What an
opening weekend of football we had with most
of the Top 10 teams piling on the points and
performing at mid-season form. High scoring
games were the rule rather than the
exception with all ten teams winning by
comfortable margins except for Downingtown
West which just edged Penncrest, 40-37.
What a game that was! When the weekend
came to a close, the Top 10 teams won by an
average score of 36-18. Looks like we have
some explosive offenses in the area that
will provide for one exciting season with
more than a few upsets along the way.
1. Neshaminy (1-0) Southeastern
Pennsylvania’s #1 team came out against
Souderton with a purpose on Friday night
after last year’s season opening shocker.
There would be no repeat of the 14-13 upset
as the ‘Skins scored 21 unanswered points
and then went on to a satisfying 35-6 win.
Everyone got in on the act with running
backs Corey Majors, Bryan Dean and Ricky
Williams scoring on runs of 35-, 6- and
72-yards respectively. Dean and wide-out
Rick Brebner also caught touchdown passes.
Last year’s starting quarterback, Brian
Titus, shared time with Charlie Marterella.
Both had TD strikes. Not only does this
look like a balanced team, they have some
depth at the skill positions with a stable
of running backs and two capable
quarterbacks. The defense wasn’t bad
either, holding Souderton to 194 total
yards. And Coach Schmidt has to feel good
about this offense, especially after piling
up 378 total yards in the opener.
Hatboro-Horsham (1-0) is up next in
Langhorne on Friday night.
2. North Penn (1-0) North Penn
vaulted all the way from 6th to 2nd in the
rankings after dismantling, repeat,
dismantling nationally ranked Liberty,
42-10. You’ve got to go deep in the record
books to find a defending AAAA state
champion coming into the season as the
number one ranked team, and then losing this
thoroughly in the opener. It just doesn’t
happen. Not that pundits can’t get it
wrong, they do; however, they don’t often
get it this wrong. The Canes have
experienced losses of this magnitude in
finals appearances, just not in season
openers. They were thumped by Upper Saint
Claire in the ‘06 final, 47-13, and the
following year by McKeesport, 49-10. The
thing is, Liberty is a good team we will
probably hear from again. This one started
off as most expected it would with Liberty
striking deep for a 58-yard touchdown toss
from quarterback Anthony Gonzalez to Jarrod
West for a 7-0 first quarter lead. The next
series took them to North Penn’s two-yard
line, putting the Knights in the precarious
position of a potential 14-0 first quarter
deficit. But the Canes self-destructed
through a number of penalties and finally a
fumble recovered by the Knights. That
seemed to be the spark that lit the fuse of
a 42 point explosion which carried them to
one of their most impressive season opening
victories. Along the way, they discovered
super quick Craig Needhammer who rushed for
224 yards. Aside from Needhammer’s
glittering stats, the rushing yard totals of
324 to Liberty’s 74 tells you they have a
solid line and a good defense. It looks
like North Penn has another monster team.
The next game is home against Lansdale
Catholic (0-1).
3. LaSalle (1-0) LaSalle got off to
a great start by pummeling out-manned
Plymouth Whitemarsh in the season opener.
The Colonials are having their problems for
certain (0-11 last year) but that is still a
lot of points to score in an opener. Even
though they were home, Whitemarsh couldn’t
get it right. They fumbled on their first
play from scrimmage then watched LaSalle
score three plays later. From there, the
Explorers rolled out 28 first-quarter points
on their way to a 56-0 win. Like the two
teams ranked ahead of them, LaSalle is
loaded with gifted skill players.
Quarterback Drew Loughery throws lasers
with accuracy and running back Jamal Abdur
Rahman is a quality ball carrier. And you
can add receiving skills to his resume after
he snagged 25 passes last year for 449
yards. Then there are two veteran receivers
in Sam Feleccia and Connor Hoffman to give
the Explorer’s a powerful and diverse
attack. They are home against Malvern Prep
(0-0) Friday looking for some pay back for
last year’s 47-21 loss.
4. Pennsbury (1-0) Pennsbury opened
the season at home with a satisfying win
over Conwell Egan. Egan got things going
with a time consuming 73-yard first-quarter
drive that ended with a 24-yard field goal
by Bill Castor. Nice start for the visitors
drawing first blood but it was also “last
blood” with the Falcons pounding out 21
second-quarter points on the way to a 34-3
win. The win showed what we’ve come to
expect from Pennsbury -- strong defense
accompanied by a punishing ground game. Pennsbury
battered the Eagles for 380 yards rushing.
While they are a long way from “Air
Pennsbury”, they did throw eight (gulp!)
passes, completing a very Pennsbury-like
two. The ground and pound is always there
with these guys as fullback Dante Devine
banged ahead for 142 yards while quarterback
Brandon Pepper rushed for another 98. With
a wing-back like Jeff Fisher and a wide-out
like Eric Williams, the potential for this
offense to develop into a fast and furious
attack is real. The way the season opened,
the same could be said for the entire Top
10. Philadelphia Public League power
Frankford (0-1) is next, coming off a tight
7-0 loss to Hatboro.
5. Abington (1-0) The Ghosts
galloped into Doylestown Friday, coming away
with a 31-10 win. On the surface, it doesn’t
appear as an overwhelming victory,
especially as CB East graduated just about
everyone from last year’s teams, certainly
all their skill players. A closer look
shows quarterback Sam Kind spreading the
ball around to all his receivers and some
other good signs as well. Wide out Anthony
Hensley (5-9, 160, sr) caught 7 passes for
69 yards with Kevin Deal (5-9, 160, sr)
another for a 21-yard score. Running back
Julien Ireland caught 4 for 58 yards with
tight end Gialiano Presta (6-3, 255)
catching 3 for 47 yards. Don’t you love
seeing a high school coach using his tight
end! Quarterback Sam Kind completed
15 of 26 for 195 yards and two scores as
Ireland rushed for 109 yards and two more
scores. The Ghost’s allowing 238 yards is a
little misleading since it only produced 10
points. Abington cranked out 339 yards of
total offense and scored 31 points as they
picked up a nice road win. Their next
opponent is Plymouth Whitemarsh who is
probably in for as long a night as they
experienced against LaSalle last week.
6. St. Joseph’s Prep (1-0) The Hawks
went to Wheeling, West Virginia and made a
statement heard across the state by coming
back against McKeesport to secure a stunning
win. No one is stunned they won, except
McKeesport, rather, in the manner they won
with McKeesport winning everything but the
last three minutes of the game. But as the
saying goes, you’ve got to play four quarter
football going up against the big boys.
This one looked like a McKeesport win from
the very outset with the Tigers easing out
to a 7-0 first-quarter lead and a 13-7 half
time lead. With 6:15 left in the
third-quarter, their lead grew to 19-7.
With three minutes left in the third
quarter, they had their largest lead of the
game at 26-14. That’s when the Hawks went
to work with sophomore quarterback Skyler
Mornhinweg (6-3, 190) connecting with Bobby
D’Orazio for a 35-yard touchdown strike.
Then they went for the obvious, an onside
kick, which they recovered. Once more they
went to the air (Air St. Joseph’s and Air
Pennsbury in the same season?) where on the
second play of the series, Mornhinweg hit
Desmon Peoples for a 41-yard touchdown (1:53
to go) and it was over. They missed the
two-point conversion but succeeded in coming
back from a 12 point deficit to score 13
points in less than a minute. How shell
shocked is McKeesport? For St. Joe’s, this
is just the kind of win a team needs to
launch it on a highly successful season. A
few stats; Skyler Mornhinweg completed 6 of
15 passes for 110 yards while running back
Garrett Compton rushed for 119 yards on 31
attempts. As powerful as the Hawk’s have
been over the years, imagine them with a
legitimate passing attack. The opponent
this week is St. Peter’s Prep from Jersey
City. They are one of the premier programs
in the state, rated a notch below Don Bosco
Prep in this year’s rankings. They are
coming off an 8-3 season that shouldn’t
mislead knowing the losses were against
nationally ranked teams including St.
Joseph’s Regional (10-1, Montvale), 14-0,
Our Lady of Good Counsel (11-1, Olney, MD),
27-14 and Don Bosco Prep (11-1), 38-13.
Although the Maurauders graduated their
quarterback, Raphael Ortiz returns with
plenty of experience. Last year’s stats
show him completing 17 of 26 passes for 253
yards, a 65% completion rate with 6 scores.
Running back Savon Huggins is a D1 back
running behind a talented line. The key
members are senior linemen Khalil Wilkes
(6-3, 285, All Everything), Jake Kaufman
(6-8, 320) and Anthony Wilkens (6-5, 350).
The game is Friday.
7. Downingtown West (1-0) Downingtown
West and Penncrest did not disappoint when
they met in one of the top match ups in
southeastern Pennsylvania last Friday. The
game see-sawed back and forth with offenses
totally dominating. Because both teams were
well stocked with veteran skill players
including returning quarterbacks, running
backs and receivers, an offensive outpouring
of some degree was expected. But no one
expected the offenses to so dominate as to
make defense an after thought. Neither side
seemed capable of any defense with both
teams rolling up over 500 yards of total
offense! How about 1,013 total yards of
offense and 77 points scored in an opener,
on a hot and humid night? The number of
lead changes was somewhere around four, just
in the second half. Much of the game got
down to the last few minutes of the fourth
quarter where Downingtown’s superb
quarterback, Bret Gillespie, impossibly hit
Lewis Smith (5 for 150 yds) for a 56-yard
scoring toss on a fourth and eight with four
minutes left in the game. How Gillespie
even saw Smith is topped only by the
wonderful catch made by the receiver along
the sidelines. The score gave them a 40-37
lead with way too much time on the clock,
four minutes. After the ensuing kickoff,
the Lions did what they had done all night,
move the ball towards the end zone. They
drove to the 11 yard line where with 25
seconds left on the clock, quarterback Matt
Atkinson made his first and last mistake of
the evening when his pass was picked off by
free safety Bobby Muhlville (6-4, 170, sr)
in the end zone. On the night, the Whippets
rushed for 200 yards with quarterback
Gillespie completing 17 of 24 passes for 308
yards. He was the difference with his
accurate arm and cool demeanor. George
Washington transfer Kessan Christopher had a
good night rushing for 121 yards on 20
carries. Penncrest’s quarterback Matt
Atkinson completed 14 of 21 for 245 yards.
Receivers Phil Barbieri and Matt Bundy
accounted for 87 and 140 yards
respectively. Five foot, ten inch, 210
pound Jerry Boyer bulldozed his way to 140
yards after 20 carries. The only thing
keeping Penncrest out of the Top 10 is
Quakertown and Downingtown East. The only
thing keeping West from moving up in the
rankings rather than down is defense. Glen
Mills Battling Bulls (1-0) are up next in
their home opener.
8. Ridley (1-0) Coach Dennis Decker
got his first win as a head coach when the
Green Raiders won at Coatesville, 21-6. In
many ways it was a typical Ridley win, with
passing yardage representing two-thirds of
the offense. The same notion holds on the
other side where the defense shut down a
potentially productive Red Raider offense to
110 yards rushing and 171 total yards of
offense. That’s a nice road win for a
rebuilding Ridley team. Not surprisingly,
they found another quarterback in senior
Colin Masterson (6-0, 175) who completed 15
of 19 passes for 195 yards. At Ridley, the
optimism is unbounded so finding another
senior quarterback to lead the way has
become a matter of course, just as winning
the Central League has over the years.
Lower Merion is next.
9. Downingtown East (1-0) After a
0-3 start last year, the Cougars found their
groove, going 6-1 down the stretch with a
narrow 21-14 loss to rival Downingtown West.
The turnaround was abrupt, with wins coming
against Coatesville and Glen Mills following
initial losses to Lansdale Catholic, 14-7,
Souderton, 46-14 and Wilson, 34-0. They
lost in the first round to Neshaminy but
otherwise finished strong. Considering
strength of schedule and their breaking in a
sophomore quarterback, 6-5 wasn’t bad. The
point of all that is that bigger and better
things are expected from them this year and
if the opener is any indication, they won’t
disappoint. Quarterback Trey Lauletta’s
development over the course of last season
was evident and revealed itself in the
opener where he completed 11 of 23 passes
for 180 yards. He threw touchdown passes of
15, 55 and 16 yards as they raced out to a
21-0 lead. Lansdale Catholic hit them with
some option and short stuff underneath to
make it look competitive but East was in
full control and won, 35-20. The Cougar
defense was all over the place, sacking
quarterback Dan Plummer five times,
recovering five fumbles and getting an
interception. Their next game is against
dangerous Souderton (0-1) who lost to
Neshaminy in the opener. East is coming in
on a high with a score to settle but
Souderton will be tough at home.
10. Quakertown (1-0) Scoring on
three of their first four possessions,
Quakertown easily rolled to a 39-0 win
against outmatched Methacton. The win
featured an 83-yard kick return by running
back Tony Latronica (5-8, 180, sr) who led
all rushers with 111 yards on 9 carries.
Another senior back, Tyler Burke (6-2, 195),
rushed for 84 yards on 6 carries. Junior
running back Joe Able (5-8, 170) got one
carry but made the most of it by scoring on
a 28 yard jaunt. Methacton wasn’t in the
game at all with 130 total yards of
offense. How about the Panther D holding
them to 55 yards rushing and getting their
first shutout since 2004. Quakertown is
coming off a 9-3 season and appear to be
picking up right where they left off. A
glance at the schedule doesn’t overrule the
possibility of their entering the North Penn
game on October 16th undefeated.
That one is in Quakertown. Upper Merion
(1-0) is next at King of Prussia where the
Vikings are coming off a 37-20 win at West
Philly.
Honorable Mention:
(Grouped by conference or classification,
otherwise random)
Cardinal O’Hara (1-0) Home Germantown
9/11
Father Judge (1-0) At Northeast 9/11
West Catholic (1-0) Home Penn Charter
9/12
Council Rock South (1-0) Home Central
Bucks East 9/11
Coatesville (0-1) At Perkiomen Valley
9/11
Garnet Valley (1-0) At Haverford 9/11
Penncrest (0-1) At Radnor 9/11
Rustin ( AAA, 1-0) At Bishop Shanahan
9/12
Pottsgrove (AAA, 1-0) Home
Wissahickon 9/11
Strath Haven (AAA, 1-0) At Harriton
9/11
STATE
Top 10 High
School
Football Rankings
September
7, 2009
With the
exception of Liberty, the State Top 10
performed as expected, well almost, with
Woodland Hills coming up short against one
of Ohio’s power teams. The other loss among
Top 10 teams was expected when then
7th
ranked Penn Hills lost at home to Gateway,
ranked 3rd. So there was
movement in the rankings with Liberty
falling completely out after an embarrassing
42-10 rout by North Penn. Penn Hills
performance was such, especially at home,
they too tumbled out of the Top 10.
Pennsbury enters this week’s Top 10 in the
10th spot.
1. Bishop McDevitt (1-0) Bishop
McDevitt moved into the # 1 spot by
way of their convincing win against bitter
rival Harrisburg High and Liberty’s
disappearing act against North Penn. In a
scenario that is not all that uncommon,
Harrisburg made the mistake of arousing
McDevitt by taking an early 7-0 lead that
snapped them out of their lethargy. From
the outset, they made mistake after mistake
(12 penalties!) until finally settling
down. Even with all those mental errors,
you can only hold an attack like theirs down
so long. Quarterback Matt Johnson has too
many weapons at his disposal with two
division one wide-outs, one of the best D1
running backs in the state and his own
rocket of an arm. They are going to score a
lot of points this year. He was sharp for
an opener, connecting on 11 of 18 passes for
181 yards and 2 scores. He ran in their
first score from 46 yards out and is always
a threat carrying the ball. He’s the entire
package. Running back Jameel Poteat ran for
132 yards on 18 carries and caught 3 passes
for 53 yards. The final score of 41-16 is
scary thinking what could have been without
those 12 penalties. Mid Penn-Keystone
Division action kicks off Friday night when
Cedar Cliff (1-0) comes in off their rivalry
win against Red Land, 26-14. Correction to
last week’s write up, the game was at
McDevitt Field not Severance Field.
2. Gateway (1-0) Gateway moved up a
notch in the ranking after winning on the
road against Penn Hills who was ranked 7th
at the time. Both teams came out shaky,
committing a lot of penalties and
turnovers. Penn Hills had 8 penalties!
Gateway is rebuilding with at least 16 new
starters but you can’t do that against them,
even if you are home. Interestingly, the
highly regarded transfer running back
Brendon Felder made little impact. No
matter, the Gators are deep at running
back. In stepped senior Orne Bey who
motored for 136 yards, all in the second
half. Four year starter Rob Kalkstein had
his typical solid outing, throwing for 216
yards. Although both sides were sloppy,
Gateway survived four turnovers inside the
red zone to come away with a 19-7 win.
Imagine what this team may develop into
with a few more games under their belt.
Gateway has one more non-conference game
Friday against Baldwin before settling into
Foothills Conference action. Baldwin lost
their home opener to Shaler, 29-14.
3. Neshaminy (1-0) See Southeastern
PA rankings.
4. Pittsburgh Central Catholic (1-0)
Central Catholic stepped up big time
in the Friends of Coal Classic in Wheeling
(sulfur rules!) last weekend to just pound
one of Ohio’s top programs. Don’t you love
it. Ursuline-Youngstown came into this one
as last year’s 16-0, defending Division V
Ohio champion. They were ranked 3rd
in the state this year and had a game under
their belt after beating St. Charles, 46-22,
a week earlier. None of that helped them
here although it was tight through three
quarters with Central holding a 28-22 lead.
That’s when Central turned it up a few
notches, scored 21 unanswered points and
came away with a 49-22 blow-out of a good
Ohio state football team. Sophomore running
back Damien Jones-Moore was the bomb,
running for 204 yards on 24 carries.
Remember, this is the team that lost
promising sophomore running backs Dom
Timbers and Jeff Knox to Woodland Hills and
DeMatha two years ago. Before the start of
this season, another promising freshman from
last year, Andrew Erenberg, transferred to
Peters Township where he rushed for 132
yards last week. Evidently they grow them
on trees at Central. The Vikings’ big win
elevated them two rungs in the rankings to
4th.
Troublesome Canon-McMillan (1-0) is next.
They won their opener impressively at
Trinity 36-22 (420 total yards) and will be
sky high for Central in their home opener.
Last year’s game was a battle royale in
Pittsburgh where Central edged the Big Macs,
17-13.
5. Upper Saint Clair (1-0) Remember
in the Preseason Report discussing how close
Upper St. Clair was last year? Over the
course of three games, they lost by one
point to Pittsburgh Central Catholic and
Canon McMillan, then they lost by four
points to state runner up Bethel Park. In
the playoffs, they got a bad seed for a 6-3
team drawing McKeesport (?) who they
extended before losing, 34-28. So it was a
nice team. Many of the key elements of that
team return including quarterback Alex Park
(6-1, 180, sr, 1589 yds), junior running
back Jacob Siwicki (6-0, 170, 667 yds) and
perhaps most importantly, Coach Jim Render,
entering his 31st year at Upper
St. Clair. With all that skill back,
including receiver Tim Kikta (6-2, 170, sr)
supported by a good looking line, they
should be a real force this year. The
opening game suggests as much where they
pummeled Penn Trafford, 48-20. It was 27-21
USC at the half until they settled down and
came out in the second half on fire, scoring
21 unanswered points to ice it. Park threw
touchdown passes of 21, 32 and 44 yards.
This week’s game is special as it brings
together the North side against the South
side. The Pine Richland Rams (1-0, beat
Montour, 20-6) play out of the Northern 6
whereas USC plays in the Great Southern
Conference. Both are favored to win or be a
factor in their respective conferences so
this promises to be an exciting game. USC
won last year’s game, 23-14, and will win
this one if they contain quarterback Eric
Kordenbrock (6-2, 210, sr) and his top
receiver from last year, Steve Valenza. The
game is in Upper St. Clair Friday night.
6. Woodland Hills (0-1) Woodland
Hills slipped in the rankings from 5th to
6th
after losing to Steubenville, Ohio 13-0.
Like Ursuline, Steubenville is one of Ohio’s
top programs. They came into this game as
the 8th rated team in Ohio by
some polls, finishing last year at 14-1 and
runner up in the Division IV final. With a
62-game regular season winning streak, you
know they are special, not losing in the
regular season since 2002! And with a game
under their belt, the Wolverines were at a
disadvantage. Still, it was a tight game
that saw Woody High get to Steubenville’s 39
yard line where they went for it on 4th
and 6 and failed. Steubenville then marched
61 yards to take a 7-0 lead with 17 seconds
left in the half, scoring on a 4th
and 10. In the second half, their D1
recruit quarterback Dwight Macon hit Jordan
Meyer with a 22 yard strike for 6 more. The
Wolverines then drove to Steubenville’s 10,
but failed on a 4th and 10 pass
attempt. The difference in this one was
Dwight Macon. Because quarterback John
Yezovich had a poor outing, completing 7 of
24 passes for 73 yards, they loaded up on
star running back Dom Timbers, holding him
to 58 yards on 18 carries. While it was a
loss, there were bright spots as they got a
few sacks and held an explosive Steubenville
team to 13 points and 12 first downs. Plus,
a tough opener like this one can pay
dividends down the line. They’ll get their
first win this week at Connellsville who
lost their opener to Unionown, 7-6.
7. State College (1-0) This was
likely the last year State College and AAA
Hollidaysburg will ever play one another
with Hollidaysburg moving to the WPIAL next
season. Although they are always spirited
and really come after the Lions, they are
typically overwhelmed at the point of
attack. State shut them out last year,
37-0, when both fielded strong teams. This
year saw Hollidaysburg graduate all but 3
starters so the writing was on the wall. It
came in the form of a 57-6 rout. In some
ways, this one resembled the McDevitt-Harrisburg
game, with State falling behind early, 6-0.
They fell behind after fumbling the ball
away on two of their first three offensive
plays. By half time, they had four
turnovers and four penalties. But hey, it’s
the opener with a lot of new people touching
the ball in an option attack it’s risky
business. On the other hand, this is State
College, where there are more than enough
weapons to overcome such mistakes.
Safety/running back Dom Mills had his first
start under center, throwing for one score
and running for another. He sat out the
second half as a precaution with a twisted
ankle after running for 109 yards on 11
carries. Matt Mazzara, Josh Weakland and
Kyle Hefkin all got time in his place. Slot
back Alex Kenney had three scores and 116
yards rushing on but 5 carries. When it was
all said and done, the Lions scored 57
unanswered points while rushing for 401
yards. This week’s opponent should give
them a better game when Cumberland Valley
(1-0, beat Red Lion, 35-0) comes to town
Friday night. Unless Central Dauphin and
Harrisburg round into playoff caliber teams,
and that could happen, this game is the
premier match up of the Mid
Penn-Commonwealth Conference power teams.
8. North Penn (1-0) See Southeastern
PA rankings.
9. LaSalle (1-0) See Southeastern PA
rankings.
10. Pennsbury (1-0) See Southeastern
PA rankings.
Honorable Mention:
North Allegheny (1-0) At Mt. Lebanon
9/11
Penn Hills (0-1) At Bethel Park 9/11
Pine Richland (1-0) At Upper St.
Clair 9/11
McKeesport (0-1) At Plum 9/11
Wilson (1-0) At Manheim Central 9/11
Freedom (1-0) At Whitehall 9/11
Liberty (1-0) Home Parkland 9/11
St. Joseph’s Prep (1-0) At St.
Peter’s-NJ 9/11
Abington (1-0) Home Plymouth
Whitemarsh 9/11
Downingtown West (1-0) Home Glen
Mills 9/11
