Rowan wins CB West coaching debut as Bucks shut out Hatboro-Horsham

DOYLESTOWN >> In his first career game as head coach, Rob Rowan earned his first win at Central Bucks West as the Bucks cruised to a 21-0 season opening win against the visiting Hatboro-Horsham Hatters Friday night.

“It’s a great feeling and a special thing to get the first win in the opener,” said Rowan. “But it really comes down to the guys we have and they battled all night against a very good Hatboro-Horsham team.

“Of course they have a really good team over there,” added Rowan. “But our guys stayed on course and we talked about finding a way to win and we did that tonight.”

The Bucks scored one touchdown in each of the first three quarters before the scoreless fourth quarter to seal the win.

Quarterback Gavin Grondahl put the Bucks on the board first with a last minute three-yard touchdown pass to Jack Fallon to go up 7-0 after the first quarter.

The Bucks scored late in the second quarter thanks to a 31-yard touchdown pass to tight end Luke Benson from Jack Neri to go up 14-0 at halftime.

Benson, who is going to play football at NCAA Division I Syracuse next season, has high hopes for him and his team this year.

“Everybody’s goal is to get to Hershey for the State Championship,” said Benson. “We set that goal since coach Rowan came in, but that’s a long ways away and we hope to go 1-0 every week by taking one game at a time.

“I was happy with today’s game,” added Benson. “The Hatters were keying on me today a little bit but we made the adjustments and it was a total team effort.”

Fallon scored his second touchdown on a two-yard run in the third quarter to get the 21-0 lead.

Before the touchdown play, Fallon set it up with a 42-yard pass from Grondahl.

“We are just having a blast out here,” said Fallon. “I had a great time with my teammates on that drive in the third quarter.”

We are feeding off the hype,” added Fallon. “And after this win, we are going to go for 1-0 every week and keep having fun.”

The CB West defense also had a spectacular game giving up only 91 rushing yards and two completed passes in the shutout victory.

Hatboro-Horsham head coach Mike Kapusta was not too upset with his team’s efforts in the season opener.

“I thought our kids played pretty hard tonight,” said Kapusta. “Defensively they played hard but they had some breakdowns and that really hurt us.”

“We couldn’t get the momentum going our way,” added Kapusta. “Anytime we seemed to be doing good offensively, a penalty or a turnover tripped us up so we need to work on that.”

Hatboro-Horsham looks to rebound from the shutout on Saturday, Sept. 1 when it travels to Central Bucks East for an 11 a.m. kickoff.

Central Bucks West will stay home and look for a 2-0 start on Friday against Council Rock South. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

CB West 21, Hatboro-Horsham 0

HH    0 0 0 0 -0

CBW 7 7 7 0 -21

CBW- Fallon 3-yard pass from Grondahl (Garrison kick)

CBW- Benson 31-yard pass from Neri (Garrison kick)

CBW- Fallon 2-yard rush (Garrison kick)

CBW HH

First Downs 7 6

Rushing yards 48 91

Passing yards 158 21

Total yards 206 112

Passing 8-15 2-8

Penalties 6-40 8-60

Fumbles lost 0 1

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – CB West: Fallon 4-16, 1 TD; Neri 7-13; Fay 6-14; Hitchens 4-5; Grondahl 1-1; Laatsch 1-0; Levant 1-(-1). Hatboro-Horsham: J. Colazzo 8-60; I. Colazzo 10-26; Crothamel 6-24; Bookard 4-19.

PASSING – CB West: Grondahl 5-9, 93 yds, 1 TD; Neri 3-5 65 yds, 1 TD. Hatboro Horsham: Crothamel 2-5, 21 yds; Cameron 0-3.

RECEIVING – CB West: Fallon 4-61, 1 TD; Benson 2-56, 1 TD; Hitchens 1-23; Levant 1-18. Hatboro-Horsham: Logan 1-23; Bookard 1-(-2).