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: The final game of the SOL season will be the Pennridge/Quakertown Thanksgiving Day game. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “On Thanksgiving, the Pennridge-Quakertown game is at Quakertown this year at 10:15 a.m. Quakertown has won three in a row for the first time in forever. Their longest 
winning streak in this game dates back to the late 40s and early 50s when they won five in a row from – I want to say 1947-1951. To get to four in a row if they were to win, it would be the first time they’ve done that.
“Quakertown was a playoff team. They lost in the opening round to Haverford High. For Pennridge, they come in at 4-6. They lost their last four games of the regular season to Neshaminy, CB West, CB East and CB South. If they had won maybe one of those games, they may have found themselves in the playoffs, but that didn’t happen. Now they have a chance to right things if they beat Quakertown in what should be a close game. You have two good quarterbacks in Pennridge’s Noah Keating and Quakertown’s Brady Martin going at it. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, but it should make for another good game in what’s been a long series. Another big crowd will be showing up. I’m going with Quakertown to make it four in a row.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn’s season came to an end in last Friday’s District 1 6A title game at Downingtown West. You were there – your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “In the 6A final last week, North Penn loses to Downingtown West 35-16. North Penn actually led it 10-7 in the first half. Ryan Bocklet, North Penn’s excellent kicker, made a 35-yard field goal to give them the lead, but Downingtown West was able to score before the half to lead 14-10.
“At the start of the fourth quarter, it was a 21-16 game after Matt Pownall, the North Penn junior, scored. In the fourth quarter, Downingtown West was able to pin North Penn back on a couple of punts. North Penn was pinned inside its own 10, and Downingtown West’s Andrew Brown had a sack of North Penn junior quarterback Matt Bucksar. The ball was fumbled into the end zone, and Brown recovered it to make it 28-16 Downingtown West midway through the fourth quarter. It also seemed to deflate North Penn, and understandably so. That was just a huge momentum swing that happened, and Downingtown West added another touchdown to make it 35-16.
“That loss doesn’t take away from what was a really good North Penn season. It kind of got overshadowed a bit in the regular season by CB South and CB West, two of the teams that they lost to, but they went into the tournament as the fourth seed, played Downingtown West which is the second seed, and got all the way to the final. They hadn’t won a district title since 2016, but it was a nice run. You look at the teams North Penn lost to – they lost to CB South, a district semifinalist. They lost to CB West, a district semifinalist who also lost to Downingtown West, and they lost to Downingtown West. That was it. They finished 11-3.
“They had a lot of good seniors this year, but you have Matt Bucksar, the junior quarterback, coming back. Matt Pownall, the outstanding junior running back – he’s coming back. Mason Franek, one of their top receivers is coming back. North Penn has a nice nucleus to work with for next year. They’ll be in pretty good shape.”
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