FRANCONIA >> Souderton had a dominating performance in week four, beating Council Rock North 35-14 in a game that was never in doubt once the whistle for halftime blew.
The Souderton offense’s first drive would be a harbinger of what was to come. Souderton marched down the field never even facing a third down on their way to a one-yard touchdown by senior quarterback Jared Zimmerman. The Indian offensive line dominated the game whether providing time for their quarterback to throw or opening running lanes for their backs.
A big beneficiary of the excellent line play was senior fullback Chris Kearns, who led the rushing attack for Souderton finishing the game with 83 rushing yards and two touchdowns . Head coach Edward Gallagher raves about what he saw and has seen from his fullback.
“Chris Kearns is one of the hardest working kids, As the years have gone on he’s got better and better and better,” said Gallagher, “He doesn’t want to come off the field and he’s a beast running the ball.”
Kearns however passed on praise for his performance onto his teammates, specifically his offensive line.
“It was really just the offensive line, they were really getting a really good push,” said Kearns “they were getting to the backers, to the second level, to the third level.”
The Souderton offense was unstoppable while the game was close, dominating Council Rock North with the exact brand of football that they wanted to play.
“Our game plan was just to pound it, pound it to them, once they started playing the run, we were gonna pass it and that’s what happened,” said Kearns.
Zimmerman had an efficient day, completing 9-of-11 passes for 87 yards while converting several key third downs to extend drives.
Not to be left behind, the defense pitched a shutout with starters in the game and stymied Council Rock North. While there were drives when CRN moved the ball, they couldn’t capitalize in the first half.
One reason for the Council Rock struggles were penalties,multiple of which came on third downs allowing Souderton to stay on the field and the Indians made them pay, finishing those drives off with touchdowns.
The defense even scored a touchdown of its own on an interception returned by Caleb Hageman on a tipped pass from Julian Matera. The Indians turned in a complete performance.
“I like the way we executed in all three phases in the first half of the game. I thought our offense worked well, I thought our defense stopped them every chance they had any life, we snuffed it out pretty quickly,” said Gallagher.
Souderton was coming off a tough loss against Central Bucks East and Gallagher was happy with how his team responded this week.
“We needed to get the bad taste out of our mouth, we struggled a little bit last week with the physicality of (Central Bucks East) and our kids had a really good week of practice and came back and executed really well,” said Gallagher.
This was the first SOL Continental game of the year for the Indians and they’re looking to continue their winning ways as the season continues. They know the path to the playoffs is best traveled by conference champions.
“We’re (3-1) but we’re (1-0) in the league, our goal is to win the league championship,” said Gallagher, “If we win the league we’ll get a decent seed in the playoffs and go from there.” said Gallagher.
Souderton stays at home next week where they’ll play at 7pm against Harry S. Truman. Souderton will be looking to continue their undefeated record while playing in-conference.
