To Run in the October 12th Bucks County Herald
Call it a shutout* for Pennridge?
In the game’s opening play, CB West quarterback Josh Crecca hit wideout Ricardo Washington on a 71-yard touchdown bomb to give the host Bucks a 6-0 lead against Pennridge on Friday.
Ram Kyle Schetter responded by blocking the point after try and making one of Pennridge’s nine tackles for loss on West’s second play. It set the tone for the rest of the game.
“That first play shouldn’t have happened,” Schetter said. “We knew right from then that we had to fix what we had to do, get turnovers and three-and-outs and get our offense down the field. We corrected from there.”
“It’s all about effort, giving yourself up every play and working hard,” said star linebacker Nick Tarburton. “That’s what we did.”
The Rams yielded just 100 yards the rest of the way in their 26-6 win. They held West to -11 rushing yards.
“Mike Barainyak, our defensive coordinator, did a great job game planning,” said Pennridge coach Jeff Hollenbach. “He threw a ton of blitzes at them. We were not a vanilla defense. That puts pressure on the secondary, who have to cover some good receivers. But inside backers Nick and Chris Feralio, and our combination of our defensive line shut them down defensively except for that first play.”
“I think we have a good D line and ‘backers,” Schetter said. “We fill the holes and stop them.”
“Something we have to work on as linebackers is to keep dropping (in coverage),” added Tarburton, a Penn State verbal commit who had four tackles for loss. “But except for that first play our coverage was pretty good.”
West went three-and-out in their second drive; Pennridge then moved 40 yards in five plays. Zak Kantor’s 28-yard misdirection pass to Ryan Garner got the ball to the West-2. Schetter burrowed into the end zone.
“The line helped us out a lot tonight. They blocked well and opened holes,” Schetter said.
Kantor found freshman Shane Hartzell for a three-yard touchdown toss early in the second quarter, ending a 44-yard, 7-play drive that featured six runs. A wide open Garner hauled in a Kantor offering and raced 59 yards for a touchdown late in the second quarter. Pennridge took a 20-6 lead into halftime.
West started 5-1 on the strength of their defense: the one that yielded just 83 points in those first half dozen games. Standout linebacker Jake Reichwein stopped Schetter on fourth and goal and the one early in the fourth quarter.
“Jake is great competition. I’ve played with him since CYO football,” Tarburton said.
“I think they’re a really good team defensively,” Hollenbach praised. “Jake is a player and Ryan Hieber is a tough kid.”
“Our defense has been playing well,” noted West coach Chas Cathers. “We’ve been pretty opportunistic on defense and one of the things we’ve really focused on is taking the ball away. But you keep a defense on the field that long, you’re bound to have some problems.”
Pennridge turned in yet another three-and-out and got great field position. Kantor efficiently flipped a third down shovel pass to Tarburton, who crashed 20 yards for a touchdown.
“We’ve been practicing that,” said Tarburton, who has verballed to Penn State. “I love the play. It messes with the defense a little bit. I found a hole and hit it.”
Josh Pinkney’s 58 yards on 13 carries paced the Rams. Garner had 153 yards on 16 touches. “Our line did really well tonight,” Garner praised. “All credit to them. All of the backs ran tough. We didn’t break any runs but we ran hard and I’m happy with it.”
Pinkney leads the ground oriented Rams with just 424 rushing yards. The trio of Pinkney, Garner and Schetter went over 1,000 yards on Friday. “Schetter is a real downhill runner and Josh is really fast. I guess I’m in between,” Garner scouted.
Kantor completed 7 of 10 passes for 133 yards. Pennridge did not turn the ball over and only had one play for negative yards.
Crecca completed 10 of 24 passes for 182 yards. Washington hauled in three balls for 96 yards; Rohan McDonald had a pair of grabs for 54 yards.
Someone was going to get a quality win in Doylestown. Both teams left the contest at 5-2, with Pennridge (3-1 Continental) holding a one game lead over West in the conference.
Both teams hit the road next Friday. West travels to rival CB South, who is coming off of an overtime loss to a potent Neshaminy squad.
“One of the pivotal moments this year was North Penn and how we responded after that loss,” Cathers shared. “I think this is an opportunity for our guys to understand that their response to this loss is going to determine the outcome for the season. We do need to get on the same page offensively.”
Pennridge will be favored at William Tennent, who is seeking their first win. The Rams host CB South on October 20th in a critical game for playoff seeding.
“We came out pretty flat against CR South and that is not happening again,” Hollenbach stated. “They know they can’t afford any more flat games. I told them that we will come out against Tennent the same way we came out tonight.”
