by Dave Ferris
This week’s games – Semi-Finals
Friday November 18, 7:00 (seeding in parenthesis)
(4) Coatesville 11-1 at (1) North Penn 12-0
North Penn has played in twelve D1 semi-final games. They are 20-0 in home playoff games. NP last won the D1 title in 2011 with Coatesville winning it in 2012. This is a game of giants and is the game of the weekend. North Penn appears to be the favorite, but Coatesville should not be discounted since they easily dispatched 5-seed Ridley last week. North Penn is the largest school in D1 while Coatesville is a little more than half that size. North Penn may have the edge in this one, but not by much.
(10) Garnet Valley 10-2 at (3) Perkiomen Valley 12-0
These two are both on the verge of the breakthrough that has thus far eluded them – the D1 title game. A few years ago both schools have been classified in a lower group, but have found success moving up to the top enrollment classification in District One. PV boasts a regular season record of 28-2 over the last three seasons. GV is the only team to make the D1 playoffs the last six seasons running. Both had impressive wins last week. GV is the sixth smallest team in D1 6A and PV is not much bigger. This is the semi-final of the “little schools that could”. PV should be favored, but not by much.
Last week’s results
(1) North Penn 28, (8) Spring-Ford 19
North Penn put Spring-Ford in an early 21-0 hole with four minutes left in the first quarter. North Penn has not been tested yet this season, but Spring-Ford did just that as they climbed back into the game making it 21-19 at the half. NP reasserted itself by allowing SF just 57 yards of offense and one first down in the second half. North Penn QB, Reece Udinski, passed for 329 yards and surpassed 3,000 yards passing for the season.
(10) Garnet Valley 42, (2) Neshaminy 14
Despite their undefeated record coming in, Neshaminy has shown some weaknesses. GV exploited them to take an impressive and unexpected win. The GV triple option running game overpowered the Neshaminy defense with 320 yards to hand them their first loss of the season. Neshaminy led early in the game but trailed 21-7 at halftime and saw the game slip away for good as GV took a 35-7 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The GV defense did their part holding Will Dogba to 60 yards rushing.
(3) Perkiomen Valley 44, (6) Downingtown East 21
PV QB Stephen Sturm threw for 331 yards and four touchdowns to break the state record for most career passing yards (8,261) in Class 4A/6A. That proved to be too much for DE. PV led at halftime 24-14 then broke the game open taking a 30-14 lead early in the third quarter on a Sturm TD pass. They followed that with another TD pass to make it 37-14 and put the game out of reach.
(4) Coatesville 41, (5) Ridley 21
Ridley’s defense has been their strength all season, but Coatesville annihilated it with superior team speed and a fast-paced, no huddle offense. Ridley had only given up 99 points in 11 games, but by the beginning of the second quarter the score was 28-7. Coatesville freshman QB, Ricky Ortega, ran for 123 yards and three TD’s while Aaron Young raced for 246 yards on 26 carries. It was all too much offensive firepower for Ridley to handle.
D1 Insights
All year North Penn has been the odds-on favorite to win another D1 title. They beat LaSalle early in the season to set the pace for an outstanding year. But last week, Spring-Ford showed that NP is not invincible while Coatesville certainly looked invincible against Ridley. Either Perkiomen Valley or Garnet Valley will break through to play in their first D1 title game. It would appear the winner of NP-Coatesville would go on to take the championship but Perk Valley, although a long-shot, has the credentials to give pause to that assumption. As another comparison, Eastern PA Football.com has North Penn, Coatesville, and Perk Valley ranked 2,3 & 4 in the East.
