard pass to junior Matt Pownall, who had another great game running and receiving and had six catches, and that got them down to the two-yard line. It eventually led to a fourth-and-four with North Penn trailing 13-7, and they go for it. Bucksar hits Eves, the tight end, for the touchdown, and Ryan Bocklet, the really good North Penn senior kicker, makes the extra point, and it’s 14-13 North Penn.
CB South fumbles the following kickoff, and North Penn recovers. It leads to a touchdown pass – this time Pownall scores on a 28-yard pass from Bucksar that makes it 21-13 halfway through the fourth quarter.
“This obviously forces CB South – if they score – to go for two. They do score. They put together an 80-yard drive that was finished off by sophomore Braylen Cope, who had an eight-yard touchdown run. They go for two to try and tie it to force overtime, but they don’t get it.
“With 3:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, South goes for an on-sides kick, and Aidan Eves – who did everything for North Penn – recovered the on-sides kick, and North Penn was pretty much able to run out the clock.
“At that point, South had all three of its timeouts left. It’s a tough spot. Do you try the on-sides kick or do you kick it deep and ask your really good defense to try and stop North Penn and get the ball back with maybe two minutes to go around midfield? I don’t know. I think you could argue it either way. It depends. Did CB South think they could stop North Penn or were they afraid North Penn would drive on them, and they would never see the ball again. You can go back and forth all day whether or not that was the right time to try it.
“Perhaps the most surprising thing and what really hindered CB South – they turned the ball over five times, which is something they just don’t do. The defense kept holding and kept holding North Penn, but North Penn finally broke through. It’s very uncharacteristic of CB South. I’m sure they’re going to kick themselves because that’s a team that does not shoot itself in the foot, and you think about it – they turned the ball over four times in the second half, and they were still right in the game, which is just a credit to the defense and a remarkable effort. It’s two good teams, and somebody’s got to lose.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts about Friday’s District 1 6A game between North Penn and Downingtown West.
Drew Markol: “North Penn has enough of a running game, which Downingtown West really didn’t. I think North Penn has a more balanced attack than Downingtown West does. I think North Penn will beat them. I picked 24-21 because North Penn’s got a good kicker in Ryan Bocklet.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West saw its season end in a District 1 6A semifinal game at Downingtown West. You were there. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “CB West lost 28-23 to Downingtown West in the semifinals last week. It was the second straight year they made the semifinals, and two years ago, they made the district final, so they’ve had a nice little three-year run.
“In this one, they fell behind on a punt return for a touchdown, and Downingtown West scored again and had a 14-0 lead. West had to try and play catchup the rest of the way. They never had a lead. They were down 21-10 at the half. Ryan Clemens scored on a long touchdown pass from Noah Miller for West in the second quarter, and then Clemens kicked a short field goal at the end of the half to make it 21-10.
Downingtown had an answer real early in the third quarter with a touchdown to go ahead 28-10. West, to its credit, did fight back with two touchdowns. Clemens had a short run, and Miller had a really tough nine-yard run where he dove at the pylon. It was a great run that made it 28-23. West did get the ball back with about a minute or so to go. They got called for intentional grounding, and there was a mix-up on what down it was. It was actually second down when the intentional grounding was called, but the referees thought it was third down. West ran another play, thinking it was now third down because of the loss of down, but instead, it was fourth down unbeknownst to them, and the ball gets turned over on downs to Downingtown West. So West was shorted a down, and West coach Rob Rowan was irate on the sidelines trying to let the officials know it was actually second down when the penalty was called, not third down, but they did not change their minds until after West had run what was essentially fourth down, did not make the first down and had to turn the ball over, and the game was over. The officiating was shaky at best all night, especially for a district semifinal. It left you scratching your head a lot.
To Rowan’s credit, he would not complain about the officials after the game. He just said – that’s part of the things you have to deal with. Well, you shouldn’t have to deal with that. You hope the officiating crew can keep the number of downs correctly even if the person on the chain gang can’t. West was on their own 25-yard line, and they had a long way to go, but still, to have that chance taken away because you never know – that was a hard way to lose.
“Downingtown West is good. Their junior quarterback, Cole Bricker, is legit. He threw a couple of touchdown passes, and now they’re playing North Penn this week for the title.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Upper Dublin fell to West Chester Rustin in a District 1 5A semifinal game. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “Upper Dublin reached the 5A semifinals and played second-seeded West Chester Rustin. They lost 35-14, but they were in it. They were only down by a score to start the fourth quarter, but then Rustin had a couple of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to account for the 35-14 margin.
“Upper Dublin was down 14-0 in this one, and when you fall behind like that, it’s tough. Jordan Fields broke off an 80-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7. Then Ryan O’Sullivan blocked a punt, and sophomore Kevin Williams picked it up and ran in for a touchdown. You love seeing sophomores in big spots in these playoff games because you know if they’re in there – they’re legit, and they are probably the building blocks going forward. For a player like Williams who did that, it always makes coaches happy. You don’t see many sophomores playing this late in the season.
“Upper Dublin loses quarterback Kevin Etkin, who threw for nearly 2,000 yards this season and had a really nice year. They were 9-4. There’s nothing wrong with that. No shame in making the district semifinals.
“For an Upper Dublin team, it was a really good year. They tied for the SOL Continental Conference title with Souderton and Quakertown. They had a couple of crazy comeback wins, especially the one over Quakertown winning on the last play of the game.
“Sure, you get to this point, and you want to go further, but as Bret Stover their coach said afterwards – we got this far, and West Chester Rustin was a really good team. Sometimes the other guy is better than you, and that happens in the playoffs.”
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