North Penn clinches SOL Continental with win over William Tennent

TOWAMENCIN >> The Knights took their first major steps towards the postseason Friday night, leaving some pretty big footprints.

K.J. Cartwright ran hard, quarterback Steve DePaul was both accurate and prolific, and Justis Henley made a one-handed touchdown grab and scored three times in all, as North Penn had the Suburban One League Continental Conference title wrapped up nice and tight, by virtue of a 56-7 victory over William Tennent at chilly Crawford Stadium.

“That’s always a great feeling. No one can take that away from us,” Henley said of the conference crown. “We came out here and we did our thing. Everybody played well.

“Our offense was great. It was clicking on all cylinders. We really mixed things up, ran the ball well, passed it well — Steve did a great job. K.J. did a great job running it.”

North Penn (7-2), No. 7 in this week’s Pa. Prep Live Top 20, won its seventh straight and completed its conference schedule a perfect 6-0.

“I always say that our first goal is to win the conference championship,” said Knights coach Dick Beck, who has now guided NP to five consecutive conference titles. “We wanna win every game but when we get into the conference schedule, we are game ready. Playing the schedule we do, especially early, really prepares our guys when we get into the conference. And it’s starting to show a little bit.”

On the fourth play of the game, DePaul threw a strike down the middle to A.J. Catanzaro, who raced away to a 37-yard score and a 7-0 Knights lead.

North Penn produced TD’s on its first six possessions, with Cartwright (107 yds) scoring on a two-yard run and Henley scoring on a 13-yard run.

Cartwright scored again — from three yards out — to make it 28-0 at the end of the first quarter. Then, Henley came up with the play of the night, making a one-handed grab on a deep ball by DePaul, catching it in stride and sprinting into the end zone for a 38-yard score and a 35-0 North Penn advantage.

“That was a little bit of luck. I just threw my hand up there and it fell into my arms,” Henley said with a smile. “That was a good pass by Steve. I just had to go get it for him.”

Henley caught three balls for 59 yards and two scores and added the 13-yard TD on the ground.

“That’s always fun when coach Beck mixes it up like that,” Henley said. “He gives me his trust to do a lot for him so I just always wanna pull through for him and my teammates.”

With five minutes to play in the half, DePaul rolled right and threw to Henley, who made the grab in the end zone for a 10-yard score, boosting the margin to 42-0 at the half and ensuring the clock would run after the break.

DePaul completed 10-of-14 passes, picking out four different targets for his 229 yards and three scores.

“Steve’s playing well but I think our weapons are also making him look good. Between K.J. running the ball out of the backfield, the o-line’s coming off the ball — we gotta keep it rolling,” Beck said.

Catanzaro caught three passes for 97 yards, including a sideline grab that set up Cartwright’s second touchdown.

Tennent (0-9, 0-5 conference) played well last week in a 35-26 loss to Pennridge, but could not get much going Friday night. Owen Verespy, Nathan Brown, Julian White and Anthony Andrews — big parts of a stingy NP defense — were all major reasons the Panthers could find little running room.

“We gotta come out here with the same mindset that we had last week against Pennridge, and we didn’t,” Tennent coach Leo Plenski said. “North Penn’s a very good team. You give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Hats off to them and ‘good luck in the playoffs.’

“We had been doing really good in our passing game the last two weeks and we knew (North Penn) would be ready for that. We just haven’t been able to establish any run game whatsoever. We just gotta keep trucking and get ready for Central Bucks South.”

Tennent did get a second-half score by Dawson Pierson (one-yard run), with North Penn getting rushing touchdowns from R.J. Macnamara (17 yds) and Ryan Feiser (two yds).

The Knights have just one game remaining (at home against Abington) before beginning their postseason push.

Said Henley: “We’re definitely starting to peak. We still have a lot of work to do. We wanna start preparing for the playoffs and we know the competition is gonna be great.”