To run in the November 14th Bucks County Herald
Special teams.
With four minutes left in the second quarter in Friday’s District One 6A quarterfinal and both offenses stuck in neutral, CB South head coach Tom Hetrick reached into his bag of tricks on 4th and 10.
Punter and backup quarterback Cade Crim lined up deep to kick and instead tossed a shovel pass to Braylen Cape, who raced 60 yards for a touchdown that put #1 South (12-0) up 14-0 against #8 Plymouth-Whitemarsh. The Titans cruised to a 35-0 win, earning them a semi-final date with #4 North Penn next Friday.
Those teams were pretty special after all.
“We have faith in our defense. If for some reason that play doesn’t hit, our defense has been playing very good football all year,” Hetrick shared. “We took our chances. Nobody is thinking you’re going to do that when there are ten yards to go. Cade Crim has a lot of moxie. He got the ball to Braylen Cape, who has been making plays for us all year.”
“I was ecstatic,” Crim shared when Hetrick called it. “We’ve been practicing that play the entire year. With playoffs, a big game and only 7-0, it was the perfect time to run it and we got a big momentum swing.”
Crim’s prior beautiful 42-yard punt set the stage for South’s first touchdown. He pinned the Colonials at their own four.
“I never punted before this year,” Crim admitted. “The special teams coordinator talked to me early in the year. Our starter was playing both ways and we needed another guy. The punt today just flowed off my foot.”
When P-W went three and out, giving the Titans a short field, South took advantage. Three plays later, quarterback Owen Pinkerton raced 20 yards for a score.
P-W twice marched deep- inside the Titan 22- in the second quarter. But South’s defense twice repulsed them, first by forcing a fourth down incompletion and then with Brandon Zubyk getting a huge fourth down sack on the Colonials’ next drive.
The Titans, who have allowed zero or single-digit points in their last seven games, held P-W to just 121 total yards.
“They are a tough, physical team. Our cornerbacks have great eyes and our defense is constantly getting pressure,” said Jimmy Wade, who joined Eddie Bowen, Nick Micewski, and Dan McCusker as Titans on the SOL National first-team defense. “Coaches draw up some great schemes and executing them gets the job done.”
The defense “really made it hard for their quarterback,” added Hetrick. “We were sound in the run game and we had bodies on bodies. We were covering guys on the back end and our front three and four were having a night.”
South could not have opened the second half any better. They used three runs of 14 yards or more to rip off a five-play, 62-yard drive. It ended with Wade’s eight-yard rushing touchdown.
“We lost some depth when Kaden Kube went down so I had to step up at running back,” said Wade, who ran six times for 67 yards. “I like it. I’m a fan of it.”
Wade knocked down a P-W fourth down pass and the Titans marched 41 yards in five plays. Pinkerton, who led the Titans with 88 yards on 17 carries, ran it in from the four with 52 seconds left in the third to put South up 27-0. The quarterback went over 1,000 rushing yards in last week’s playoff win over #16 Spring-Ford.
Cape ran it in from six yards and Matt Harmon scored the two-point conversion on a reverse with 9:31 remaining to start the running clock. Cape, who had 134 yards on 13 touches, has rushed for 600 yards and nine touchdowns in the last seven games.
“We made a couple of adjustments,” said Hetrick, who had high praise for P-W linebacker Kevin Hegarty. “Football is a game of individual plays. You just have to keep grinding and keep your nose down. I was real happy with our ability to stay the course.”
#3 CB West (10-2) will also be playing in a semi-final next Friday. The Bucks punched their ticket to #2 Downingtown West with a 35-21 quarterfinal win over #11 Downingtown East. Knotted at 14 at halftime, Vance Morelli returned a blocked kick 70 yards for a score and Ryan Clemens added a 50 yard touchdown run to put West up 28-14. Noah Miller scampered 45 yards for his second touchdown of the night early in the fourth quarter to extend the Buck lead to 35-21.
