Kantor and Post’s cheat code leads Pennridge over William Tennent
EAST ROCKHILL >> Zak Kantor sometimes thinks throwing to Jon Post is like a cheat code.
Post, the senior receiver for Pennridge, has thrived in his return to football after taking his junior year off from the spot to focus solely on basketball. Friday, Kantor and Post put on a show for their Senior Night, connecting three times for touchdowns that took full advantage of the cheat code.
In the end, the Rams rolled visiting William Tenennt 55-20 in a dragged-out slugfest.
“It definitely helps,” Kantor said. “He’s a great target to have on the outside, he’s a big mismatch and some of the kids like to say it’s a cheat code. He’s a great athlete and has such great size.”
The Rams (4-4, 3-2 SOL Continental) felt like they would be able to throw the ball on Friday based on what they saw on film and defensively, they wanted the Panthers to go to the air often. Pennridge succeeded on both counts, sacking Tennent quarterback Kip Mooney six times and picking him off once while targeting Tennent’s cover-three defense on offense.
Post said he’s been seeing an increase in double-teams and safety help over the top after a breakout game in the Pennridge season-opener. The Panthers (2-6, 0-4), who have been beset by injuries the last month, simply didn’t have the personnel to do the same kind of thing and it led to Post reeling in six passes for 133 yards.
“The past few weeks that didn’t show they were double-teaming me actually were, so it’s hard to game plan for that, but I saw we had the opportunity when they were just playing one guy over the top and we took advantage of it,” Post said.
The first quarter felt like an entire game’s worth of action. Pennridge scored on its first two drives, a 10-yard rush by Kantor and the first of Post’s three scores but Tennent recovered enough to tie the game on two big passing plays.
Mooney found Derrik Cosenza for a 19-yard TD on the first score, then the Panthers broke out a gadget play, with Mooney firing to Jason Schweizerhof in the flat, who then threw a 58-yard touchdown to Danny Goodz.
“It was a trick play and we expected something like that but remained ready to go,” Post said. “We looked at the score 14-14 the same as 0-0 so we were ready to go again. Once we had the next touchdown, the energy came and we just took off.”
Shane Hartzell scored a pair of short rushing touchdowns to restore the Rams’ lead, then Cooper Chaikin had a 42-yard pick-six to put the Rams up 34-14. After all of that, the first quarter still wasn’t over but neither team would score again in the first half.
Pennridge’s defense stuffed Tennent at the goal line to end the first half, a few plays after Goodz was injured on a long reception. It was the latest in a long string of injuries that left Tennent coach Rich Clemens very frustrated after the game.
This season, Clemens and his staff helped Tennent snap a long losing streak and even despite their injuries and thin roster, the players are still giving the coaches everything they can.
“I love all of my guys and each one of them played as hard as possible,” Clemens said. “I do not want to take anything away from Pennridge, they’re a class organization, a class coaching staff and a class team.”
Post and Kantor went back to work in the third quarter. Kantor found Post for a 24-yard gain, with a 15-yard penalty tacked on the end before the senior quarterback went back to the senior receiver for a 26-yard touchdown that put all of Post’s mismatch ability on display.
The duo matched up one more time, with Kantor throwing up a 10-yard jump ball that Post caught to put the Rams up 48-14.
“As an offense and as a team overall, we were confident in our ability and what we could do,” Kantor said. “Overall, we worked on the things we had to fix, the mistakes we were making and went from there. We’ve really found a good team chemistry.”
Post also added a sack on defense to his line for the night.
With two weeks left in the season, the Rams know what the task in front of them is. The window into the District I playoffs is still open to them, but they have to win out to stay in the conversation.
Both Kantor and Post said that their focus is only on the present.
“Our goal every week is to go 5-0 in practice, meaning we win every practice,” Post said. “Then on gameday, we want to be 4-0, where we win every quarter. With that mentality, we make sure all our guys are on top of everything and we’re ready to go at all times.”
