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TOWAMENCIN – Word trickled over to North Penn’s sidelines that Avon Grove’s players had made a point of stomping on the NP logo in the middle of the field at Crawford Stadium prior to Friday night’s District One AAAA semifinal contest.
It was, to say the least, an ill-advised greeting by the Red Devils.
“This is our field,” junior Marcus McGraw said. “I feel as though they straight up came into our place and disrespected us. You don’t do that. You don’t do that.”
“We got extremely mad,” Knight senior J.D. Dzurko said. “We don’t take that, and we’ll show you how North Penn football is played, and we displayed it tonight.”
Did they ever.
By halftime, the mercy rule was in effect as the Knights led 35-0 in a contest so lopsided that many of the fans who braved the wind and cold to watch the game were heading for the exits. Most of the Knights’ yardage in the half came on the ground.
“Our plan was to start out with what coach calls North Penn football, which is line it up and run it down their throats,” senior offensive lineman Tyler Scherer said.
“We have been passing a lot this season,” added Dzurko, who is also a member of the 'O' line. “But we ran it and hammered it down the field.”Doing most of the damage out of the backfield was Craig Needhammer. The junior running back, who also had a big night at linebacker, rushed for 138 yards and four touchdowns. He did all of that damage in just over a half of action – Needhammer played on only the opening series of the second half before taking a seat on the bench for the rest of the night.
All told, the Knights accumulated 233 yards on the ground.
“It’s great,” offensive lineman Steve Tribanas said. “They’re so fast. You don’t have to hold your block for long.
“We try and do our best, and I guess it works for them, and it works for us.”
It didn’t take long for the Knights’ to break the spirits of a Red Devil squad that had been averaging close to 37 points in a game in its 11 wins this season.
“I felt it at 14-0,” McGraw said.
“Once we started getting first downs on single plays, I kind of felt their spirit break,” Dzurko said. “It was really evident after we scored once.”
Tribanas says he knew even sooner that this game belonged to the Knights.
“From the first play, we had the edge,” the senior lineman said. “We wanted it more.”
It took just one possession by both squads to figure out that the anticipated showdown between two teams with explosive offenses would be nothing more than yet another opportunity for the Knights to showcase their immense talents.
On the Knights’ opening drive, they took the ball 69 yards in eight plays for a touchdown. While quarterback Todd Smolinsky’s 30-yard scamper ate up the biggest chunk of yardage, Needhammer had three nine-yard runs, including one for the TD, and Brenden Mercer also had a nine-yard run.
“When we marched down the field on the first drive, it sparked a fire,” Dzurko said.
By comparison, the Red Devils netted two yards on three plays on their opening possession before punting the ball away, and the tone had been set.
“I kept telling the kids all week – this is going to be an old-time North Penn football game,” coach Dick Beck said. “We’re going to line up with two tights and say, ‘Hey, can you stop us?’
“I thought if we could do that maybe they would panic a little bit on offense. I didn’t think they would be able to stop us from running the ball if we blocked the way I thought we were capable of.”
The Knights blocked, and the Red Devils never stood a chance in a contest that was every bit as one-sided as the final score suggests.
The win vaulted the defending district champs into next week’s district title game against Ridley. If it seems as though the Knights would be celebrating, guess again.
“It’s not even that big,” McGraw said of earning a spot in the district title game. “We’re trying to get to states. That’s our main goal.
“We want to get to states, but we have to play each game tough.”
“Two more wins is our goal,” Dzurko said. “Districts is big for us, but we have bigger goals. We want to keep moving, keep going through teams.
“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Ridley, the district’s seventh seed, will be North Penn’s next challenge. The Red Raiders defeated Downingtown East 28-7 in the other semifinal.
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