The (9-2) Pennsbury Falcons will take a one hour drive to try and upset the (11-0) Garnet Valley Jaguars on Friday night. While the Jaguars are undefeated, the Falcons have lost only two games in the regular season. Their first loss came against Glen Mills on September 12. Their second loss didn’t come until Halloween night against Neshaminy. The Falcons only lost by three points against Neshaminy in a very close game before entering the playoffs.
The Pennsbury Falcons’ head coach Galen Snyder has called for the Falcons to mostly run the ball on offense. Senior running back Richie Applegate has carried the ball 129 times and is now just ten yards shy of the 1000 yards rushing mark. Applegate is also the Falcons’ touchdown leader with 13 rushing touchdowns. Last week against Penncrest Applegate ran the ball for 136 yards and three touchdowns. Junior running back Dante Devine has over 500 yards rushing along with seven touchdowns to add to the Falcons running total.
Falcons quarterback Brandon Pepper isn’t known for his arm. Pepper has rushed the ball for over 860 yards and he has scored eight touchdowns. He is also averaging 6.4 yards a carry. Throughout the entire regular season Pepper went without throwing one touchdown pass until last week against Penncrest. Pepper threw his first and second touchdown pass of the year. Both of Pepper’s touchdown passes went to Devine. The first touchdown pass was an 11 yard reception and the second was a 13 yard catch, which came in the second half of the game.
With the Falcons mostly running the ball their 6’4, 225 pound, tight end, Steve Marck has led the way for the runners. Steve has played tight end and linebacker the last two years. He has four D1 offers already from Syracuse, Akron, Buffalo, Miami of Ohio, and maybe UConn and Pitt. Steve is also a leader on defense along with Jake Allen as they both combine for almost 100 tackles.
Just like the Falcons the Jaguars will run the ball too but they can also pass. Jared Bonacquisti, Tim Keyser, and Marcellus Irving have led the running attack for the Jaguars. Bonacquisti is just 72 yards shy of the 1000 yards rushing mark. Along with Bonacquisti, Keyser is just 20 yards away from the 1000 yards rushing mark. Combined Keyser and Bonacquisti have 30 touchdowns. Jaguars’ quarterback Mark McHugh has also rushed for some touchdowns, six to be exact.
McHugh has thrown the football for 865 yards and eight touchdowns. McHugh is only a junior and is showing how well he can play as a quarterback in the classification AAAA level. His top two receivers have been Paul Dunn and Tim Keyser. Dunn has scored three touchdowns on 18 receptions.
Last week the Jaguars beat Pennridge by a score of 21-7 in a hard fought game. Pennsbury cruised past Penncrest last week, 45-14. The Jaguars will have trouble if they cannot stop Pennsbury’s quarterback Brandon Pepper. For Pennsbury they must stop the running attack of Bonacquisti, Keyser, and Irving. This should be another great early playoff game. Will Pennsbury upset the Jaguars? Will the Jaguars decide to run or pass against the Falcons? Could we see three athletes surpass the 1000 yards rushing mark? In this game you should see a lot of rushing yards between both teams and a high scoring affair at Morris DeFrank field. Whoever wins this game will play either Neshaminy or Ridley.
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GO GV!