Back for its 16th 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: In a battle of two teams looking to avoid an 0-2 start, Quakertown travelled to Pennsbury and earned a 14-7 win. This week Quakertown will host North Penn, and Pennsbury will be at Council Rock South. Your comments.
Drew Markol: Quakertown opened the season against a good Southern Lehigh team from District 11, a 5A program, and loses. So, you start to wonder, now they have to play Pennsbury, a team that beat them last year and a perennial district playoff team, like Quakertown is as well. They go down to Pennsbury and they beat them 14-7, and they've kind of righted their season.
“On its first possession, Quakertown marches the length of the field, takes almost seven minutes off the clock, and they score a touchdown, which is a page right out of the Pennsbury handbook of –‘we’re going to ground and ground and ground and pound.’ That’s what Pennsbury does, and now they had it done to them. When you can do that, it means you’re winning the battle up front with your offensive line. Pennsbury’s a bigger school enrollment-wise than Quakertown, but Quakertown must have some pretty good burly beef up front in order to do that.
“On Quakertown’s first drive, quarterback Brady Martin threw a short touchdown pass to Carter Tucholski, and on the second, Quakertown had the ball near midfield, and Pennsbury was whistled for a foul. So, Quakertown takes over on Pennsbury’s 33-yard line, and on the first play, Martin finds James Wehrheim in stride for a touchdown and 14-0 lead. Pennsbury’s only score came on Luke Beighley’s blocked punt that was recovered in the end zone.
“Brady Martin is in his third year as a quarterback at Quakertown. He's really good, a nice player, a very good baseball player, too. He told me in the preseason, he wasn't sure which sport he was going to play in college,
“If you're Quakertown, you're 1-1, and you host North Penn this week, and North Penn is coming off a hard-fought win against Council Rock South that they didn't probably play their A game, but still, Council Rock South was without Nate Szdylik, the all-state linebacker, and also who's a big part of their offense. He didn't play because of a shoulder injury, and Council Rock South hung right with them. Rock South quarterback Marley Emerson gets better by the week and threw some nice balls. Shane Myers, a senior running back, runs very tough. He was running inside against North Penn a couple of times, put his head down and picked up big yardage. On the final play of the game, Council Rock South threw a Hail Mary and completed it, but it got called back for holding. The flag came out, so you knew it was going to get called back, but this kid makes this great catch. You're like, ‘Oh my God, they're going to go to overtime.’
“So that's an interesting game this week. And if you're Pensbury, now you have to play Council Rock South, and you're 0-2. You fall to 0-3 with the start of the conference season coming where you're going to have to play North Penn, Neshaminy and CB West, and maybe Pennridge is for real, so starting 0-3 is a bad place to be. Now you're basically looking at - you better go 6-1 in a conference play if you want to make the postseason. Some teams get in at 5-5, but if they do, they're getting seeded 15th or 16th and have to play a top seed. For Pennsbury, that Council Rock South game is a must win. And Nate Szdylik is supposed to be back and playing in that game, which gives Council Rock South a boost.
“It’s hard to believe you have a must-win on September 5th, but I believe that's what Pennsbury is looking at. And that's crazy, but that's just reality. I'm not saying anything that Galen Snyder isn't saying to his team at practice – ‘we better win or else we're in trouble.’
“Maybe we're discounting Southern Lehigh, how good they are. But, for Quakertown do that to Pennsbury - to be able to run the ball, and then when you have a quarterback who can throw it like that - you're going to have mirror images when North Penn plays Quakertown this week. You have, Matt Bucksar, the North Penn quarterback, who has the ability to throw it and run it. And you have a good quarterback in Martin with the ability to run it and throw it. But there are a lot of good quarterbacks in the Suburban One League this year. They're all over the place. We mentioned Emerson from Council Rock South, Michael Eckart from the Neshaminy, Noah Keating from Pennridge and Ben Walsh from Souderton. I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple. Louie Cipollo is getting better at CB West. It’s a good year for quarterbacks, and it's going to make things exciting once we hit the conference.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Another game pitting a pair of teams trying to avoid an 0-2 start was Upper Dublin at Central Bucks West. You were there. Your thoughts.”
Drew Markol: “You look at CB West - they beat Upper Dublin 24-7, took Upper Dublin to 0-2. West had lost in the opening week to Easton up on the road in a game that they were losing like 19-0. They fought back, actually were driving for maybe the tying score late in the game, but they had a fumble. But West coach Rob Rowan said – ‘We're getting better,’ and they proved that against Upper Dublin. And the quarterback, junior Louie Cipollo, who I mentioned, is a really good runner, and he can throw it too. He ran for two touchdowns against Upper Dublin, and he threw for another one. And they're going to be okay. Bret Stover at Upper Dublin said, ‘We played pretty well, but West just was able to kind of shut us down.’ Upper Dublin scored late for their lone touchdown. I want to say it was maybe early in the fourth quarter. Upper Dublin’s not that bad, and West just shut them down. That game was played between the 30s for most of it. But now West has to go to Souderton, which is coming off another win.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Souderton upped its record to 2-0 with a 19-7 win over Central Bucks South. Your comments.
“Ben Walsh, the quarterback, had another big game. Tim Meehan, the defensive back, who's also a receiver had a dozen tackles in Souderton’s win over CB South. So, they're getting production from a lot of different places in Souderton. They're 2-0. They opened up with a win over Spring-Ford, they beat South, and now they play CB West. If you would have told Ed Gallagher over at Southerton that he had a shot to be 3-0 against that schedule, he would have said, ‘Sign me up.’ So that's another good game this week. The first two weeks, there weren't that many marquee games. And we're starting to see a lot of good games, and it's only going to get better once the conference starts next week.
“I like when these teams play good crossover games. Souderton-CB West is a good one. Pennsbury-CR South is a good one, as is North Penn-Quakertown. There are a lot of good ones. There are some bad ones, but you're going to have that, but I'm looking forward to a pretty good week this week.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: In another crossover game, Bensalem gave Pennridge all it could handle before the Rams won 33-31. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “Pennridge had an opening night win against Bethlehem Liberty, and Bensalem won its game against Upper Darby, Bensalem put up 33 points against Pennridge, but now they give up 36 and lose. But, Aidan Mayfield, who's been playing and starting since his freshman year, is a senior now. He's going to Lehigh, and he's the best running back in the Suburban One League, regardless of conference. He’ll give any team fits, and he had a pair of touchdown runs against Pennridge. Thomas Bailey is a big player for them. For Pennridge, Will Dougherty 173 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He also had a receiving TD. I said before when we talked in the preseason that the Continental race is no longer just Souderton, Upper Dublin, and Quakertown. You've got to throw Council Rock South in the mix, and you have to throw Bensalem in the mix, and it looks like it might be heading that way. I think there's going to be some interesting games in that league.
“Would I be surprised if Bensalem beat Upper Dublin or Council Rock? I wouldn't be because I think they've got some legitimate talent. You can't discount someone as significant as an Aidan Mayfield. He’s just going to make it happen. Or Nate Szydlik. He makes every tackle, and he wasn't even playing against North Penn. When he wasn't playing, I'm like, ‘Oh, boy, here comes a mercy rule.’ I think Council Rock South upped their game, too. Without a question. And at Upper Dublin, Bret Stover’s got a lot of seniors, but they didn't play much last year because they had a lot of seniors last year. That’s kind of a disadvantage.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Neshaminy rolled to a win over Council Rock North and improved to 2-0. Your thoughts?
Drew Markol: “Take a look at Neshaminy. They've outscored their opponents 71-0. You look at the week one win over Emmaus at Emmaus, and that Emmaus team came in at number six in the state. They lost again last week, and now they're 0-2, so that tells you a lot about preseason rankings. You play Council Rock North, which has been struggling, and you beat them 41-0, but that's what you need to do. You take care of business. Carter Klee, the senior back, had a big game. Michael Eckart, who we mentioned earlier, threw for four touchdowns. They’re getting good play from their defense. This week, they get to play Cheltenham, and if they play well, that should be a win. Now they're 3-0, and you have tremendous confidence when you're 3-0, and that's what they're looking at.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Any other thoughts about the SOL heading into week three?
Drew Markol: “CB East is 2-0 after defeating Cheltenham 17-14, and now they play Council Rock North at East. In East’s win over Cheltenham, Timmy Fuhrmeister set a school record with five-and-a-half tackles for loss. Think about that - that's remarkable that someone's in the other team's backfield that often. I don't care who you're playing. Again, it's only been two games, but we're going to see after this coming week where there's some interesting matchups. It will make it a little easier to project how the conference races may go. Some years are better than others, and this looks like it's going to be a pretty good year.
“I think Bensalem/Abington is going to be a good game because it looks like Bruce Fleming has them playing well. I hope so, for their sake. Abington quarterback Miles Yockus had a big game in the Ghosts’ win over Truman, throwing for four touchdowns. Abington is trying to get back to where it used to be. Not the stiffest competition, but you play who you play. That was their crossover game. Abington has been kind of forgotten in the National Conference because they've been down for quite a while. But maybe there's some life there.
“Wissahickon is another team that is 2-0. They have a chance to be 3-0 against Archbishop Carroll this week if they win. Last week, they beat Upper Merion 52-28 and put up over 400 yards total offense. That’s a lot of offense from a high school football team. That adds some spice to the American Conference now. You have Springfield, Wissahickon, PW. Upper Moreland. Let’s have three conferences races that go into late October. That would be fine with me. So hopefully that will happen. But we'll see.”
Drew’s Picks
(Winners in bold)
Bensalem at Abington
Council Rock North at Central Bucks East
Central Bucks South at Upper Dublin
Central Bucks West at Souderton
Cheltenham at Neshaminy
Pennsbury at Council Rock South
Harry S Truman at Pennridge
New Hope-Solebury at Springfield Twp
North Penn at Quakertown
Plymouth Whitemarsh at Interboro
William Tennent at Chichester
Archbishop John Carroll at Wissahickon
Hatboro-Horsham at Lansdale Catholic
Upper Moreland at Lower Moreland
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