To run in the 9/26 Bucks County Herald
You will watch a lot of football games before seeing one as good as the CB South-CB West tilt in Warrington Friday night.
Trailing by one at the Buck 39 with no time left, South quarterback Owen Pinkerton rolled left and launched a pass into the corner of the end zone. Teammate Danny Gies emerged from the scrum with the football.
It gave South (5-0, 2-0 National) the 22-17 win, left 2/3rds of the capacity crowd jubilant and 1/3 of the crowd stunned.
“It was a designed play right there on the spot,” Pinkerton shared. “Both Dannys- McCusker and Gies-
were going to be in the back left corner of the end zone so I knew I was throwing the ball there. We had a chance to catch the ball because they are both big receivers.
“They got a pretty good pass rush but I was able to step up in the pocket,” Pinkerton continued. “I threw the ball as hard as I could in the back left corner and I saw Gies fall to the ground. I didn’t even know he had it but I heard everyone cheering. Then the field was flooded. I still can’t believe what happened.”
West (3-2, 1-1 National), who averaged over five yards per carry, executed an impressive opening drive. Noah Miller hit Allen Gerace on a 48-yard touchdown to give the Bucks a 7-0 early lead. West’s Louie Cipollo recovered a fumble late in the first quarter, giving the Bucks the ball at the South 32.
West moved to the 15, but Jack Bartolillo tackled Ryan Clement for a one-yard loss on third down. A Clement field goal put West up 10-0 early in the second.
Gies started to signal future heroics on the next drive, connecting with Pinkerton on a 37 yard catch and ending the march with a 9 yard touchdown.
“Last year, we didn’t get to throw the ball much so we almost didn’t know Danny and I had special chemistry,” Pinkerton admitted. “In every single practice, he is the guy I look for and when I throw it to his side, it just works.”
South went to the air again, quickly moving 73 yards in the final two minutes of the half and closing the quarter with a 22-yard field goal to knot the game at 10.
Gies made a diving, horizontal 29-yard grab on fourth down in the second half’s opening drive to give South the ball at the West-2. Pinkerton punched it in two plays later and South led 16-10. West retorted with a 13 play- all runs- 88 yard drive of their own, which ended when Ed Bowen and Elliott Francesco wrapped up Clement on fourth down at the South half-yard line.
“I think that stop changed the whole momentum,” Francesco said. “It gave us momentum to make big plays. That set the tone.”
The Bucks had two 11 or 12 play long drives yet only got three points of them. “Everyone is just doing their 1/11th,” Francesco added. “Making plays is what it is all about. We weren’t perfect. We have to get better and better.”
Clement did get his six, scoring out of the Wildcat on a 9-yard run with 48 seconds left. The Titans were able to move to the West-39 to set up Pinkerton’s and Gies’ heroics.
South completes the CB sweep in seven days, having topped CB East last Friday. “It was definitely tough going with both CB schools,” Pinkerton admitted. “Coach (Tom) Hetrick always preaches that the next game is the most important one so when we’re playing East, all we cared about was East. Once we beat East, the most important game was the next one.”
Pinkerton’s 238 yards passing are a season high; Gies accounted for 168 of the yards on seven grabs. The senior signal caller completed 13 of 20 throws while adding 85 yards on the ground. He is on pace to rush for and pass for 1,000 yards each.
Clement’s 94 yards on 21 carries led all runners. Miller added 75 yards on 10 rushes while Buck Vance Morelli added 48 yards on 12 lugs.
“We knew what it was going to be,” said West coach Rob Rowan. “They’re a really good team. We believe we are a really good team. I’m really proud of our guys’ effort from start to finish. We didn’t end up on the right side of the scoreboard. They made a tremendous play at the end. But we found out about who are guys are. It’s what we knew but that was the validation on the field.
“I thought, on both sides of the ball, we controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the game,” he continued. “I was proud of how we were able to move the ball for most of the game and defensively, we were able to give them some issues. One (Geis) is really good, obviously.”
CB West next hosts Neshaminy on Friday. CB South goes to Pennsbury on Saturday.
