11. Upper Darby 10-1, #6.For a team that’s been in the shadows of Garnet Valley, Ridley, more recently Haverford even Conestoga, the Royals came out in a big way last week with a easy win against Council Rock North 59-34. Phew! As porous as North’s defense has been most of the year, no one scored that many points on them. Most of the damage was done by running back Isaiah Bruce who rushed for a school record 338 yards, taking his season total to 1744. Quarterback Chrsistoff Minott is another threat Upper Dublin will have to contain, passing for 1422 yards while rushing for 434. The Royals are a sizeable offense scoring 33ppg (counts shutout at State), allowing 18 while winning eight straight since the 28-0 loss at State College.
12. Liberty 8-3, #4. Liberty did to Stroudsburg what the EPC-South, formerly LVC teams, have been doing to EPC-North teams, former Mountain Valley teams (East Stroudsburg, Pocono Mt schools, et al), for years by routing the Mounties 44-0. Quarterback Doug Erney had a big game completing 16 of 25 for 240 yards for three scores. The Canes were equally effective on the ground rushing for 214 yards to out distance the Mounts 454 to 75 total yards! You know Liberty has to be enjoying the ride not having been here since 2011’s 8-4 team. Last year was a breakout of sorts, paving the way to this season by winning the Eastern Conference-AAAA championship. So now its onwards and upwards, literally, to Plymouth on the West bank of the Susquehanna (below Wilkes Barre) for a game with top seeded Wyoming Valley West. They’ll need to establish the same success Nazareth did last week with the passing game while finding a larger ground game to keep up with the Spartans.
13. Perkiomen Valley 10-1, #10. Perkiomen Valley advanced the PAC-10 banner with a solid road win at Haverford beating the Fords 35-28. Quarterback Stephen Sturm (6-2, 180, jr) had another outstanding night completing 21 of 28 throws for 315 yards. His favorite target was Justin Jaworski who caught 12 passes for 180 yards. All totaled the Vikings gained 455 total yards of offense to Haverford’s 382 yards. Despite allowing 378 yards passing, they stuffed the Fords running game, holding them to 4 yards rushing. With the 10th seed, they get home field advantage where they are undefeated for round two action against 15th seeded Pennsbury. Both teams are coming off tight, all-out, four-quarter football games so we’ll see what’s left. And neither has played a team quite like the one they’ll play Friday. Pennsbury is Pennsbury, a big, mean, Wing-T team while Perkiomen Valley will light up the sky like no one they’ve faced including Downingtown and CR North. The Vikings are the best passing attack Pennsbury has seen in years with Stephen Sturm completing 69% of his passes for 2864 yards, with a Td to Interception ratio of 30 to 5.
14. Quakertown 9-2, #12.What, did the lights go out? With so many teams scoring three sometimes four touchdowns almost by accident in today’s fast paced offenses, this one qualifies as a power outage with Quakertown beating 5th seeded Central Bucks East 7-6. The win avenged a regular season defeat two weeks ago where East beat them in another single-digit game, 24-23. But in this one the Panthers picked off three passes. That’s something knowing quarterback Jack Lamb averages 7.54 passes a game. Still, at the end of the day the difference was what else?….special teams, where a bad snap couldn’t be converted. This week see them edging out another team, at least in terms of seeds with their 12th seed taking on 13th seeded Neshaminy at home. Q-town has the horses to make it interesting with running back Rob Burns (1658ry), TE Aaron Besch (6-1, 210, 288py) and quarterback Tom Garlick (6-4, 190, 1142py, 422ry) back there.
15. Downingtown West 9-2, #2. For the second year in a row, Downingtown West lost to Pennsbury in the playoff’s opening round. Last year saw them lose a wild one at Pennsbury 63-55. This year’s game was just as exciting and disappointing losing 35-28 in overtime at home. Giving up 204 yards rushing will do that. Too bad there isn’t a Thanksgiving Day tradition involving Bishop Shanahan or Downingtown West when available or an open situation to play someone, anyone. Maybe a Ches Mont-PAC 10 affair, something like the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Playoffs. So that does it for this season. But it was a heck of a run, winning their first nine games before the fall to bounce back from last year’s 6-5 season.
12. Liberty 8-3, #4. Liberty did to Stroudsburg what the EPC-South, formerly LVC teams, have been doing to EPC-North teams, former Mountain Valley teams (East Stroudsburg, Pocono Mt schools, et al), for years by routing the Mounties 44-0. Quarterback Doug Erney had a big game completing 16 of 25 for 240 yards for three scores. The Canes were equally effective on the ground rushing for 214 yards to out distance the Mounts 454 to 75 total yards! You know Liberty has to be enjoying the ride not having been here since 2011’s 8-4 team. Last year was a breakout of sorts, paving the way to this season by winning the Eastern Conference-AAAA championship. So now its onwards and upwards, literally, to Plymouth on the West bank of the Susquehanna (below Wilkes Barre) for a game with top seeded Wyoming Valley West. They’ll need to establish the same success Nazareth did last week with the passing game while finding a larger ground game to keep up with the Spartans.
13. Perkiomen Valley 10-1, #10. Perkiomen Valley advanced the PAC-10 banner with a solid road win at Haverford beating the Fords 35-28. Quarterback Stephen Sturm (6-2, 180, jr) had another outstanding night completing 21 of 28 throws for 315 yards. His favorite target was Justin Jaworski who caught 12 passes for 180 yards. All totaled the Vikings gained 455 total yards of offense to Haverford’s 382 yards. Despite allowing 378 yards passing, they stuffed the Fords running game, holding them to 4 yards rushing. With the 10th seed, they get home field advantage where they are undefeated for round two action against 15th seeded Pennsbury. Both teams are coming off tight, all-out, four-quarter football games so we’ll see what’s left. And neither has played a team quite like the one they’ll play Friday. Pennsbury is Pennsbury, a big, mean, Wing-T team while Perkiomen Valley will light up the sky like no one they’ve faced including Downingtown and CR North. The Vikings are the best passing attack Pennsbury has seen in years with Stephen Sturm completing 69% of his passes for 2864 yards, with a Td to Interception ratio of 30 to 5.
14. Quakertown 9-2, #12.What, did the lights go out? With so many teams scoring three sometimes four touchdowns almost by accident in today’s fast paced offenses, this one qualifies as a power outage with Quakertown beating 5th seeded Central Bucks East 7-6. The win avenged a regular season defeat two weeks ago where East beat them in another single-digit game, 24-23. But in this one the Panthers picked off three passes. That’s something knowing quarterback Jack Lamb averages 7.54 passes a game. Still, at the end of the day the difference was what else?….special teams, where a bad snap couldn’t be converted. This week see them edging out another team, at least in terms of seeds with their 12th seed taking on 13th seeded Neshaminy at home. Q-town has the horses to make it interesting with running back Rob Burns (1658ry), TE Aaron Besch (6-1, 210, 288py) and quarterback Tom Garlick (6-4, 190, 1142py, 422ry) back there.
15. Downingtown West 9-2, #2. For the second year in a row, Downingtown West lost to Pennsbury in the playoff’s opening round. Last year saw them lose a wild one at Pennsbury 63-55. This year’s game was just as exciting and disappointing losing 35-28 in overtime at home. Giving up 204 yards rushing will do that. Too bad there isn’t a Thanksgiving Day tradition involving Bishop Shanahan or Downingtown West when available or an open situation to play someone, anyone. Maybe a Ches Mont-PAC 10 affair, something like the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Playoffs. So that does it for this season. But it was a heck of a run, winning their first nine games before the fall to bounce back from last year’s 6-5 season.
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