Quakertown goes Terra-firma to top Souderton
FRANCONIA >> Unlike most people on Friday, Quakertown senior Michael Terra was excited to see rain falling.
His arms still covered by various tapes and wraps Friday night, Terra explained that for the first time since he and his teammates put on pads, it felt like real football weather. Terra led the charge as the Panthers put together a strong second half to rally and win the 309 Bowl at Souderton.
A game-changing bounce on a pooch kick and three touchdowns from Terra helped Quakertown top the host Indians 28-14.
“I was excited when I got out here, I love playing in this type of weather, to me it’s football weather,” Terra said. “This is my favorite conditions to play in and I think a lot of the other guys enjoy it to.”
Quakertown, which improved to 2-0 with both wins coming on the road, trailed 14-7 at the break thanks to a resilient effort from Souderton. The Indians, who lost on the road at Penn Wood last week in their opener, played better in the first half but also were still bugged by the same mistakes that held them back in Week 1.
Still, the defense made some stops and the offense moved the ball well enough for quarterback Andrew Vince to score on a pair of short keepers sandwiched around a 20-yard Terra run that gave the Indians an advantage at the half. They just didn’t get much to go right for them after halftime.
“We couldn’t get a stop, we couldn’t get a first down,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said. “We’re one block away on running plays, when we throw the ball right, we drop it. We just had a lot of individual little mistakes and everything went wrong in the second half.”
Quakertown marched right down the field on the opening drive of the second half, with athletic Tyler Merwarth’s 35-yard run setting up a one-yard quarterback keeper by Brad Bryan that knotted the score. The rest of the third quarter went without incident but it didn’t take Quakertown long to impose itself in the final frame.
After a short Souderton punt ended the third, Terra ran the ball four straight times and capped the drive with a go-ahead 14-yard touchdown run. A week ago, the Panthers struggled in the second half against Central Bucks East, but seemed to get stronger as Friday night’s contest went on.
“We had a quick realization in the locker room and I think that was very big for us,” Terra said.
Quakertown opted to kick short to keep the ball away from Souderton’s speedy returners but got even more than that. Kicker Gavin Croissette hit the ball about as well as possible, keeping it just inside the sideline, then getting a sharp bounce back toward the rushing Panthers coverage team.
The closest Souderton player to the initial bounce hesitated and in the ensuing seconds of chaos, the Panthers recovered the live ball.
“They had momentum and we stressed that, because last week at Penn Wood, the same thing happened,” Gallagher said. “They started with the momentum, we shot ourselves in the foot a few more times and they just kept rolling with it.”
Terra isn’t on kickoff, but he knew how impactful of a play the kickoff recovery was.
“Oh man, it was so big,” Terra said. “They do a fabulous job every week. Gavin Croisette puts the ball in a great spot, exactly where we need him to and it gives us a chance to make plays like that every week.”
Terra would finish the ensuing drive with a 17-yard touchdown catch from Bryan that all but iced the game with 7:07 left in the fourth quarter. If his score didn’t, Merwarth’s interception that ended the next Souderton drive certainly did and the Panthers were then able to run out the clock.
Quakertown finally gets to play on its own field next week when it welcomes in CB West while Souderton travels to Hatboro-Horsham looking for its first win.
“It is hard because we did make progess,” Gallagher said. “I thought we played well in the first half and did a lot of things right that we did last week. The penalties put us in a situation where it was just 14-7 at half and I felt we could have been up more. We have to clean so many little things up, there’s no nice way of putting it. We’re a good football team but we’re also not clicking on all cylinders right now.”
QUAKERTOWN 0 7 7 14 – 28
SOUDERTON 7 7 0 0 – 14
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
S – Andrew Vince 2 run (William Leyland kick) 2:21
2nd Quarter
Q – Michael Terra 20 run (Gavin Croissette kick) 6:29
S – Vince 3 run (Leyland kick) 36.8
3rd Quarter
Q – Brad Bryan 1 run (Croissette kick) 7:19
4th Quarter
Q – Terra 14 run (Croissette kick) 10:11
Q – Bryan 17 pass to Terra (Croissette kick) 7:07
Team Stats
S Q
First downs 11 15
Rushing 27-137 48-226
Passing 7-16-0-1 9-12-1-0
Passing yards 94 131
Total Yards 231 357
Penalties 7-55 4-24
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-0
Individual stats
Rushing: S – Andrew Vince 6-(-3), Willie Goods 5-27, Daniel Pineda 10-69, DeAndre Wakefield 5-22, Nick Guthrie 1-22; Q – Michael Terra 21-78, Brad Bryan 15-74, Christian Patrick 8-30, Delbert Ross 1-3, Tyler Merwarth 3-41
Passing: S – Vince 7-16-0-1-94; Q – Bryan 9-12-1-0-131
Receiving: S – Guthrie 2-41, Kyle Walker 4-36, Bruno Stofli 1-17; Q – Merwarth 2-30, Terra 4-71, Patrick 1-5, Will Chenowerth 1-15, Nick Levinski 1-10
Interceptions: Q – Merwarth
