CB West outlasts Pennridge in District 1-6A first-round nail-biter

DOYLESTOWN>> Central Bucks West had one play to gain one yard and win the game.

It was a reverse of where the Bucks found themselves five weeks prior, needing one stop to win their regular season meeting with Pennridge. This time, it was the right to continue on in the District 1 6A playoffs at stake and instead of having to stop the Rams, the Bucks were the side trying to move the sticks.

West got the yard and the game on a keeper by Ganz Cooper, as the No. 8 Bucks outlasted a late push by the No. 9 Rams 19-17 at War Memorial Field in the first round of the district playoffs.

“That’s the call we want to hear,” West senior lineman Quin Whalen said. “We don’t want to hear anything else, we want the call to pound it down their throats.”

Whalen and his fellow linemen got a lot of those calls on Friday night as the Bucks (9-2) used their patented running game to control the clock and keep Pennridge’s offense locked on its sideline. The Bucks ran 57 plays to just 27 for Pennridge and West sophomore Eli Boehm, who was electric rushing for 132 yards, nearly had as many touches of his own (25) as the Rams did as a team.

Despite the limited run time the offense was able to sustain, the Rams defense did play stout by shutting out the hosts in the first quarter and holding the Bucks to a pair of field goals on second half drives to keep the score from ballooning. Pennridge coach Cody Muller lamented an inability to get a few more third down stops but felt his team gave its all on the field.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach (Rob) Rowan and his program and we knew it would be a slugfest,” Muller said. “We knew it would be a tight game. They made a few more plays than we did and got it done at the end there. I couldn’t be more proud of our kids, they did what we asked them to do.”

Pennridge (7-4) scored first, getting a 29-yard field goal from Sean Curry on the first play of the second quarter. After exchanging punts, the Bucks offense got on track by giving the ball to Boehm and letting him follow the blockers. The sophomore, who ran 24 times and caught one pass, had a slow start accumulating just 19 yards on his first seven totes.

Boehm didn’t have a big run, with his longest going for 16 yards, but he just kept churning his legs and picking up yards. He had runs of 13 and 16 yards on the team’s final drive of the first half, setting the Bucks in prime real estate for their suddenly hot quarterback-receiver combo of Cooper and Conor McFadden.

Cooper, also a sophomore, was in on both of West’s touchdowns Friday and gave his team the lead for good when he hit Cooper on a slant for a seven-yard TD with 1:13 left in the second quarter.

“Conor’s just fast, there’s no other kid like him. We played CYO ball together, so we have that connection,” Cooper said. “I see one-on-one and with Conor’s speed, he’s going to get off the ball on the slant so I know it’s there.”

The Bucks defense also came to play. Sean Blue had an interception to end Pennridge’s opening drive and the West defenders flew to the ball like usual with plenty of the frequent names like Cooper Taylor, Trot Lare and Casey Smith clambering out of piles as the first one in on the hit.

Smith, a senior who is also a tough blocker at tight end, championed the entire defensive unit’s showing on the field.

“We communicate before and after every play, we see what we’re doing right and doing wrong then adjust from there,” Smith, who had a first half sack, said. “It has to be 11 hats to the football every time. It can’t be one guy, you get in there as a group and gang-tackle.”

West got a pair of field goals from Ryan Horst, a 33-yarder in the third and a 27-yard hit on the first play of the fourth, to take a 13-3 lead and had seemingly sucked all the energy from the visiting sideline. With their offense sputtering and the defense battling but certainly tired from the long drives the Bucks had, the Rams needed something to get them going.

They got it thanks to Brennan Fisher. The running back, who like most of his teammates had been bottled up all night, erupted through the middle for a 56-yard touchdown run that turned a gloomy Pennridge side back to fully invested and ignited a compelling finish to the night.

“Fisher’s been doing it week in and week out, I’m proud of him and the line blocking up front,” Muller said. “Our defense has done a great job all season. There’s a couple plays here and there we can’t get off the field on first down and it does turn costly, but they’ve led us in many games and we couldn’t ask them to do more.”

West knew it had to answer.

Taking over with 10:25 on the clock, the Bucks methodically trotted down the field rotating carries between Dante Mancini, Vinny Cherubini, Boehm and Cooper. Cherubini had a key play on the drive, taking a toss for seven yards on 4th-and-1 at the Rams 40 to move the chains before the drive ended with Cooper powering in from a couple inches out to make it 19-10 after a missed extra point with 3:53 to play.

“You just wait for your name to be called,” Cooper said. “It’s not always going to be called and that’s OK, but when it does, you have to be ready.”

Pennridge came right back, aided by a couple of pass interference calls that went against CB West and scored when Fisher ran in from seven yards out. The game would come down to a couple of pivotal plays.

The Rams naturally went for the onside kick, which took one bounce before it was covered by Mancini. A couple snaps later and with Pennridge out of timeouts, all the hosts had to do was pick up one more yard to gain another first down and advance.

There were plenty of options to give the ball to. It ended up being Cooper, who got three when he needed one thanks to one last giant push from the guys up front.

“We stay low, drive our legs and pound away at people,” Whalen said. “It’s just what we do.”

West will travel to face No. 1 Garnet Valley next week in the quarterfinals. Pennridge’s playoff push is over, but Muller ended his talk with his team by saying “one more,” referring to the annual Thanksgiving morning showdown with Quakertown.

CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 7 3 9 – 19

PENNRIDGE 0 3 0 14 – 17

Scoring Plays

2nd Quarter

P – Sean Curry 29 field goal 11:56

CBW – Ganz Cooper 7 pass to Conor McFadden (Ryan Horst kick) 1:13

3rd Quarter

CBW – Ryan Horst 33 field goal 6:57

4th Quarter

CBW – Horst 29 field goal 11:56

P – Brennan Fisher 56 run (Curry kick) 10:29

CBW – Cooper 1 run (kick miss) 3:53

P – Fisher 7 run (Curry kick) 2:13

Team Stats

CBW P

First Downs 18 7

Rushes-Yards 52-230 19-169

Passing 3-5-1-0 2-8-0-1

Passing Yards 51 19

Total Yards 281 188

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 4-31 5-47

Individual Stats

Rushing: CBW – Eli Boehm 24-132, Dante Mancini 11-50, Vinny Cherubini 10-43, Ganz Cooper 6-10, Conor McFadden 1-(-5); P – Tyler Wetzel 5-36, Logan McGowan 3-(-6), Brennan Fisher 5-77, Brayden Landherr 3-42, Adam Mossbrook 1-(-3), Phil Picciotti 2-23

Passing: CBW – Cooper 3-5-1-0-51; P – McGowan 2-8-0-1

Receiving: CBW – Boehm 1-1, McFadden 2-43; P – Wetzel 1-10, Jake Holt 1-9

Interceptions: CBW – Sean Blue