Lightning cancels Penn Wood, C.R. North’s bids for points
YEADON >> The only huddle that mattered at Kerr Field Friday night was the one that lasted for several minutes behind the stands at halftime.
It included Penn Wood coach Ato Troop and athletic director Rap Curry, Council Rock North coach Adam Collachi, a representative of the Council Rock athletic department and four game officials.
Every other game in Delaware County had already been suspended or postponed because of lightning and enough rain to have some Delaware County residents measuring wood to build an ark. The debate wasn’t whether or not the game would be suspended with Penn Wood up 8-0 at halftime, but rather if the game would be continued Saturday, or at another date, or not at all.
The ultimate decision was a net negative for both teams, but likely more adverse for Penn Wood. Both teams agreed to petition the PIAA to consider the game a “no contest.”
This is disappointing for Penn Wood because, as a Class 5A school, a win over Class 6A C.R. North would have resulted in 160 points in the playoff point system. In addition, the Patriots would have gotten 10 bonus points for each Council Rock North win. The Indians lose out on bonus points for each of Penn Wood’s wins, as well.
A no-contest eliminates the possibility for the Patriots to accrue any points. And while come playoff time, the points will be averaged based on the number of games played rather than raw total, this non-game could mark a significant difference in playoff seeding for Penn Wood.
“A lot of it ended up being because of our distance,” said Curry, referring to the schools being roughly an hour’s drive apart. “It would be really difficult for them to come back here tomorrow and for us to get officials for tomorrow since a lot of these guys already have games assigned.”
Curry added that playing Sunday or Monday also didn’t make sense for a “variety of reasons,” one of which was the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
In the huddle, the Council Rock representatives were pretty adamant about the game being a considered a “no contest.”
But, why? There is no negative to losing a game to a school with a lower classification, and there are bonus points that could have still been gained.
The only thing that might make sense as to why the Indians would just want to get on the bus and head back up I-95 is that it buys them time to get more wins in a fewer number of games, improving their chances to qualify for the more daunting Class 6A playoffs.
Of course, the PIAA has to agree to declare the game a “no contest,” for it to not count.
“The way I interpret the rules, the PIAA will have the final say, but since both schools agreed to recommend it be considered a ‘no contest,’ I don’t expect it to be a problem,” Curry said.
The two schools also cancelled a junior varsity game Saturday. Curry said it was because of field conditions and the potential for continued bad weather, but it would be hard to convince the PIAA to declare the game a “no contest” if they could have finished just before or after the JV game.
Curry wasn’t worried about the potential loss of points for Penn Wood. It could have been the Patriots’ third consecutive win over a 6A school to start the season following victories over Souderton and Pennsbury.
“The point system thing is what makes this so hard, especially with them being a 6A school,” Curry said. “But I don’t think it’ll have too big of an impact on us. They’ll just divide our total by nine instead of 10.”
Curry could have put up a fight for the Patriots. After all, the team was in a good position with an eight-point lead and a speedy defense able to close holes quickly to take away the Indians’ Wing-T offense.
But it appeared Penn Wood and Council Rock North were never going to be on the same page once lightning danced across the Yeadon sky.
“I could say that I did not agree to the cancellation of the game, but then they could say, ‘Well then we want to wait the game out,’” Curry said. “Then we’d have been out here for another hour waiting to re-start the game without any guarantee there would be a resolution tonight. That’s not good for the kids playing in the game, and we want to be fair to everybody.”
Before the game was cancelled, Penn Wood limited Council Rock North to 105 yards on 30 plays. The Patriots only had two offensive possessions and scored the lone touchdown when Elijah Gleplay scampered into the end zone from 24 yards out. Gleplay had seven rushes for 87 yards on the drive. Desman Johnson Jr. hit Kennedy Poles with a pass on the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.
However, these scoring plays, and all other stats in a possible win, were washed away.
