Southeastern Pennsylvania Top 10
October 15, 2009
1. North Penn (6-0. Weeks rated: 7. Last week: 1)
2. Pennsbury (6-0. Weeks rated: 7. Last week: 2)
3. St. Joseph’s Prep (5-1. Weeks rated: 7. Last week: 3)
4. LaSalle (5-1. Weeks rated: 7. Last week: 4)
5. Downingtown West (6-0. Weeks rated: 5. Last week: 7)
6. Council Rock South (5-1. Weeks rated: 1. Last week: Unrated)
7. Pottsgrove (6-0. Weeks rated: 4. Last week: 9)
8. Ridley (6-0. Weeks rated: 2. Last week: 10)
9. Abington (4-1. Weeks rated: 7. Last week: 5)
10. Neshaminy (5-1. Weeks rated: 7. Last week: 8)
This is a different age of high school football. An age of average offensive lines weighing about 270 pounds. An age of size.
It’s what had North Penn coach Dick Beck scratching his head about two months ago. The Knights, traditionally a fairly large team, had almost no size — especially on the defensive front, where the largest starters weigh roughly 210 pounds.
Yet the Knights are the best team in Southeastern Pennsylvania, thanks in part to their munchkin defensive front of senior defensive tackle Anthony Ortiz (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) and junior tackles Marcus McGraw (5-9, 210) and David Jackson (5-9, 210), and senior defensive end Andre Poe (6-0, 185) and junior end Chuck Knower (6-1, 200).
Marcus McGraw, North Penn
Photo courtesy of North Penn football
Now, it may be hard to call a high school senior or junior small at 6-foot and about 200 pounds, but again, in this age of size, those dimensions for the most part are small at the major high school level at which North Penn plays.
The Knights are 6-0, heading into a challenging game at 5-1 Quakertown this Friday night at 7 p.m.
“If you asked me a month ago what my biggest concern was about this season, it was the defensive front,” Beck said. “But we’re playing pretty good right now, and I’m especially surprised by the way our defensive tackles and defensive ends are playing.
“You look at them across the line, and they’re tiny, small by today’s standards. What I like most about this group, and not just the defensive line, is effort-wise, this is one of the best teams, if not the best team, I’ve ever had here. This team could be the best I’ve ever had when it comes to effort. They go after everything. Nothing stops them. I expect it to continue and the guys to get even better on the offensive line.”
Quakertown comes up posing a strong offense. The Panthers have scored over 30 points in three of their five victories this season. Their one loss, 26-21 to Hatboro-Horsham on Oct. 2, came when Panthers starting quarterback Kurt Roberts was lost to an injury.
“We know Quakertown is a good team and they have a lot of players back from last year,” Knights’ quarterback Todd Smolinsky said. “Right now, we’re playing pretty well, but we still need to improve some things. We know on both lines, we’re very small. We just have to keep our technique up against bigger teams, and just keep tuning up the little things on working to get better.”
Unbelievable offense
Springfield (Delaware County) coach Dan Ellis had played football at the highest levels, winning a PIAA Class AAAA state title for Downingtown in 1996, and then was named state Player of the Year. He went on to start two years at quarterback for Virginia, playing in the ACC when Florida State was amazingly good.
But he never encountered anything on a football field quite like last Friday, when Penncrest won a 66-54 Central League game against Ellis’ Springfield. In regulation. It was 20-7 — Springfield — after the first quarter.
“It was ridiculous,” Ellis said. “We’re up 20-7 and I knew we had to keep scoring. I obviously didn’t think we had to score 67 points to win, and the sheer frustration of not being able to stop them started to build. At some point, we had to play some defense to win the game. It was a video game, where you just try to score as many points as possible.”
There were 17 touchdowns combined. There were a combined 47 first downs between the teams. The teams combined for 956 yards of total offense. There were three punts — and that’s amazing in itself in a game where 120 points were scored. Springfield ran 79 plays.
“We just didn’t make plays, but on the other side, we scored 54 points and were fine on offense,” Ellis said. “But when you play an offense that they run at Penncrest, you can’t have breakdowns, and we had too many breakdowns.”
Penncrest did punt twice — and Springfield forced three turnovers. But the Cougars turned the ball over four times. Ellis didn’t throw out the game film.
“It was very odd to sit in the film room, and you’re watching the same kids who played offense also play defense, and for five minutes you’re praising your kids, and the next second, you’re wondering if these were the same kids,” Ellis said. “It was crazy. When I was a senior in high school, we scored in the 60s twice, and the other teams never came close to us. In one game, you had two teams score over 50 and a combined 120 points. There are teams that don’t score that much in a year. We did it in one game.”
Joseph Santoliquito covers high schools for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a contributor to MaxPreps.com. He can be contacted at JSantoliquito@yahoo.com.
