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Now in its second season, the Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football,’ features high school football beat writers Kevin Cooney and Dan Dunkin. Cooney, who also is the Phillies beat writer, continues 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 - covers teams in the Courier Times area. Both beat writers share their perspective on Friday’s district title game. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the web site www.PhillyBurbs.com.
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn has been in your coverage area this season. Talk about the Knights’ win over Council Rock South in last Friday’s District One AAAA title game.
Kevin Cooney: Quite honestly, it was a continuation of what we’ve seen from North Penn over the weeks. They’re very surgical. It’s not the sledgehammer approach that they had when, quite frankly, they marched through the conference and the league for the last three or four years with 40-point wins. They have been demoralizing – and it’s not even by posting those scores. They’re doing it now with forcing you into mistakes and then taking advantage of those mistakes.
I thought Rock South’s turnover at the five-yard line was huge. Once Rock South fell behind 14-0 – I know Vince Bedesem disagreed with this, but with South’s style of play – with the run and pounding it out, they fell behind by 14, and it was over.
The question I have for this week is can North Penn do this against La Salle, and that’s a big, big dilemma.
SuburbanOneSports.com: What is your read on the North Penn – La Salle game?
Kevin Cooney: There’s a question whether wide receiver Sean Coleman will play for La Salle, and he was huge in the first game this year. He has been big in all three games against North Penn. He was on crutches the other day.
You’re at week 15. Everybody is a little banged up, everybody is tired. I think it’s a question of what do you have left? North Penn has built this identity, and the identity is they have a really good offense and a solid defense. That’s the one thing they didn’t have early in the year. Now I think their kids have bought into it almost lockstep that they are all together with the single focus that they think they can do this now. Not that they didn’t have it last year, but I think they knew last year that they had so much talent, and the mindset was, ‘Hey, this is going to happen.’ This year it’s different. It’s more like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a chance. Let’s make it happen.’ It’s a subtle change in their mindset. All of these things go out the window when the bullets fly.
Right now, I just like the way North Penn is approaching it. They have to get up early in the game. It’s almost like what we say about teams playing North Penn. You really want to see North Penn get up because you don’t want that mental block starting. It’s a fascinating game. It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for for a month. Now that it’s here – I think the mindset for North Penn is they have to get over this hump. It’s been a while – going back to ’03 - since they have been to the state championship. They lost in ’05, they lost in ’08 and they lost last year in the Eastern Final, and I think they’re at a point right now where they feel this is the one notch that has been missed in this generation. For a guy like Ralphie Reeves who has played for four years and has been to this spot three times, it’s a big deal. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how this all happens on Saturday.
SuburbanOneSports.com: You said that getting ahead is going to be the key for North Penn. What does North Penn have to do to get ahead?
Kevin Cooney: I think their best defense is going to be ball control offense. What I mean by that is – in the first game against La Salle this year, I thought North Penn did a pretty good job for a half of taking advantage of gaps. Kyle Mayfield broke a big run, and they had a couple of big plays, but they didn’t keep their defense off the field. I think the key in a 48-minute game is to have the time of possession at 25 ½-26 minutes, and they have to make La Salle earn everything – no deep balls, don’t get caught looking around at these receivers. Get physical, jam if you have to. I think that’s the best way to win this game. That’s going to be the thing to look for early – do they play ball control? Do they pound with Dan Gevirtz and James Fielder? Do they use Corey Ernst more on quarterback sneaks or rolls trying to play ball control football? If they do that, I think they have a pretty good shot of winning this game.
SuburbanOneSports.com: All of that being said, what’s your prediction?
Kevin Cooney: You know, I’ve been so wrong on this matchup the other three times. I’m picking North Penn, and I’m picking it for probably the most idiotic reasons of all. I don’t see La Salle beating Dick Beck four times in two years. I just think it’s their time. I think it’s North Penn’s time to go to Hershey. Again, is La Salle the more talented team? Yes. Could this game materialize like the game in September did where La Salle wears them out in the fourth quarter. I don’t know. The way they’ve played the last two months, especially the last month – I just get this vibe. I don’t know if that’s a real scientific reason.
In the past, there were times North Penn played like a team that thought they could turn it on at any time. I think this team – because of that 1-2 start – realizes that they’re not super talented, and they’re playing with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder in the sense that they believe a lot of people were ready to write the obit on them. It’s not a mean chip or anything, but it’s a chip that – ‘Okay, you want to count us out. We’ll show you.’ That kind of deal. Are they as talented as they were last year? No. Are they as deep as they were last year? No. But they’re playing better as a group than they were last year.
North Penn’s season changed in week four. If they go to Central Bucks South and that game is on a dry field, you don’t know what happens. You don’t know what that does to their season. They had players out with injuries. There was a skin epidemic that went through their team. A couple of players quit. They were low, and they were in trouble. They found a way to pull themselves back from the edge, and there’s something about teams that go through this – when they get to this point in the year, this is no big deal.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Share your thoughts about North Penn’s win over Council Rock South in Friday night’s district title game.
Dan Dunkin: It’s a shame for Council Rock South because they didn’t give themselves a chance. Their defense played reasonably well in that game. North Penn had two big offensive plays, one when the game was pretty much decided and early on a 51-yard quarterback keeper by Corey Ernst, but they had to punt several times. I thought Rock South’s defense played well.
Rock South had three fumbles, and the one that really stood out to me was near midfield after they had scored to open the second half. They had a fourth-and-one near midfield, and they fumbled and lost the ball. They had momentum, their crowd was going crazy, and if they somehow marched down and got a touchdown or a field goal, it’s a brand new game. Although North Penn didn’t score right after that, that pretty much was CR South’s last chance, and they went on to lose fairly handily.
Look, North Penn is just the team in our area, and that’s just the way it is right now. Their depth, their coaching, their tradition – year after year a new group of kids wants to leave their mark. They are the team everybody is trying to beat now, and it’s going to be very hard because of their sheer numbers. A kid like Dan Gevirtz, who wasn’t even a big offensive factor when he was a junior, is like Mr. All-Purpose Everything this year.
Rock South had a tremendous season. It’s unfortunate it ended that way. I thought it would really be a close game, and I think it would have been had they not fumbled the ball. They needed to force two turnovers and not lose three like they did. They were all costly in either points or momentum lost, but as Vince said – they stood in there and slugged toe to toe defensively. North Penn is just way too good – it’s like blood in the water when you give them turnovers. They just have too many weapons, and you have to talk about North Penn’s defense. They have a tremendous defense. Most teams try to do against CR South what North Penn did, and nobody really could do it except North Penn. They strung out Rock South’s running game. I don’t think the Hawks turned the corner on the Knights one time on a sweep. They had a 6-2 alignment, and they were forcing the ball to the sidelines, and they were really tough between the tackles. They swarmed to the ball, and they were just too physical and fast for Council Rock’s offense. Part of Rock South’s problem on the turnovers was that a couple of times they had their blockers pushed back into the backfield, and that was just a credit to North Penn’s defensive front.
North Penn’s defense really won that game. They slowed down that monster wishbone that CR South has. South didn’t have a passing game to keep North Penn’s defense honest, and they couldn’t just line up and march the ball down the field. To Rock South’s credit, they got a late touchdown to make the final score more respectable. Those kids are great. They never quit, and they have a lot to be proud of.
Vince Bedesem has a real program now. I think year after year they are going to be in the hunt, no question about it.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Based on what you saw of North Penn, what is your prediction for Saturday’s game against La Salle?
Dan Dunkin: La Salle is North Penn’s nemesis. La Salle beat them 44-27 early in the season, but boy, it’s hard to imagine North Penn losing to anybody right now. I think they have a great chance in this game based on the way their defense has played the last 10 weeks of the season. Ever since the St. Joe’s Prep game, they have been lights out.
North Penn can’t get into a track meet with this team. They have the weaponry to win a 32-31 game, but they’re going to have to slow down La Salle’s passing game. I think if their front eight plays great, they can be in this game. I’m going to pick North Penn just based on the way they’ve been playing, their coaching and the incentive they have for revenge to finally beat this team that knocked them out last year and again fairly handily early in the season. North Penn has very tough kids. You have a kid like Ralph Reeves whose ability and example just trickles through that whole team. They have a lot to play for this weekend, and I think they’ll win a thriller.
SuburbanOneSports.com: You’ve spent a lot of time covering Council Rock South on your high school beat. Comment on the senior class that will be leaving.
Dan Dunkin: Brian Donnelly will go on to have a fine college baseball career. He meant so much to that offense. He’s a kid who was converted from running back to quarterback – it’s a credit to the staff, and it’s a credit to him how well and how seamlessly he became the quarterback, a position that is so important in that wishbone. He became not only a great running threat, but he made other guys better by learning how and when to pitch the ball and hand it off.
Anthony Alimenti and Ryan Whiteley – I certainly hope some schools in the area have been watching and will give them a shot to play in college. Both of them are excellent two-way players. Alimenti has a lot of speed and could play in the Ivy League or Patriot League.
PJ Gallo is going to go on to Maryland, and what a special kid. He’s so unselfish. You’re looking at a kid that probably will play a lot of receiver at Maryland. He didn’t get the ball thrown to him much this year just by the nature of the way they played but he had no complaints. He moved from outside linebacker to inside backer and did a tremendous job. He’s a model that a lot of kids can look up to in terms of not worrying about your stats but thinking about the team and doing everything you can to make the team better. He was a great leader.
Andrew Cohen is a terrific defensive lineman and is another kid I hope gets some looks from some state schools because the kid is really a force. He plays with an attitude and was a big, big reason why they were so good on both sides of the ball.