West pulled away in the second half in a game that worried me with the young players who were being asked to step in for injured upper classmen. Both guards were in their first starts, third string TE started and the wing (blocking back) was in his first also, just to name a few. They committed 10 penalties, mostly false starts and holds by the young guys but they did something right as West ran for 437, with Clemens over 260 and Noah Miller the QB running for 167. Clemens added a diving, toe tap interception and young safety Louie Cipollo added another, while AJ Gerace put his helmet right on a ball to force a fumble then recovered it himself. He and Jeff Cappa were in the Pennridge backfield all night. The sophomore wing, Liam Laphen, played very well in his first meaningful varsity minutes, leading out on most of the big runs. Pennridge didn't cross midfield after the first quarter. West can hopefully get some starters back for the North Penn game next week, but if they don't, at least the young guys got their feet wet and can settle in.
As for Pennridge, it's hard to understand what is going on there. Coaches had to send a player to the locker room before halftime after some sort of incident on the sideline, players were throwing their helmets, coaches doing a lot of screaming on the sideline, etc... They stayed in a 3 man front the entire game except for a couple of short yardage situations. Didn't seem to be any adjustments at halftime after giving up almost 250 rushing yards in the first half. They appeared to be mis-aligned on more than a few plays, where they'd have multiple gaps completely undefended. Secondary didn't tackle well at all as West put up runs of 91, 72 (called back 10 yards for a block in the back at the very end of the play), 64 and 52.
This turned into a showcase game for Clemens. He's putting together a very, very special season. Easily the best RB and SS in the SOL, and probably the second-best kicker behind the stud from North Penn. He'll go down as an all-time CB West great. He almost pulled a Tony Dorsett on a run from their own 1 yard line after the Cipollo interception, but after cutting back on the DB that had an angle on him, they were able to track him down after a 91 yard gain. Also, Noah Miller the QB, was outstanding at CB in addition to his big rushing day, with a couple of big TFLs including flying up on a 4th and 1 bubble to hit Chase Marshall for a loss before he could even get started.
As for Pennridge, it's hard to understand what is going on there. Coaches had to send a player to the locker room before halftime after some sort of incident on the sideline, players were throwing their helmets, coaches doing a lot of screaming on the sideline, etc... They stayed in a 3 man front the entire game except for a couple of short yardage situations. Didn't seem to be any adjustments at halftime after giving up almost 250 rushing yards in the first half. They appeared to be mis-aligned on more than a few plays, where they'd have multiple gaps completely undefended. Secondary didn't tackle well at all as West put up runs of 91, 72 (called back 10 yards for a block in the back at the very end of the play), 64 and 52.
This turned into a showcase game for Clemens. He's putting together a very, very special season. Easily the best RB and SS in the SOL, and probably the second-best kicker behind the stud from North Penn. He'll go down as an all-time CB West great. He almost pulled a Tony Dorsett on a run from their own 1 yard line after the Cipollo interception, but after cutting back on the DB that had an angle on him, they were able to track him down after a 91 yard gain. Also, Noah Miller the QB, was outstanding at CB in addition to his big rushing day, with a couple of big TFLs including flying up on a 4th and 1 bubble to hit Chase Marshall for a loss before he could even get started.
