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Returning for a second season is the Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ featuring high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dan Dunkin. Cooney, who recently was named the Phillies beat writer, is continuing to cover schools in the Intelligencer area while Dan Dunkin – who has been covering sports at the high school and professional level for 25 - years – is covering teams in the Courier Times area. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the web site http://www.phillyburbs.com/sports/high_school/.
SuburbanOneSports.com: In one of last weekend’s key matchups, Abington defeated Souderton 38-17. What are your thoughts about Souderton after seeing that game?
Kevin Cooney: What we saw was that a really good, a really fast team gave Souderton a whole world of trouble. Souderton just couldn’t keep up with the speed of Abington, and that’s one thing – I’m not sure how much they’re going to see of that in the Continental Conference. North Penn has some team speed and maybe CB South, but nothing, in my mind, on the scale of Abington. From that perspective, that’s a consolation that they have seen two really good teams in the preseason, but it puts them back in that old familiar spot. They’re going to have to go pretty much without a major slip-up. There’s no margin for error for them to get into the playoffs. Yes, they can lose to North Penn, and if that happens, they still can get in at 7-3, but I don’t see a 6-4 team getting in, so their wiggle room is pretty much nil at this point, and they’re still looking for that defining win, that big win against a team everybody believes is a district title contender. They haven’t quite gotten that yet.
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn fell to St. Joe’s Prep. Share your thoughts about the Knights heading into the conference season.
Kevin Cooney: Right now North Penn just doesn’t have the same kind of swagger defensively. You look at the two teams they lost to this season in La Salle and the Prep. They’re two pretty good football teams, but that’s a lot of points they’ve allowed. I’m sure that’s an area of concern right now, and Dick Beck has to be concerned. Look, if this is a rebuilding year, they’re still probably going to make the playoffs. Nobody likes to use the word rebuilding at North Penn. Obviously, we knew they had lost a lot of their skill position players on offense, but that hasn’t been the problem, although their running game was shut down on Saturday night. The problem has been defensively, and unless they get better defensively, this is going to get ugly. They’re going to face a couple of teams in this division – CB South being one and Souderton being another – that will be trying to pick at some of the things that have been exposed here. Do they have the talent? I don’t know, but obviously, North Penn’s pass defense against La Salle was not good, and last week, we’re talking an elite level quarterback in the Prep’s Skyler Mornhinweg. Again, I think that’s the main concern defensively. Dick Beck has got to be pulling his hair out.
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn will be facing a Central Bucks South team this weekend that earned convincing wins over Council Rock North and Norristown after a season-opening loss to Council Rock South. What are your thoughts about CB South?
Kevin Cooney: You couldn’t read too much off of the CR North win, but when you look at the fact that Norristown had been playing pretty good football up to that point – yes, it’s a pretty impressive win for them. CB South is at a point where they’re going to have to do it more than two weeks. They’re going to have to string something together, but you’re starting to see at least a little bit of a spark of what could be down the road.
North Penn is going to come out and blow the doors off of them, or we’re going to see CB South really step up in class. When North Penn gets pushed, they usually push back better than anybody. How often have they lost two in a row in the last decade? It’s almost unheard of. I would venture to say they’ve been 1-2 more often than they’ve lost two in a row. Their non-league schedule has been pretty tough the last couple of years. North Penn is going to have to button things down on defense because they’re going to see another good quarterback in Matt Johns. If they’re having trouble with pass defense, this is not the week it’s going to be easy to button it up.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Comment on Pennridge’s performance in the Rams’ 2-0 loss to Council Rock South.
Kevin Cooney: I think what it showed was that the kids have kept on fighting. Maybe they got tired of hearing everybody talking about how bad this start has been for them, and perhaps it shows us that Rock South isn’t as good as we thought. I’m sure Randy Cuthbert would tell you that if they get that kind of effort every week, they will be okay in the long term. With a young team, if some of the kids learn something and it manages to stick, that’s probably the best thing that can happen out of that.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about Central Bucks West after last week’s 21-14 loss to Wissahickon?
Kevin Cooney: That was a killer. When we sit down in week 10 and Kyle Berger figures out the points - that could be the one that absolutely cost them a playoff spot. There’s no doubt in my mind because everything was set up for them to start 3-0 again like they did last year and on a pretty good roll, but it just didn’t happen. Central Bucks West is also a team that, quite frankly, can’t rally from behind. That’s been proven the last couple of years. It’s just not really in their makeup. If they fall behind, they haven’t really learned how to do that yet. If you don’t have that big horse running back like they had last year in Rashaad Williams, you’re not a two-touchdown kind of team. They’re a team that should be great frontrunners because they can run the ball and run the clock down, but when they fall behind, that’s a tougher deal.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Heading into the conference season this week, what are your thoughts about the Continental Conference?
Kevin Cooney: North Penn and Souderton are one-two with no undefeated teams in the bunch. It’s not good. Before the year started, we all kind of thought maybe three or four get in the playoffs. Now maybe you’re only taking two. That’s how big last weekend was. Quite frankly, at this rate, only one of them is guaranteed a home game. It’s not a good situation right now for the Continental. It may make for more exciting football down the stretch because it’s almost like every week now will be a playoff game in a lot of ways. It also can mean at the end of day – hey, you may not have a heck of a lot. What’s helping them is I’m not seeing a heck of a lot anywhere.
If you look at it, the National Conference has five teams right now that are 2-1 or 3-0 – Neshaminy, Abington, Council Rock South, Pennsbury and Bensalem. Will all of them stand up to the pressure? No. Once they get into division play and start knocking each other off, we’re looking at a completely different deal. So maybe we’re looking at the lack of a dominant team out there from the SOL period across the board. There are two really good teams right now, and that’s Abington and Neshaminy. Everyone else is a step below. These teams better wake up quick, or there will be some teams finding themselves on the outside by week five.
Neshaminy and Abington is the game this week. It’s strange – if Abington played on a turf field, their speed is a major difference. If we’re going to have a week with rain and Schwartzman Stadium becomes a quagmire, I’m sure Mark Schmidt would be perfectly happy to get in the mud and grind it out because that speed gets neutralized. You look at Ray Schreiner and Ken Cropper – they have some guys that can really fly, and I think that’s a huge, huge difference in that game. It will be interesting to see if the weather plays a factor in that.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown is 3-0 heading into week four. Your comments on the Panthers’ quick start.
Kevin Cooney: It’s good for the program, but they haven’t exactly lit the world on fire with their non-league schedule. Let’s see what happens when they get into the meat of their schedule. Will it stick? This is a week we find out about Quakertown. Obviously, playing Downingtown West is a stepping up in class dramatically. If they hang tight, we have an interesting situation at that point.
SuburbanOneSports.com: One of this weekend’s marquee games is Neshaminy at Abington. What are your thoughts going into that game?
Dan Dunkin: Abington lit up Souderton (38-17) and again turned heads with their speed and their overall explosiveness as an offense. They forced turnovers on defense and then cashed them in. Abington, I think, does have the most speed in the SOL National. Their quarterback, Ken Cropper, has really lifted that team. As Mark Schmidt told me yesterday, they’re a very confident team and should be. Cropper moved in from Cheltenham and is a very effective passer and runner. They run a spread offense that’s really going to test Neshaminy.
Turning to Neshaminy, that’s part of their story right now. Their defense has really come on strong since the first half of the first game when they allowed 13 points to Souderton and got burned by the Souderton running game. Since then, they have allowed only a field goal in the second half of the last three games. Kiser Terry, their defensive end who’s heading to Temple, has really come on. Their linebackers are young – they rotate them, and they’re all athletic, and they’re learning quickly. They’ve had to face very diverse offenses. They’ve faced the split back veer of Hatboro-Horsham, the Wing-T of Souderton and now they’re going to face Abington’s spread, which is probably their most formidable challenge thus far. They have an excellent secondary. I think this is a really interesting matchup, and the keys to this game will be Neshaminy’s defense against Abington’s offense. I think Neshaminy’s offense is good enough. Sean Ulmer has been running terrifically well and really carrying the load in the running game. They have three receivers that can hurt you, and their offensive line is very physical. I don’t know how well Abington will be able to stand up to that for four quarters. I think it should be a terrific game. I think Neshaminy could win a tight one. This game will go a long way for both teams, letting them know where they are and how potentially good their season could be.
Speed is such a factor in football, but I think Neshaminy is such a well-coached team on both sides of the ball. These kids learn quickly.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock South beat Pennridge 2-0 in what might well be the most unusual score of the season. What did that game tell you?
Dan Dunkin: I think it was an anomaly. I think it will help Council Rock South get better, forcing them probably to diversify a little more with the pass. They’re too good with their running back depth and their quarterback, Brian Donnelly, to get into any kind of offensive slump.
I just give Pennridge a lot of credit and Randy Cuthbert a ton of credit because that team was really banged up. I was at their previous game against Bensalem, and they had five guys taken off the field in that game. They’re young, and they’re injured early, and Randy Cuthbert came up with a game plan, and they had the guts to go out there and go toe-to-toe and play great defense. I just think you have to tip your hat to Pennridge.
I think Rock South is just going to continue to get better. That offense is very difficult to defend. Vince Bedesem knows it inside out, and he’ll know what to do and any tweaks they have to make. They have five guys who can run the ball very well, so I don’t see them having another off week like that.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Pennsbury is coming off a big win while Bensalem suffered a disappointing loss. What are your thoughts about that game?
Dan Dunkin: That’s another interesting game. Bensalem really sent up the red flags for Pennsbury last year when they upset them in what was an off year for Pennsbury. Pennsbury’s running game is starting to click. They put up 47 points at Pocono Mountain West, and when I went to practice last week, I sensed in talking to players and Galen Snyder that they’re right on the cusp of breaking out. I think when they get Shawn Pepper healthy, they will really be a handful. They have three good running backs, they have the best offensive lineman in the area in J.J. Denman at center, and I think this time it will be really tough for Bensalem.
Bensalem had a close loss last week, but they’re a program that’s on the upswing, and Bensalem does have speed to contend with that will make Pennsbury really be on their toes defensively, but I think Pennsbury will be able to control the clock. They’re very physical, and I think it will be hard for Bensalem to match up with them for four quarters.
SuburbanOneSports.com: William Tennent and Council Rock North face each other in this weekend’s league opener. Your thoughts about that game.
Dan Dunkin: Tennent finally put it together offensively last week with 42 points against Upper Merion. Biz Keeny ingrains a competitiveness in that group, and the kids play hard for Tennent always. It’s often a question when they play these upper echelon teams that they just run out of depth, but this week they’re playing a very banged up and down Council Rock North team that lost its best running back.
Council Rock North has had a bad run of luck with injuries just like they did last year. Connor Geiger, Tennent's top running back, had a really good game last week. I see it being hard for North right now. Tennent will win a tight one.
Council Rock North’s 1-9 season last year set off a lot of alarm bells, but I sensed in the preseason that this was a team that was going to regroup and have a chance at a .500 season. They had injuries to their two Big 10 recruits last season that just really undercut them, but you can’t use that excuse two years in a row. They don’t have any Big 10 guys this year, and another bad year – injuries aside – just speaks to the lack of depth in the program. For a school that size, that’s stunning. It will be very interesting to see the next couple of weeks how Rock North will compete.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Truman, which continues to struggle, is facing Council Rock South this weekend. Comment on Truman’s season.
Dan Dunkin: I think with Truman it’s a case of it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I was shocked when they won two games with about 20 players last year, so I logically expected a little more early this season with twice the number of players, but what that indicates – they are playing a lot of young guys, freshmen and sophomores are their lion’s share of players, and they’re learning the hard way. I think they’re going to be better next year with a year under their belts and two years under a very committed coach and coaching staff. No matter how bad it gets this year, they’re on the right path. Truman, at this point, can’t look at wins and losses. It’s about commitment, practice and another offseason of work. They’ve got to build. They’ve got kids who are in their first or second year of varsity play with very few seniors, so really, the struggles aren't that surprising.