Two teams accustomed to the spotlight will take center stage on Saturday night when North Penn takes on St. Joe’s Prep in an eagerly-awaited showdown pitting two of the state’s top Class AAAA squads at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
The Prep will once again have the advantage in size, but the Knights hope to negate that with their speed.
It’s worked for coach Dick Beck and his players in the recent past. Two years ago, North Penn sprinted to a 17-7 win over the Hawks. Last year, on a muddy field at Crawford Stadium, the Knights slogged their way to a 14-7 win. They know they will face an even bigger challenge this time around against a Prep squad that has a pair of impressive wins under its belt, but senior T.J. Gill believes the key to success for the Knights will remain the same.
“I think it’s going to be our technique and speed,” the Knights’ safety/wing back said. “They’re big and strong, but with (Craig) Needhammer at back, hopefully, Todd (Smolinsky) can swing the ball out there for me and Dom (Taggart). Our guys are going to have to block up front.
“Games like these are very helpful come playoff time with the atmosphere and the crowds because our guys have been in it before.”
Prep coach Gil Brooks acknowledged that he enjoys what have become annual battles with the Knights.
“It’s always a real challenge for us,” he said. “Dick does a great job with the boys.
“North Penn has some good personnel, and they’re very well coached back to the time we started playing them when the young Mike Pettine was there. They have that C.B. West lineage. They’re probably the only school left with C.B. West lineage from coach Pettine.
“They play hard, they get off the ball. It’s what they teach, it’s how these kids are trained.”
For the Prep, it will be home sweet home on Saturday night.
The Prep opened its season with a road trip to the Wheeling Rally in Wheeling, W. Va., where the Hawks erased a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to stun McKeesport 27-26 at Wheeling Island Stadium. Prep’s 210-pound tailback Garrett Compton accumulated 118 yards on 32 carries with two touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg had a shaky start (2-for-10) but closed out the game a perfect 4-for-4 for 96 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner with 1:53 left.
“He’s a proto-typical Prep quarterback,” North Penn coach Dick Beck said of Mornhinweg. “He can throw, he has a big arm – he likes to throw it deep, and he can hurt you with his legs too.”
The Prep has had four scholarship quarterbacks in the last decade, and coach Gil Brooks compares his present QB – who also starts at safety - to Villanova signal caller Chris Whitney, a Prep alum who is a three-year starter for the Wildcats.
“He reminds me of him in the sense that he sees the field, he makes great plays on the run and just has that special gift that good quarterbacks have,” Brooks said. “A kid like Skyler – he’s a very good athlete, he has a very good presence. He’ll make a mistake – he’s still young, but it helped him to start varsity on defense last year.”Last weekend, the Prep once again found itself in the limelight when the Hawks traveled to Rutgers Stadium to do battle with a St. Peter’s Prep squad that was ranked fifth in New Jersey. The Hawks once again staged a heroic comeback, rallying from a 28-14 halftime deficit for a 40-28 win. Mornhinweg had two touchdown runs in the second half while Desmon Peoples also had a pair of long TD runs.
“We played two great teams – I told my kids I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team faster than McKeesport or as big as St. Peter’s, but North Penn is a challenge because of the fact that they have such good technique,” Brooks said. “That was always C.B. West when we played them.
“They didn’t have a ton of Division One guys, but they had a lot of guys who were just hard-nosed football players, good athletes who could run, and they had good technique and got off the ball real fast. You had to get used to that.”
According to Brooks, the game plan going against North Penn doesn’t change a whole lot from year to year.
“They have a system, and the system has obviously been successful for them, so you don’t change what’s not broken,” he said. “There’s going to be idiosyncrasies from year to year based on the personnel. You’ll see new wrinkles, but the core parts of the system are probably the same – their quickness off the ball and their tenacity.
“What North Penn has done a lot is they’ve done a lot of slanting. We’ve had size advantages, and to neutralize that, they move around a lot, and they do it by slanting and trying to out-quick us at the point of attack. Whether they’ll do it this year, I’m not positive.”
So how do the Knights game plan for the Hawks?
“I don’t think we change anything,” Beck said. “They’re the type of team that is similar to us. They like to run the ball, and they have a quarterback that can hurt you.
“They’re big and physical up front offensively and defensively. That’s going to be our issue. We’ve got to make sure we don’t get pushed around. Our speed has to negate their strength.”
Running back Craig Needhammer has been a workhorse in the backfield for the Knights. In North Penn’s big win over Liberty, he amassed 223 yards and two touchdowns and then had 156 yards and two TDs in last week’s win over Lansdale Catholic.
This week the Knights will receive a boost with the return to the lineup of fullback Ryan Hessenius, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury.
“I’m very excited to see him play,” Beck said. “I want to see him have a big game.”
Beck will also look to his senior quarterback to step up.
“Todd (Smolinsky) is really going to have to be at the top of his game for us to even have a chance,” the Knights’ coach said.
The Knights’ defensive line – Chuck Knower, Andre Poe, David Jackson and Marcus McGraw – will also be a key.
“They’re going to have to play well, or we’re going to be in trouble,” Beck said. “I think it’s going to come down to those guys playing bigger than they are.”
The Knights recognize that despite their big win over Liberty in week one, there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“We just have to look forward to each week and focus on that game, take them one at a time,” Gill said. “That was just the first game of the season. We have eight or nine more, and we have to prepare and get ready for each week.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WNPV 1440 AM and can also be heard on the web at www.wnpv1440.com.
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