CB West storms back, stuns Souderton

DOYLESTOWN >> Sitting on the playoff bubble, the Souderton football team could not afford a let down on Friday night at War Memorial Stadium. The Central Bucks West squad attempted to be a thorn in the proverbial bubble, bursting any hopes and dreams of district playoffs.

The Indians jumped out to a two-score lead in the first quarter, but the Bucks were able to bounce back from that slow start. The Indians were shut out in the second half and fell 28-21 in what was a must-have contest.

“It was our offense, our defense, our special teams,” Indians coach Ed Gallagher said. “West came out and wanted to play the game in the second half more than we did.”

Even trailing, the Bucks (3-6, 2-4 SOL Continental) stuck with their game plan and methodically moved the chains against the Indians (4-5, 3-2) defense. If anything, it kept the potent Indians off the field, possibly forcing them to lose their momentum. The lanes that were open early, were closed when they needed it the most.

“I don’t think they made a lot of adjustments, we just stopped playing football,” Gallagher said. “It’s not on one person. We need to find out why we did not finish that game. We played really well the last five weeks. Credit to C.B. West because they did not quit.”

The Bucks opened up the second half with Joe Fay’s second rushing touchdown of the evening and eventually drew even with the Indians in the fourth quarter. Fay finished off the Indians with his third touchdown, a one-yard game winner. Fay was involved in a dozen tackles on defense.

“We came out with a slow start, but we bounced back,” Bucks leading rusher Garrett Hitchens said. “We hit the hole right up the middle, right down their throats. We are not only playing for ourselves, but maybe ruin someone else’s season. We have not seen that kind of win in a while.”

The other head of the monster, Hitchens went in from nine yards out with just under seven minutes remaining to even the score. Fay had 43 yards in the win, but Hitchens had 109 yards in the spoiling of Souderton.

“They just punched us in the mouth,” Gallagher said. “They took it right to us, right down the field several times and we could not stop them. They did a nice job running the ball off tackle.”

The Indians big plays came from Deandre Wakefield in the first half. After a 38-yard run to open the scoring, the Indians were feeling good about their chances to knock off the Bucks, who are out of the playoff picture. Wakefield also brought in a 31-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Vince.

“Deandre is a really good runner and we were not able to create lanes for him in the second half,” Gallagher said. “A lot of things did not go our way. We have to get back on the horse and go after C.B. South next week.”

The Bucks were moving the chains all night and collected 25 first downs on the evening. It was two turnovers in the first half that had the Indians sitting pretty in the halftime locker room. Trey Samuels was able to scoop and score for a 38 yard fumble recovery defensive touchdown. But maybe it was a false sense of security that lulled the Indians into looking toward Central Bucks South in the regular season finale, before closing out the Bucks.

“I have to look at what we do at halftime to get our guys ready,” Gallagher said. “There is no reason that should happen. We did not play well enough in the second half. Shame on us for not wanting it as much as them.”

CB West 28, Souderton 21
Souderton 14 7 0 0 – 21
C.B. West 0 7 7 14 – 28
First Quarter
SD – Deandre Wakefield 38 yard run (Leyland kick)
SD – Trey Samuels 49 yard fumble recovery (Will Leyland kick)
Second Quarter
CBW – Joe Fay two yard run (Connor Garrison kick)
SD – Andrew Vince 31 yard pass to DeAndre Wakefield (Leyland kick)
Third quarter
CBW – Fay five yard run (Garrison kick)
Fourth quarter
CBW – Garrett Hitchens nine yard run (Garrison kick)
CBW – Fay one yard run (Garrison kick)
SD CBW
First downs 10 25
Rushing yards 69 210
Passing yards 133 137
Total yards 202 347
Punts-avg. 2-27 1-58
Fumbles-lost 3-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 5-50 4-35
RUSHING
Souderton – Walker 1-3; Mokluk 2-7; Smerecki 1-(-2); Goods 2-6; Wakefield 9-62, TD; White 1-4; Vince 2-(-11);
Central Bucks West – Hitchens 19-109, TD; Neri 14-38; Jones 1-3; Levant 1-(-3); Fallon 3-13; Fay 11-43, 3 TDs; Grandahl 1-7;
PASSING
Souderton – Vince 10-15-1 – 133, TD
Central Bucks West – Neri 5-6-1 – 105; Grondahl 3-5-0 32;
RECEIVING
Souderton – Wakefield 1-31, TD; Walker 5-45; Samuels 3-33; Guthrie 1-14;
Central Bucks West – Fallon 4-93; Ojert 2-24; Fay 1-(-2); Shields 1-12
INTERCEPTIONS
Souderton – Walker
Central Bucks West – Fallon