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Back for its 12th season, the popular Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features football beat writer Drew Markol. To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer (http://www.theintell.com/sports/high-school/) and Courier Times (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/sports/high-school/) web sites.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Quakertown won its SOL Continental Conference contest with Upper Dublin 31-0. Your thoughts about the Panthers heading into this week’s showdown with Souderton.
Drew Markol: “When you look at that Quakertown/Upper Dublin game, I was there, and you can point to Quakertown got a safety when Upper Dublin snapped the ball out of the end zone, and they scored a touchdown right away before the half to go up 16-0. That wouldn’t have mattered. That game was a total domination 
from start to finish by Quakertown. They were 4-0, and people wondered if they were legit, but they absolutely are. They held Upper Dublin to eight rushing yards in the first half, and Upper Dublin could do nothing against them.
“A week after losing to North Penn 35-20, Upper Dublin was completely shut down by Quakertown. Quakertown’s running game was tremendous. Junior John Eatherton is a dynamic back. He gets overshadowed by some of the other backs in the area, but he is tremendous. He has very good speed, savvy and quickness, and senior Tyler Woodman is a great complement in the backfield. Eatherton is a really good player, and he has the ability at any point to go the distance. He’s a home run hitter that Quakertown rarely has. Then you throw in a three-year starting quarterback in Will Steich. He started off the game, and I guess he was a little amped up because he missed on a couple of throws by a hair, but he settled down in the second half, threw three touchdown passes on a defense that must have made at least a half dozen open field one-on-one tackles that good teams make. If those tackles aren’t made, a two-yard gain becomes a 22-yard gain.
“Quakertown just made every play on defense and really, really looked good across the board. Upper Dublin came in ranked number six in the state in 5A in Pennsylvania Football News. People ask me about the game if the score was a true indication, and yes, it was – 31-0 reflects what happened.
“Souderton bounced back from a loss to Neshaminy with a big win over Council Rock South. If they want to be in the conversation for the Continental title, they need to go to Quakertown this Friday and beat them. Quakertown led Souderton last year at the half, and in the second half, Souderton came back and won and obviously went on to win the district title while Quakertown did not even make the playoffs because of the condensed playoffs because of COVID. There’s a bit of a revenge factor for Quakertown to get back at them, to stay undefeated, the whole 309 Bowl thing. That will be a good game, but if Quakertown plays the way they played against Upper Dublin, they’re going to be tough for anybody to handle.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Bensalem rebounded from back-to-back losses to defeat Harry S Truman 47-18 in a rivalry game. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “We’ve talked about this almost every week, but the feel good story of the season has been Bensalem, something you never would have imagined a month ago. Now Bensalem is 3-2. They fell behind 12-0 to Truman on Saturday afternoon and then they reeled off 47 straight points to win going away. They’ve made themselves a factor in the Continental Conference with Quakertown, Souderton and Upper Dublin. They’re 3-2, and with a couple more wins, they may find themselves in the district playoffs, which is remarkable. I don’t think enough can be said about what Alex Houston, the new coach at Bensalem, is doing. Obviously, last year was wacky for everybody, but they didn’t win a game. To turn it around like this – so much of high school football is coaching, and that guy has Bensalem playing with a lot of confidence.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn defeated Pennridge 21-14 in a key National Conference game. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “The Pennridge/North Penn game was kind of what you would expect. Pennridge took a 7-0 lead on them, but North Penn has a lot of offense. They have senior running back Khalani Eaton, an outstanding back who was all-state last year and probably will be all-state this year. He ran for over 150 yards. As good as Pennridge’s defense is – and it’s very good, North Penn will just pound and pound and pound. That’s what they do, and they were able to do that, and they ended up winning 21-14. They stay undefeated. As far as the National Conference, CB East has played very well. They have their one loss from the first game of the season, and CB West is the same thing. They had their one loss at the start of the season. East loses to Ridley and West lost to Coatesville, and neither one of them has lost since. Those are the next two big ones for North Penn, but in both of those games, North Penn would still be the favorite to win. It was a nice hurdle for North Penn to cross in beating a Pennridge team that’s district quality, and it’s a Pennridge team that could win a first round district game.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: In the SOL National, CB East eked out a 3-0 win over Abington, and CB South earned a come-from-behind 28-27 win over Neshaminy with the difference a blocked extra point.
Drew Markol: “CB East hasn’t lost since its opener, and they won one the old-fashioned way against Abington with a third quarter field goal. I can’t remember a score that low in 20 years, but that’s just old-time defensive football. They don’t draw pictures on the scorecard – it’s either a win or loss. Well, it’s another win for East, another step closer to the district playoffs at 4-1, especially with their only loss to a really good Ridley team. East is just piling up the wins, and you take them 3-0 or 333-0. I saw the score, and you do a double take because you don’t believe it, but it takes all kinds, and at the end of the season, they’re just going to call it a win.
“It looked like Neshaminy - after beating Souderton two weeks ago to go 1-3 - was headed for its second straight win when they were playing CB South. Neshaminy had a 14-0 lead at the half, but the Titans scored right away on an 80-yard TD pass play from Brett Szarko to Jordan Becker and ended up eventually with a 28-27 win. Neshaminy, which falls to 1-4, had an extra point blocked in the second half that accounted for the difference. For CB South, they had lost to both East and West, so they needed a bounce-back win. I’m sure all these coaches look at it – any time you beat Neshaminy regardless of Neshaminy’s record, it’s a bit of a feather in your cap. That was a pretty good win for South to grab.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Cheltenham rallied from a 21-0 deficit to defeat Upper Moreland 32-21. It’s the first loss of the season for the Golden Bears. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “In the American Conference, Upper Moreland was undefeated coming into its game against Cheltenham, but they kept playing those tightrope games where they’d have to come back or they’d have to hang on in the end. It caught up with them finally against Cheltenham, which was off to a rough start. Upper Moreland had a 21-0 lead late in the first half, and Cheltenham scored 32 unanswered points to win going away. We had talked about it before in previous weeks – Upper Moreland has not been able to apply the knockout punch. Again, they were able to get away with it for their first four games, but game number five, Cheltenham gets up off the mat and beats them. This might be the kind of thing that Upper Moreland needed to say, ‘Look, we can’t keep doing it this way. We need to put these teams away.’
“On the flip side of that, if you’re Cheltenham, you’re saying, ‘Hey, we just beat an undefeated team that won a state playoff game last year. We’re now back in the race in the American with Upper Moreland and Plymouth Whitemarsh,’ so good for them. That was an enormous win for Cheltenham and an eyeopening loss for Upper Moreland, and it could help both teams.”
Drew Markol's Picks (Winners in bold)
Abington @ Central Bucks South
Bensalem @ Council Rock North
Central Bucks West @ Pennridge
William Tennent @ Cheltenham
Council Rock South @ Hatboro-Horsham
Upper Dublin @ Harry S Truman
Neshaminy @ North Penn
Upper Moreland @ New Hope-Solebury
Souderton @ Quakertown