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: Pennridge and Souderton faced each other for the first time in three years. The Rams defeated Souderton 28-11. Your thoughts about that game.
Drew Markol: “Pennridge beat Liberty 35-0 to open the season. You don’t really know much in week one. Then they get Souderton. It’s a pretty good Souderton team, and they’re 0-2 after Pennridge beat them last week. But Pennridge is solid. They lost a ton to graduation, but they have some playmakers. Their receiver, Nate Derstine, is a junior, and he’s a legit threat. The quarterback, Aiden Tetowski, has been groomed to be their quarterback. Noah Keating was there for four years as their quarterback. Well, he graduated, and he’s now playing at Marist. So, Tetowski steps in, and he’s getting better. You look at Blake Landherr, the junior linebacker. It feels like he makes every tackle. He might be the best defensive player in the league. If he’s not, he’s right up there.
“For Souderton, Caleb Moyer, the senior running back, got hurt in their opener against Spring-Ford, and he was on the sideline against Pennridge, not in uniform, and Souderton just doesn’t have the ability to score quickly. Everything is methodical, and it’s got to be an eight- to ten-play drive, and that’s hard for high school teams. On the touchdown drive that Souderton scored, their running back got into the open, and then Pennridge stopped him, and there was kind of a scrum, and you kept waiting for the whistle. And the whistle didn’t come, and the kid smartly just kept going. So, the Pennridge defenders kind of let up, and he broke free. He was able to take it deep into Pennridge territory, and that led to their touchdown. Would they have scored if they had blown the whistle when maybe they should have? Who knows? But the way they were going, it didn’t look like it.
“I put in one of my stories this week about how Pennridge has only allowed one touchdown in two games. Well, it could almost be no touchdowns in two games. That’s how well the defense is playing. And like I said, you have Blake Landherr kind of leading things from the linebacker spot. Sean Leuthe’s a senior now, and he’s been a three-year starter in the secondary. Mike Ferguson is two-year starter in the secondary. They have pieces. They’re not as big as they were last year up front, but they look pretty solid. Someone asked me, ‘Are they good enough to get back to the district title game?’ My answer to that is no, but could they win a first round district playoff game? Again, it’s early September, but seeing them play just one time, yeah, I think they could.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Souderton will play Central Bucks West this week. The Bucks are coming off a big win over Wilson-West Lawn. Your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “You look at West and you look at the schedule – they played Easton in their opener, and they smoked Easton, a District 11 power. And then they turn around and play a District 3 power in Wilson. They get a big lead on them, and then Wilson fights back. But ultimately West wins. I think West is the best team in the SOL National, and probably the best team in the SOL. We’ll have to see. Plymouth Whitemarsh is playing well too, but you look at Louie Cipolla last week - he had three interceptions, scores a receiving touchdown. How many high school kids get three interceptions in a game? It doesn’t happen. Nick Miletto ran for a ton and had three touchdowns. West forced six turnovers against a Wilson team that’s always good. Those are two really good wins for West, and that’s impressive stuff. They have a lot of pieces, and you can see it coming the last two years. Now they play Souderton this week. If you’re Souderton at 0-2, you need to start winning, but that’s a tough chore against a West team that has really good players all over the place.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Plymouth Whitemarsh earned a convincing 55-28 win over Kennett. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “PW opens the season by beating Coatesville, and then you kind of wonder a little bit about that win because you see that Coatesville loses to Northeast of the Philadelphia Public League, which is a surprise. But Northeast every once in a while rises up with a decent team. Again, it’s week two. But if you’re PW, you’re picking up where you left off last year when you took Pennridge to overtime in the first round of the district playoffs, and now you’re 2-0. Granted, you’re in the SOL Continental this year. It’s a tougher league, but I know if I’m PW, I look at it and say, ‘Well, Upper Dublin seems to be down a bit, Quakertown seems to be down a bit. Souderton’s 0-2.” Next week we’ll start conference play, so we’ll see, but PW is doing what they do.
“Last week, they put up 55 against Kennett, and it’s 28-13 at halftime. Their quarterback, Cole Reilly, ran for 80 yards and threw for another 140. Their running back, Mike Giangiulio had a 72-yard touchdown and finished with around 140 yards rushing. I talk about this all the time – it’s the versatility of being able to run it and throw it, and they can do it. You don’t even have to throw it a lot –like Central York against North Penn last week. Central York throws it a lot, but just being able throw it well, and Reilly does that for PW. If you just run, run, run, you are obviously predictable and easy to stop, and PW doesn’t do that. They can hurt you in more ways than one. If you can do that – that’s how you put up 55 points on a team.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: North Penn fell to a powerful Central York team last week. You were there – your thoughts.
Drew Markol: “If we take a look at the North Penn/Central York game - at the time, Central York was ranked ninth in the state, and North Penn was ranked tenth. Central York comes in with a sophomore quarterback named Jamin Ilgenfritz, who he finished with six touchdown passes and threw for almost 300 yards. He had three touchdowns in the first half, three in the second half. They also had a good running back Legend Johnson, which was putting a lot of pressure on the kid naming him Legend, but he was a bull. So, he gives them another option. Central York ran like a no-huddle offense. It was a warm night, and North Penn was cramping all over the place, but they were trying to slow them down. Rylei Gray had a couple of touchdowns for North Penn. And Ziyon Smith, who’s a junior, returned a punt for a touchdown and nearly returned a kickoff for a touchdown. He ran it back 65 or 70 yards.
“Now there’s a kid, Smith, who – already this season - scored a touchdown on an interception return, punt return, a reception, and he ran for a touchdown. I believe he’s scored four or five different ways already in two games. The touchdown pass he scored on against Central York was just a simple swing pass, and he basically went 70 yards because he’s just really, really fast. North Penn has something in him, and then you throw in Rylei Gray. People will see that score and say – ‘North Penn allowed 55 points.’ Well, that Central York team is absolutely legit.
“I think North Penn and CB West are the cream of the National Conference. And then you drop to Pennridge and maybe CB East and Neshaminy. But I think it’s a two-horse race. I know it’s only two weeks into the season, but I think those are the two best teams, but it’s just odd to see a North Penn team kind of get chopped up like that. But high school kids aren’t used to battling against a good quarterback. And Central York’s quarterback is really good.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Central Bucks East bounced back from its loss to Ridley to defeat Liberty. Your comments.
Drew Markol: “You look at CB East - they lose their opener down at Ridley, and you wonder, ‘Okay, how they going to be?’ But then they bounce back. Mike Price, the senior running back, had close to 250 yards rushing with a bunch of touchdowns. He hurt his knee last year, but when healthy, he’s the best running back in the SOL. They beat Liberty, but Liberty got shut out by Pennridge the week before. I repeat a lot of the same things every year, but especially on the high school level when you only play ten games, the only thing worse than starting off 0-1 after working all winter and summer is starting off 0-2. You don’t want to be there because then everybody starts to question everything, so East bounced back.
“We don’t know a lot about Liberty. We know they played two teams from the SOL National, and they lost to both of them. We’ll see how they do as the season goes forward, but it’s a great confidence builder for East. They have to feel good about themselves heading into week three, so now they go down to Bensalem, which is off to an 0-2 start, so you’ve got to favor East in that game, and then all of a sudden maybe East is 2-1, and away you go.”
SuburbanOneSports.com: Council Rock South edged Perkiomen Valley 13-10 and will face Pennridge Thursday. Both teams are 2-0. Your comments.
Drew Markol: In Council Rock South’s win over Perk Valley last week, Brody Walker, senior wide receiver and defensive back, returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown, and he also scored on a long touchdown pass for the other score against a Perk Valley team that’s usually pretty good. So that that was a nice win. CR South running back Jerry Rogers had just over a hundred yards. They have the quarterback in Cannon Benzio, who’s back for his senior year. He’s going to Navy to play but if you have a running back with you – Benzio can throw it. Walker is a pretty good receiver, and if Rogers can emerge and stay consistent, they have another weapon.”
Drew’s picks
(Winners in bold)
Archbishop Carroll at Wissahickon
Archbishop Ryan at Pennsbury
Central Bucks East at Bensalem
Central Bucks South at Plymouth Whitemarsh
Central Bucks West at Souderton
Council Rock North at Abington
Hatboro-Horsham at Penn Wood
Lower Moreland at Upper Moreland
Neshaminy at Quakertown
North Penn at Upper Dublin
Pennridge at Council Rock South
Pequea Valley at New Hope-Solebury
Springfield Twp at Trinity
West Philadelphia at Harry S Truman
Chichester at William Tennent
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