6. Wyoming Valley West 12-0, #1. The Spartans traded points with Liberty for a quarter then got busy scoring 28 second quarter points to take an insurmountable 42-21 lead at the half on the way to a 55-35 drubbing in the D-2/4/11 semifinal. Both teams have so many weapons but the Spartans have more, headed by quarterback Aaron Austin who was on the money completing 14 of 18 throws for 246 yards and 3 scores. Tailback Sean Judge was a one man wrecking crew rushing for 114 yards on 23 carries and catching 5 passes for 124 yards. Across the field running back Gunner Anglovich had 296 yards rushing (!?) for Liberty who held a 514 to 474 total yardage advantage. 35 points on the scoreboard plus 514 yards looks like a win until you factor in 10 penalties for 112 yards and 7 turnovers. That limited the offense to a meager 14.68 yards per point as compared to Valley West’s 8.6ypp! The Spartans shield wall was there when needed keeping the Canes out of the end zone. It will need to be that and more this weekend against Parkland. The district has a 7-18 record against D-11 teams since the D2/4/11 format was created in 2006. No surprise there knowing the quality of D-11 teams sent to the playoffs in that period. Parkland has another fine team but this is the best team to come out of District-2 in many years; senior laden, playoff experienced with diverse weapons and more than enough size and speed to play with D-11 teams.
Stats from various sites including online newspapers: Quarterback Aaron Austin (6-0, 175, jr) completed 119 of 184 passes for 1823 yards and has a 23 to 9 Td to Pick ratio. He’s a dual threat, rushing for 658 yards with seven touchdowns. His primary targets are Devon Weidman (6-1, 185, sr ) with 39 receptions for 684 yards and 20 carries for 359 yards while tight end LJ Wesnski (6-3, 235, sr) has 496 yards on 37 catches. Shifty running back Sean Judge (5-9, 170, jr) is the featured back rushing for 1343 yards along with 584 yards in receptions on 22 receptions. Bill Davison (6-1, 215, sr) pounds it for 432 yards on 58 carries. Defensively, they have book ends on the flanks with Chris Reece (6-3, 235, sr, 66 tackles, 9 sacks) and Wesneski with 69 tackles, 10TFL and 7 sacks. Soph linebacker Zach Davis (5-10, 180) leads the team in tackles with 134. Nick Mooney (5-9, 165, jr) and Davison are key at the backer spots with 99 and 117 tackles respectively. Spartans verses Trojans!
7. Neshaminy 9-3, #13. Neshaminy continues their climb in the ranking after another impressive road win in the playoffs. As mentioned last week they really are a road warrior. Winning 7 of 8 road games including two in the postseason should remove any doubts about their legitimacy at this point in the season. Two of their three losses came at home, to Downingtown West and Pennridge. This time they went to Quakertown coming away with a convincing 31-17 win. But the Panthers got it going at the outset in an explosive 1st quarter with a Tom Garlick toss and run for scores giving them a 14-0 lead. Bad start for the Skins until Denzel snagged a 60 yarder for 6 then returned a punt 78 yards, also in the 1st quarter to even things up. If that didn’t break Quakertown’s will it went a long way to disheartening them being outscored 31-3 thereon. Running back Will Dogba had another strong showing rushing for 144 yards on 28 carries generating 2 touchdowns as did Mason Jones completing 10 of 17 passes for 144 yards. On defense, linebacker Jack Spangler also broke things open with 3 interceptions and a fumble recovery. Quakertown really shot themselves in the foot with 5 turnovers. 5! Next up is North Penn. These two met four weeks ago in Lansdale with the Knights prevailing 22-17.
8. Pennsbury 9-3, #15. Defending district champ (lest we forget!) Pennsbury may have the 15th seed but proved otherwise going to Perkioman Valley to play the 10th seed and come away with a 41-28 victory. What a game that was knotted up at 21 all at the half only to see the weight of the Pennsbury attack roll it up in the 2nd half, outscoring Perk Val 20-7. Three second half turnovers helped. The Falcons spread it out old school, not through the air but on the ground with three backs doing damage beginning with quarterback Mike Alley who rushed for three scores and 84 yards while keeping the Vikings on their heels at times with 86 pass yards. Nice! Powerful Chris Rupprecht rushed for 74 yards while Robert Daly got 71. Perk Val’s outstanding quarterback Stephen Sturm was nearly unstoppable barring the three interceptions in throwing for almost 300 yards. But the ground game was non existent at 50 yards. Total yardage favored the Vikings 324 to 310 but it’s still about points and defense where Pennsbury prevailed. They move on to play 3rd seeded Upper Dublin, a team they beat in last year’s semifinal 25-14.
9. Downingtown East 11-1. The curtains came down on the Cougars fine season losing at home in the quarterfinals to North Penn 27-14. Quarterback Saunders Healy was held to 9 completions in 22 attempts for 202 yards while Cary Angeline caught only 4 passes for 104 yards. North Penn brought it in this one sacking Healy four times while shutting down the running game. By Downingtown standards the offense was nothing special, scoring 33ppg. But it was a tremendous upgrade over last year and the year before where they averaged 28 and 21ppg. Defensively, they fielded one of their best units at 14ppg, the best since 2007’s 8-3 team that allowed 13. And finally, the 11-1 record was their best record ever since the split in 2003.
10. Easton 8-4. The Rovers lost to Parkland 37-0 in the D-2/4/11semifinal but have one more to go in their annual Thanksgiving Day game with rival Phillipsburg, NJ. Once again at 9-1 the Stateliners have another strong group, almost comparable to last year’s 11-1 team that beat the Rovers 19-15 and went on to win their second straight North 2-Group 4, Division 5, Region 7, Zone IV, District-J, Sub-Sector-9, title. Something like that. At 9-1, this year’s team has the ability to throw the ball tho they are primarily a run first team. Following the Easton game they’ll play Middleton South (10-0) December 5th. Regardless of this outcome, you’ve got to hand it to the Easton staff and players who entered the season depleted at the skill positions having graduated a team many felt was ready for a deep run in States.
Stats from various sites including online newspapers: Quarterback Aaron Austin (6-0, 175, jr) completed 119 of 184 passes for 1823 yards and has a 23 to 9 Td to Pick ratio. He’s a dual threat, rushing for 658 yards with seven touchdowns. His primary targets are Devon Weidman (6-1, 185, sr ) with 39 receptions for 684 yards and 20 carries for 359 yards while tight end LJ Wesnski (6-3, 235, sr) has 496 yards on 37 catches. Shifty running back Sean Judge (5-9, 170, jr) is the featured back rushing for 1343 yards along with 584 yards in receptions on 22 receptions. Bill Davison (6-1, 215, sr) pounds it for 432 yards on 58 carries. Defensively, they have book ends on the flanks with Chris Reece (6-3, 235, sr, 66 tackles, 9 sacks) and Wesneski with 69 tackles, 10TFL and 7 sacks. Soph linebacker Zach Davis (5-10, 180) leads the team in tackles with 134. Nick Mooney (5-9, 165, jr) and Davison are key at the backer spots with 99 and 117 tackles respectively. Spartans verses Trojans!
7. Neshaminy 9-3, #13. Neshaminy continues their climb in the ranking after another impressive road win in the playoffs. As mentioned last week they really are a road warrior. Winning 7 of 8 road games including two in the postseason should remove any doubts about their legitimacy at this point in the season. Two of their three losses came at home, to Downingtown West and Pennridge. This time they went to Quakertown coming away with a convincing 31-17 win. But the Panthers got it going at the outset in an explosive 1st quarter with a Tom Garlick toss and run for scores giving them a 14-0 lead. Bad start for the Skins until Denzel snagged a 60 yarder for 6 then returned a punt 78 yards, also in the 1st quarter to even things up. If that didn’t break Quakertown’s will it went a long way to disheartening them being outscored 31-3 thereon. Running back Will Dogba had another strong showing rushing for 144 yards on 28 carries generating 2 touchdowns as did Mason Jones completing 10 of 17 passes for 144 yards. On defense, linebacker Jack Spangler also broke things open with 3 interceptions and a fumble recovery. Quakertown really shot themselves in the foot with 5 turnovers. 5! Next up is North Penn. These two met four weeks ago in Lansdale with the Knights prevailing 22-17.
8. Pennsbury 9-3, #15. Defending district champ (lest we forget!) Pennsbury may have the 15th seed but proved otherwise going to Perkioman Valley to play the 10th seed and come away with a 41-28 victory. What a game that was knotted up at 21 all at the half only to see the weight of the Pennsbury attack roll it up in the 2nd half, outscoring Perk Val 20-7. Three second half turnovers helped. The Falcons spread it out old school, not through the air but on the ground with three backs doing damage beginning with quarterback Mike Alley who rushed for three scores and 84 yards while keeping the Vikings on their heels at times with 86 pass yards. Nice! Powerful Chris Rupprecht rushed for 74 yards while Robert Daly got 71. Perk Val’s outstanding quarterback Stephen Sturm was nearly unstoppable barring the three interceptions in throwing for almost 300 yards. But the ground game was non existent at 50 yards. Total yardage favored the Vikings 324 to 310 but it’s still about points and defense where Pennsbury prevailed. They move on to play 3rd seeded Upper Dublin, a team they beat in last year’s semifinal 25-14.
9. Downingtown East 11-1. The curtains came down on the Cougars fine season losing at home in the quarterfinals to North Penn 27-14. Quarterback Saunders Healy was held to 9 completions in 22 attempts for 202 yards while Cary Angeline caught only 4 passes for 104 yards. North Penn brought it in this one sacking Healy four times while shutting down the running game. By Downingtown standards the offense was nothing special, scoring 33ppg. But it was a tremendous upgrade over last year and the year before where they averaged 28 and 21ppg. Defensively, they fielded one of their best units at 14ppg, the best since 2007’s 8-3 team that allowed 13. And finally, the 11-1 record was their best record ever since the split in 2003.
10. Easton 8-4. The Rovers lost to Parkland 37-0 in the D-2/4/11semifinal but have one more to go in their annual Thanksgiving Day game with rival Phillipsburg, NJ. Once again at 9-1 the Stateliners have another strong group, almost comparable to last year’s 11-1 team that beat the Rovers 19-15 and went on to win their second straight North 2-Group 4, Division 5, Region 7, Zone IV, District-J, Sub-Sector-9, title. Something like that. At 9-1, this year’s team has the ability to throw the ball tho they are primarily a run first team. Following the Easton game they’ll play Middleton South (10-0) December 5th. Regardless of this outcome, you’ve got to hand it to the Easton staff and players who entered the season depleted at the skill positions having graduated a team many felt was ready for a deep run in States.