In the sixth weekly edition of the Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dom Cosentino share their thoughts about some of last week’s SOL games as well as several of this week’s key games.
Cooney and Cosentino – who boast a combined 23 years covering high school football – are two of the area’s most respected and knowledgeable football writers. To stay on top of all the latest high school football news in the area, visit the web site http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/sports_now.html
SuburbanOneSports.com: Saturday’s Pennsbury-Council Rock South game looked as though it was going to be the game last weekend, but it ended up being little more than an opportunity for Rock South to showcase its defense. Share your observations.
Dom Cosentino: I think Council Rock South has proven, at this point, beyond any reasonable doubt that they are a legitimate playoff threat and a legitimate threat to compete for the National Conference championship. If there were any doubts out there – and I’m not sure there were, they’ve answered those doubters.
They’re not a big-play team. They’re not going to get an 80-yard touchdown. They don’t have a quick back to break the long play or anything like that, but what really impressed me was the play of their offensive line. They looked like they were smaller than Pennsbury up front, but it never seemed to matter. In the second half, they were able to establish those two long scoring drives, and with Billy Fleming’s ability to ball-fake, especially on the option offense they run, they were very impressive. I thought Mark Damirgian ran really hard from the beginning to end of that game, and you can’t say enough about their defense.
They have four shutouts in a row, including Pennsbury. That speaks for itself. To maintain the kind of dominance with ball control that they had on Saturday really says something about what kind of team they are. I think this year Rock South finally has the collection of talent together on both sides of the ball. There are only four seniors that start on the defense, so it’s a fairly younger group. It’s not like a senior-laden defense over there. I just think everything is really coming together this year, and it will be real interesting to see what they can do the second half of the season, especially when they go down to Neshaminy next Friday.
Council Rock South plays Bensalem on Friday, and I think they could potentially post another shutout. I’m not predicting it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened. They have that combination of speed and aggressiveness on their defense. They are legitimate. People could say, ‘Who did they play?’ after their first couple of games, but they’re legit.
Can they win a state title? We’re a long way from saying that, but they’re certainly one of the better teams in the district, and we’re really going to get an indication of how good they are as far as the district’s elite when they go to Neshaminy next week.
On the flip side of it, I still think Pennsbury is a tough team to figure out. They just made a lot of silly mistakes with penalties and things like that that never really allowed them to get any momentum at all to be able to generate any offense.
They have a few games coming up – they have a 4-1 Tennent team at home on Saturday that is pretty much in the must-win category for Pennsbury if they hope to establish themselves before the playoffs.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Comment on last week’s North Penn/Central Bucks East game.
Kevin Cooney: Let’s start with North Penn – they were very methodical. They were able to move down the field when they needed to, they were able to sustain drives, and defensively, they looked very strong against the pass, which I think everyone has been worrying about in Towamencin.
Was it spectacular? No, I don’t think anyone would say it was spectacular, but it was a workmanlike effort, and I think that’s a sign of a good team at this time of year when you’re in the middle of kind of a nondescript portion of your schedule – and that’s what it is – that you manage to get the job done without drama and move on. That’s what North Penn has done.
I continue to see maturation in quarterback Corey Ernst. You still see the Needhammer/Taggart/Mercer group playing very well. They got Ralph Reeves into the offense with one touchdown pass. North Penn is going to be fine. North Penn is going to go 7-0 in the division and a top five seed.
On the flip side, I thought East did some good things, and having Justyn White back helps. He had a 28-yard touchdown run. He needs to scrape off a little bit of the rust, but I think he will be a decent player for them in the second half. They’ve got holes in other areas. They were not able to sustain any kind of passing attack and not able to exploit the perceived North Penn weakness of the secondary, but now North Penn has Dan Gevirtz back at corner and Craig Needhammer back at safety for the last three weeks.
East is getting back into the flow with their main player back, and that’s going to take some time, which they really don’t have. They have Pennridge this week, and Pennridge is going to be fighting for their playoff lives.
East is a team that needs to find something to latch onto as a program. You can see what John Donnelly is trying to do. The program didn’t get broke overnight, and it’s not going to be rebuilt overnight, but at least this year they have to put the roots down for what they want to be two, three years down the road with an identity. Donnelly did a good job of that at Quakertown. I don’t know if he’s there with East just yet.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennridge looked as though it had Friday night’s game against Souderton won only to lose it on a last-second 15-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Allem to Ry Yozallinas. Talk about the implications of that game for both programs.
Kevin Cooney: Think of how quickly that game turned. Ry Yozallinas has a pass right before that TD which – if he catches instead of deflects off of him, the game is over, and Pennridge is 4-1, and we’re not talking about soft schedules. We’re picturing them as a playoff team. With North Penn and CB West coming up, even at 7-3, I think they would be in good shape. Now throw the dynamic in that Pennridge – not a lot of power points, not a strong non-league schedule and still has North Penn on the schedule and still has CB West on the schedule and already lost to Souderton. Boy, the road really became uphill for them in about five seconds.
I don’t think Randy Cuthbert meant to schedule a soft schedule. The way things happen with Pennridge and Quakertown playing that Thanksgiving game – it means you have to replace that spot on the schedule with Lansdale Catholic. You can’t fault them for that. This time of year you start second guessing games and what has happened, and I think it’s fair to point out that Pennridge hasn’t really played anybody. They played CR South, which is better than everybody thought, but they were a no-show for that game. Then you have this week where Souderton, quite honestly, is trying to give it away to you too. They’re in a rough, rough spot right now. I think Pennridge has a deep, deep hole to dig out of if they want to make a postseason run. They’re going to have to pull an upset that nobody expects.
Now Souderton can see light at the end of the tunnel. You’re through West, and you’re through Pennridge. You still have North Penn, but if you don’t have any hiccups beyond that - and the way the conference schedule is set up, I don’t think they will - you have to like their chances of getting in at 7-3. They made things difficult on themselves. This was the second heartstopper in three weeks, and now you have to play Hatboro-Horsham. If this is a heartstopper, I’m sure that Ed Gallagher probably will not be real happy. Hatboro is looking to find its way right now.
Souderton has weapons. Defensively, they’ve played well the last couple of weeks, and offensively, they’ve done enough. They have someone - sophomore Jeff Wolf - who can kick field goals, which could have made them 4-1 or 5-0 if they had him sooner. This is one of those things I know Ed Gallagher wanted to have from the start, and he gets him in week four. That helps.
Dom Cosentino: I still think Souderton – the Abington game aside – has the potential to be one of the better teams in the area. That would have been a devastating loss if they had lost to Pennridge. What that game showed is that maybe that Continental Conference has a little more parity than we want to give it credit for because North Penn has been so dominant in the league for so long. How good some of the other teams are and how evenly matched they are gets overlooked. I think at the beginning of the year, Pennridge and Souderton looked like the second and third best teams possibly. I think CB West will have something to say about that by the end of the year. Those teams are going to be right there as well. They’re going to be right on the brink of a playoff berth too.
The weakness of Pennridge’s schedule has affected its power points, so they need every win they can get. Every game is a must-win, including Friday night’s game against Central Bucks East. They’ve already lost to Souderton, and Justyn White will give CB East an added boost for sure.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Comment on the William Tennent-Truman game that saw Tennent come up with a goal line stand to hold on for the 22-21 win over a Truman team that a week earlier saw its game against Council Rock South halted at halftime.
Dom Cosentino: Truman doesn’t have many players, but the effort last week speaks to the kind of players they have. This group does not want to give up. It can be cliché sometimes to say that about teams, but I think in this case it really applies, and they have shown that by continuing to play. It would have made for a heck of a story if they had won one week after they had to forfeit a game at halftime because they didn’t have enough players.
They have something to prove to almost rescue the program. Again, I think it’s the kind of thing if it’s shut down this year it may never come back, and that’s quite a burden to lay on this group, but they seem to have accepted that. They seem to have rallied. They said before the season that they kind of rallied together because of this. Although they may not win another game this year, they come out every Friday ready to play, and that’s pretty significant.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Based last weekend’s results, what are your thoughts about the Pennsbury-Tennent game?
Dom Cosentino: This game says more about what kind of response we may see from Pennsbury. That was a pretty deflating loss against Rock South, and they now have lost two in a row to start the league season. Will they respond?
Tennent is now 4-1, and they’re in the mix for the playoffs, but they really have the bulk of the tough games on their schedule still to go. They have Pennsbury, they have Abington, they have Council Rock South and they have Neshaminy coming up over the next five weeks. I think we’ll get a true indication of how good Tennent is, but I still think regardless – even if they lose the next five games, and I’m not saying they will – they have done a nice job re-establishing themselves by at least getting off to this good start.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks West crushed Central Bucks South but faces North Penn on Friday night. Comment on that game.
Kevin Cooney: That is a statement game for West. Wins and losses are the ultimate judge, but if West hangs around and can keep it closer than East did, a lot of people will be happy, and a lot of people will have them penciled in (the district tournament).
This is the one game the rest of the way – you look at West and say, ‘Okay, the North Penn game is going to be really tough for them, but they can beat Pennridge at this point, they can beat Quakertown, and they can beat Hatboro.’ They’re already done with CB South and Souderton. You want to see them hang in the game. They have enough weapons. Rashaad Williams is a really good running back, and quarterback Ward Udinski – it’s the same names we mention over and over, but that’s the way they are.
Do they have enough to beat North Penn? Probably not, but it’s interesting, and that’s good. This week’s schedule is not filled with ‘Oooh games.’
Dom Cosentino: I think CB West can hang with North Penn, but it will be very difficult for them to win that game. North Penn just has too many weapons, and their defense also has the ability to make plays. I think it’s going to come down to physicality, and that would give North Penn an edge there too. I would be surprised if West were mercy-ruled. I think it’s the biggest West-North Penn game since the Pettines coached against each other years ago. It’s kind of cool from that angle.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock North suffered another lopsided loss – this time to Abington. Where do you see that program going from here?
Dom Cosentino: The one positive that can be made from this is something we may not see this year and that is that they’re giving a lot of underclassmen the opportunity to play, and that experience should help them next year and the year after, but it is going to be really hard for them to salvage what’s left of this season going forward because they’re off to an 0-5 start. Their marquee talent is injured. The young guys got the opportunity in the second half last week, and that could pay off down the road.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Share your observations about a National Conference that featured some games that turned heads last weekend.
Kevin Cooney: Pennsbury is the biggest surprise. We all looked at Brandon Pepper, we looked at the big lineman J.J Denman. I saw Jeff Prine last year, and I thought he was going to be a really good quarterback, but the transition of the offense – we heard so much about them changing what they did, and it’s not working. Right now, their confidence is probably snowballing. Just judging from afar, they were always a team when things were good, they were really good, and when things were bad, they were awful. Things are bad right now. You lose to Bensalem and then you get shut out by South – that’s a bad, bad prescription, and you still have Neshaminy up ahead, and they have Abington too. Even if they run the table, you’ve got to think their playoff hopes are pretty much toast at this time with the way the power points are stacking up.
If you look at the rest of the division, Tennent has played fairly well. They’re 4-1, but they didn’t play well last week, and they have the bulk of their schedule coming up with Neshaminy, Pennsbury and Rock South – not good. It’s not a good formula to not play a good game and then have the heart of your league schedule.
Bensalem has played tough, but I don’t think they’re real talented, and we won’t even get into the mess at Council Rock North. That is a confusing situation on how a team that had plans to be so good has just gone so off the tracks.
Look at Truman hanging with Tennent, and now Truman goes and plays Neshaminy. It’s Neshaminy, Council Rock South and everybody else at this point.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Plymouth Whitemarsh handed Upper Moreland its first loss. What are your thoughts about that game and the American Conference as a whole?
Kevin Cooney: I think it shows PW is for real. You look at that conference, and you have Upper Dublin, Upper Moreland and PW who are all playing very well. We all kind of knock the American Conference for years as the little conference, the one that doesn’t stand out, the one that no one pays attention to, but you look at the standings – PW 3-2, Norristown 3-2, Upper Moreland 4-1, Cheltenham 4-1 and Upper Dublin 4-1.
Are they great teams? No, but that’s representative.
Dan Chang is doing a good job rebuilding the PW program, and Adam Beach has had Upper Moreland become a traditional power, although that loss last week really hurt when it comes to 3A. Bret Stover – I don’t think anyone expected Upper Dublin to be 4-1 at this point.
Dom Cosentino: One of the more interesting stories – and it’s not a school Kevin and I cover – is Plymouth Whitemarsh. It’s funny to me because the year 2000 was my first season covering football for the Intelligencer. Dan Chang was a senior captain for North Penn that year, and now he’s coaching - I would like to thank him for making me feel old. He’s quickly done a nice job down there to turn them around. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised because he spent his years after college coaching at North Penn with some of the very good teams they’ve had in the latter part of the 2000s. He came through that program, and he obviously was a quick learner and jumped from being line coach to taking over the head job, but with his pedigree – the program he played in and the program he coached in – he played under Mike Pettine Jr. and coached under Dick Beck – he’s got a very good lineage there. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him over the past several years, but obviously possesses a level of maturity that is allowing him to get through to those kids.
That was a very, very good win for them over Upper Moreland last week. Now they have Upper Dublin this week, and it very well could be the game to determine the league champion in the American Conference.
*The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of SuburbanOneSports.com. Check back every week for more football talk with Kevin Cooney and Dom Cosentino.
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