Pennridge shuts out Council Rock North in final tune-up
EAST ROCKHILL >> Pennridge knows its biggest games of the season are coming up next week against North Penn, the following week against Central Bucks West and two weeks later against Central Bucks East.
Before the Rams could worry about their Suburban One League National Conference rivals, they needed to take care of Council Rock North and that’s exactly what they did, dominating in all facets of the game and earning a 35-0 win Friday night at Helman Field.
Pennridge (3-1) received the opening kickoff and immediately put together a touchdown drive. The 10-play possession took 3:14 and covered 57 yards. Tyler Wetzel got the scoring started with a three-yard run into the end zone.
“We haven’t started fast in any of our games we’ve played except for this one,” Pennridge head coach Cody Muller said. “I’m pretty sure that was the first time on the first series we actually scored. We needed that. We needed a taste of that. We’ve got to continue to start faster.”
“Now we can finally get it started, get it rolling,” Pennridge’s Phil Picciotti said. “Maybe we can continue that next week. We have to continue that next week so we’ll have a good game.”
The Rams defense forced two three-and-outs sandwiched around their offense failing to convert a 4th-and-1 before putting together another scoring drive. Brayden Landherr finished the seven-play, 60-yard march with a seven-yard score, giving the Rams a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Pennridge added one touchdown in each of the final three quarters. Brennan Fisher scored from 35 yards out in the second and 22 yards out in the fourth while Logan McGowan powered through the middle for a four-yard touchdown in the third.
Fisher led a balanced rushing attack with 96 yards and two scores on seven carries. As a team, the Rams ran 50 times for 353 yards and five touchdowns.
“We ran the ball up the middle the whole time,” Picciotti, who ran for 36 yards, said. “That worked and then we started running outside and that worked. Pretty much everything worked.
“That’s what we do. We run the ball. We run it down your throat.”
Pennridge’s defense was just as dominant as the offense. The starters played for three quarters and they held Council Rock North (1-3) 59 total yards through 36 minutes.
“We just played hard,” Muller said. “We mixed a couple things up here and there, but the kids played hard. A lot of credit to our defensive staff putting together a great gameplan, but a lot of credit to the kids. They executed when they got out there.”
“We watched film all week and we saw that they ran the ball up the middle all the time,” Picciotti said. “We stopped that and they couldn’t do anything other than that. They tried to pass and we blocked that up, too.”
Picciotti was at the center of the defensive effort. The linebacker recorded a handful of tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Ryan Kirkwood and Hunter Burdick also made key plays that pushed CR North backwards while Vincent Dam broke up a pass and Stephen Reutlinger recovered a fumble.
“Phil’s a great football player,” Muller said. “He does a lot of good things. I think guys around him are doing their jobs and he’s making the plays, doing his job. That’s all it is at the end of the day – team football.”
One place Muller would like to see improvement is in the penalty department. The Rams were whistled for 13 penalties for 115 yards in the game. CR North’s first two first downs of the game – coming on back-to-back plays with less than five minutes remaining in the first half – were picked up by Pennridge penalties.
“I talked to the kids and I said that’s totally unacceptable,” Muller said. “That’s not Pennridge. That’s not who we are. We’ll be cleaning that up Monday – I guarantee that.”
The Rams travel to North Penn Friday night for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
“It’s the next game,” Muller said. “Next opponent. We’re back to 0-0 and our goal is to get to 1-0.”
Pennridge 35,
Council Rock North 0
Council Rock North 0 0 0 0 – 0
Pennridge 14 7 7 7 — 35
Scoring
First Quarter
PR – Tyler Wetzel 3-yard run (Sean Curry kick) 8:46
PR – Brayden Landherr 7-yard run (Sean Curry kick) 0:40
Second Quarter
PR – Brennan Fisher 35-yard run (Sean Curry) 7:09
Third Quarter
PR – Logan McGowan 4-yard run (Sean Curry kick) 3:47
Fourth Quarter
PR – Brennan Fisher 22-yard run (Sean Curry kick) 11:50
TEAM STATISTICS
CR PR
First downs 11 22
Rushes-Yards 35-74 50-353
Passing yards 51 3
Total yards 125 356
Passing 4-6-0 2-6-0
Punts 4 0
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-Yards 7-30 13-115
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
CR: Will Scibona 7-11; Gavin Papp 22-74; Jackson Farley 5-(-22); Seunghyeon Kim 1-10.
PR: Nate Mossbrook 7-40; Phil Picciotti 6-36; Xavier Dantzler 4-36; Brennan Fisher 7-96, 2 TD; Tyler Wetzel 9-59, TD; Brayden Landherr 5-31, TD; Logan McGowan 5-26, TD; Trevor Fuhs 1-9; Jack Leuthe 1-0; Jack Walker 3-20; Luke Mastrogiovanni 2-0.
PASSING
CR: Jackson Farley 4-6-51-0-0.
PR: Xavier Dantzler 2-5-3-0-0; Logan McGowan 0-1-0-0-0.
RECEIVING
CR: Will Scibona 2-27; Avi Patel 2-24.
PR: Nick Swanson 1-0; Tyler Wetzel 1-3.
