Fumbles hurt Souderton in loss to Central Bucks South

WARRINGTON >> Matt Norris had a notion about how best to finish out his Central Bucks South football career.

“I was like, ‘Man I would love to score a touchdown in my last game,’” he said.

The all-state linebacker got his wish late in the second quarter against Souderton. With a pair of blockers and clear path in front of him, Norris took a screen pass from quarterback Carter Hallgren and danced into the end zone for a 14-yard score.

“I started high-stepping, I’m like this is awesome,” Norris said. “I’m like ‘Thank God, this is awesome.”

In a Suburban One League Continental Conference matchup of teams outside of the District 1-6A playoff conversion, it was Norris and the host Titans finishing on a high note.

South took advantage to a pair of Souderton fumbles to take a 10-0 lead then pulled away with a two touchdowns in second quarter, the Titans building a 23-7 halftime lead en route to an 30-7 victory over the Indians Friday night.

“One of these games, as people have said coming into it, seemed like neither of us had something to play for but you’re playing for pride and they wanted it more than we did. There’s no question about it,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said. “I’m sure they practice better than we did all week and they came out and they executed much better than we did and their kids, they had fire tonight and we kind of lacked the fire.”

The Indians (4-6, 3-3 conference) lost a total of four fumbles — including one on the game’s first snap — and were held to seven points for just the second time in 2018 as Souderton could not shake last week’s tough loss to Central Bucks West that effectively knocked it out of the postseason picture.

“Once the lost to West ended our legitimate chances of making the playoffs — outside of a million things happening the right way for us — it was as definitely tough for these guys to swallow,” Gallagher said. “Cause they had built themselves back from a 0-3 team and they built some pride back into themselves and the program and they wanted to finish it. When they found out they couldn’t do it last week, it took a lot out of them.”

The Indians pulled to within 10-7 with 39.9 seconds left in the first quarter on Deandre Wakefield’s 8-yard touchdown run. But South (4-6, 3-3) responded on the ensuing series with a 10-play, 80-yard drive capped by Matt Tobey’s 16-yard TD run at 8:22 in the second quarter.

The Titans added another touchdown late in the half after getting a piece of a Souderton punt from the end zone — South starting with the ball 20 yards from the goal line. Norris’ 14-yard TD catch from Hallgren with 1:16 before the break made it a 13-point South lead.

“We had a definitely deflating loss last week and we didn’t recover from it,” Gallagher said. “So there were a lot of lessons to teach. We practiced awful on Monday, we practiced awful on Tuesday, we practiced awful on Wednesday, we practiced awful on Thursday and I said guys it’s very rare to be able to flip the switch and make it happen on Friday night.”

“I kind of had the feeling this might happen. You hope that that doesn’t but you had the feeling.”

Souderton seemed poised to cut into the margin on its first possession of the second but fumbled the ball away inside the Titans 10. CB South went on to tack on another touchdown early in the fourth as it put a stop to a three-game losing streak.

“We never gave up on the season even when we started 0-3. We just never gave up hope. We just want to finish off the season strong for all these seniors,” Norris said. “This is my last football game and we had to go off with a bang. We had to get a win. So we did all we can all week. This is the hardest week of practice we’ve ever had to get to win and yeah it paid off.”

Connor DiLissio had a game-high 92 rushing yards on 19 carries while Hallgren threw three touchdown passes for the Titans, who defeated Souderton for a fourth consecutive season.

Souderton quarterback Andrew Vince was 10-of-20 passing for 168 yards, connecting with Kyle Walker six times for 90 yards.

After mirroring CB South with their own 0-3 start, the Indians proceeded to win four of their next five — the lone loss coming to undefeated North Penn 29-27 Oct. 5 — to give themselves a shot at reaching the postseason. But Big Red came into Friday 20th in the district rankings for the 16-team 6A field after letting a 21-7 halftime lead slip away in a 28-21 loss to CB West.

“That fourth week we knew that we had to start winning some games, so we just starting going harder in practice, pushing each other more, hitting the weight room more,” Walker said. “I mean, you saw the outcome and then it just led to these moments. Unfortunately we didn’t go to playoffs like we wanted to but that’s for the upperclassmen, that’s (for) seniors next year to step it up in the weight room, work harder at practice, go to playoffs.”

South used the Indians’ fumble on the first offensive play to go up 3-0 lead on Brian Madden’s 24-yard field goal at 9:26 in the first quarter.

Big Red fumbled on its next series and the Titans converted the turnover into a 10-0 lead at 5:24 when Hallgren dropped in an 8-yard touchdown pass to Brady Prezelski on 4th-and-4.

Souderton’s lone touchdown came on a 10-play, 53-yard drive which included Vince finding Walker for a 21-yard completion on 4th-and-3 from the South 46. Six plays later, Wakefield went up the middle for an eight-yard TD run.

The Titans, however, regained the two-score advantage at 8:22 in the second quarter as Tobey got outside on a run, slipped one tackle attempt, spun away from another and scored from 16 yards out.

South took a 30-7 lead nine seconds in the fourth when Shea Coffin hauled in a 21-yard touchdown pass from Hallgren.