Back for its 17th 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: Heading into the 2026 SOL football season, what are your thoughts about each of the three conferences. Start with the National Conference.
Drew Markol: “You’ve got to lead off with North Penn, the defending district champions. Although they did lose a big group to graduation with Matt Pownall going to Navy and Matt Bucksar was a three-year starter at quarterback - they have a lot of new faces, but the fact that they won last year and it’s North Penn – I found out this week that Rylei Gray – who is their main guy - has committed to Mercyhurst. He’s an excellent running back and may be an even better defensive back. Sal Colella is back. He’s a three-year starter and had 65 tackles last year and three interceptions. He also caught eleven passes. They’ll be pretty good up front on the offensive line. Charles Ashley, a senior, will be a three-year starter and junior Jamal Bell is six foot and 275 pounds. I believe he was injured part of last year, and he’s back. London Evans, who’s a senior, backed up Matt Bucksar, and he’s the new quarterback. North Penn always just reloads every year. And with Dick Beck as a coach, he knows what he’s doing. North Penn’s my pick at the start.
“I think CB West will be right there with them. They have a lot of players back - Louie Cipollo is back. Nick Moletto is back, and he’s going to Army West Point. Mason Darrows is back. Josh George is back at quarterback, and they’ll be pretty good up front too. It’s a typical CB West team - they just have good players all the time. Braylen Cape, the CB South running back, transferred to West. So they’ll have him too. They’re in pretty good shape. I think somebody else might squeeze in there, but for now, it’s North Penn and CB West as we sit here in late August.
“Pennridge lost to North Penn in the district final last year and had a 13-2 record. Their junior linebacker/tight end Blake Landherr was a first team SOL National pick last year at linebacker. He might be the best player in the league. He is really good. I am sure Pennridge is going to utilize him all over the place. As a sophomore last year on a senior-laden team, he was a really, really good player. But you look at a team like Pennridge - they have to replace their quarterback, Noah Keating, who graduated and is at Marist now. Trevor Piccotti, the junior running back, will probably be their main guy carrying the ball, and he is also a linebacker. Sean Leuthe is a very good defensive back. He’s a senior now, and he’s been a three-year starter, so you can’t just count Pennridge out because of what they did last year, but again, they were hit hard by graduation.
“Pennsbury’s got a new coach in John Greiner. People know the name - he’s been coaching in this area for a long time. His quarterback is junior Jack Arndt, who played last year. And Luke Beighley, a senior; will be their main running back. With Pennsbury though, it will be interesting to see what happens with a new coach taking over. There can be a transition that does take a little bit of time.
“Neshaminy is another team that also got really crushed by graduation. Their quarterback, Mike Eckart, is at East Stroudsburg. It looks like a sophomore named Angel Miranda is going to be their starting quarterback. Senior Brock Williams is back. He had 63 catches last year for over seven hundred yards, but they might move him to running back.
“With CB South, Gavin Graham is back. He led them in rushing last year with nearly six hundred yards. He only played in six games, averaging over seven yards a carry, and he’s an Army commit. There are also four starters back on their offensive line, led by senior Colin Jack and senior Frank Johnston. So, there are some pieces there. They’re going to have co-coaches this year between Bart Szarko, who used to coach the team, and John Cataldo. They’re replacing Tom Hetrick who had to step aside earlier this summer. South is coming off a 5-5 season, and they open up against a pretty good Archbishop Wood team on Friday, so they’re going to get tested right out of the right out of the gate.
“At CB East, running back Mike Price is a senior now. He only played in four games last year before he got hurt, but he had 450-plus yards and six touchdowns in those four games. He’s very good. If he’s healthy, he is the best running back in the conference, for sure. And then another senior, Liam Hoey, is a pretty good running back. He’s very quick, averaged over eight yards a carry last year. Junior Asher Green will also see time at running back, so East has a nice trio of running backs. They have Hunter Pulford back at quarterback, and he ran for over five hundred yards last year with nine touchdowns. So, there are some pieces there for East, but again, as we sit here in August, I think it’s North Penn and CB West, and then we’ll see what happens.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Moving on to the SOL Continental, who are the teams to beat?
Drew Markol: “In the Continental, you look at PW, Souderton and Council Rock South. Plymouth Whitemarsh won the SOL American Conference title five straight years, and they moved to SOL Continental this year. PW is always a good team under Dan Chang. They took Pennridge to overtime in the opening round of the playoffs last year, and Pennridge went all the way to the final. They return quarterback Cole Reilly and running back Mike Giangiulio, who earned first team All-SOL American recognition last year. I think they’re going to be right there with Council Rock South and Souderton.
“As we sit here, I give Council Rock South the edge because just because last year, they won the conference. They did lose a lot of players, but everybody loses quality players. South has a transfer quarterback - a senior named Cannon Benzio - coming in. He grew up in the youth leagues in the area, and now he’s worked his way back to to South. He’s a Navy commit and is about 6-4, 215 pounds. He has very good speed, he’s a good passer. They’re not going to lose a beat if he’s half as good as advertised. I put CR South at the top of the list, followed closely by Plymouth Whitemarsh and Souderton.
“Souderton has to replace Ben Walsh, who was a three-year starter at quarterback, and he’s now at Ursinus. But Brett Pollock, the linebacker, is going to move to quarterback, and they have Caleb Moyer back at running back. There is plenty of talent at Souderton, as always. Junior tight end/linebacker Chase Hart, who started last year, is excellent. There’s a freshman named Gildha Ngoyi, who was a fullback who’s about 6-2, 215. That’s another name to keep an eye on. He’s a big bruising kid, who is only a freshman, but he’s going to see some time maybe near the goal line. And he has twin brothers, JC and Tracy Ngoyi, and they’re on the the defensive front, along with Pollock. There’s just strength all over on this Souderton team. Ed Gallagher is very honest. When he has a good team, he tells you. When he has a bad team, he tells you, and he’s excited about this team, and he should be – they’ll be right there again.
“Normally, when you looked at the Continental for the five years post COVID, it was Quakertown, Upper Dublin and Souderton. You can throw them into a hat. This year, I think we’re looking at Council Rock South, PW and Souderton as the teams to watch. Upper Dublin’s rebuilding, and Quakertown’s rebuilding too. Bensalem has a new coach in Mitch Cohen. So, he’s going to need a little bit of time there to get them going. So, as we look at it now, it should be a three-team race between those three teams.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: What are your thoughts about the SOL American Conference?
Drew Markol: “Looking at the SOL American Conference, Wissahickon and Upper Moreland will be the teams to beat. Wissahickon finished second to PW and had one of the program's most successful seasons with its only loss in the regular season at the hands of Plymouth Whitemarsh (33-27). The Trojans return a veteran offensive line as well as senior Quasir Sampson, who was one of the team's top running backs.
Upper Moreland was 6-5 last year, but senior David Adamski is back, and it never hurts to have your quarterback come back. Santino Rodriguez is another senior that’s back at running back. He’s a big kid, 6-2, 200 pounds, and Kyle Moore is going to be one of their receivers. Offensively, both of their tackles are back - seniors Ethan Starr and Connor Lennox. And senior Noah Fuchs is at guard, so you know they’ve got some experience up front. Rodriguez, Fuchs, Starr and Lennox will also be on the defensive line. So, there is some talent here for Upper. Moreland. Adam Beach has been there a long time, and he knows what he’s doing. They went to the playoffs last year, so can they do it again? Probably, they’re a Class 5A team.
“Elsewhere, I think Springfield will be right in that mix in the American with them. You now have Truman, which had been a Continental, and they’re down in the American now. They were 2-9 last year, and they’re kind of in a rebuild too. Junior running back Koko Johnson’s a nice player at Truman, and Jasir Mitchell’s a senior running back and receiver. They are two guys they’re going to rely on.
“Biz Keeney is back at William Tennant. He was the head coach there from 2001-2012. He comes back and takes over a team that went 1-9, and they were 0-5 in the American last year. They have moved some players around. Gavin Mensch was their quarterback last year, and he’s moved to running back. Junior Brayden Rementer is now the quarterback. So, they’re trying a couple different things to try to get it going there, but again, it’s a rebuilding thing. Keeney hasn’t been there as a head coach in 14 years, so he’s got a whole new group of kids, and he’s got to try and rebuild that program, which is very, very hard to do.
“We also have to talk a little bit about Cheltenham, which had that hazing incident last year. And as it turned out, they’re not playing a varsity or junior varsity. I don’t even believe they’re playing a freshman season this year due to that. There were charges that came down against some of the coaches and some of the players from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office. It’s just not a very good situation at all. So, a lot of the Cheltenham kids who weren’t involved transferred out to various schools.
“With Cheltenham not fielding a team this year, that left several Continental teams like Quakertown and Council Rock South without games. So, those teams are playing nine regular season games instead of the usual 10, which could really hurt them come playoff time because they won’t have any points to get from the Cheltenham game. So, it’s not a good situation football-wise either. And come next year with Cheltenham not having any kind of program on any level this year, it makes you wonder what’s going to happen. They’re probably going to go through the same thing again where they don’t field a team. It’s hard. They’re trying to find a coach to come in and try and recruit players and everything. But. It’s just a mess, so where that will go, I don’t know.
“Maybe Cheltenham will decide to play an independent schedule, which SOL teams have done in the past to try and get ‘easier games’ to build up their team, or they maybe they’ll just play a junior varsity schedule. I know there are a lot of coaches and athletic directors that wish they would make a decision on what’s going to happen because trying to fill these games is hard to do, and if you are a Quakertown and you played Cheltenham the 10th week of the season, it’s awfully hard to find a replacement game because everybody else that you could possibly play is in their league schedule. Hopefully, there will be some sort of resolution soon, so we know going forward where Cheltenham stands.”
Drew’s picks
(Winner in bold)
Abington @ Kennett
Bensalem @ Upper Darby
Central Bucks East @ Ridley
Central Bucks South @ Archbishop Wood
Easton @ Central Bucks West
William Tennent @ Council Rock North
Council Rock South @ Hatboro-Horsham
Harry S Truman @ Haverford
Emmaus @ Neshaminy
Liberty @ Pennridge
Trenton Central @ Pennsbury
Coatesville @ Plymouth Whitemarsh
Southern Lehigh @ Quakertown
Souderton @ Spring-Ford
Springfield Twp @ Interboro
Frankford @ Upper Moreland
Upper Dublin @ Wissahickon
North Penn vs. Lower Dauphin
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