Pennridge survives William Tennent for 3rd straight win

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WARMINSTER >> William Tennent is mired in a losing streak that began in 2015, but the Panthers just keep on fighting.

“You’re not going to get us to roll over, we’re going to try. We’re going to try to break this thing,” Tennent coach Leo Plenski said. “We know what league we’re in, we know who we play, but that doesn’t bother us, we’re going to come to play.”

By the third quarter, Pennridge found it was not going to shake the Panthers. And when Tennent quarterback Mitchell Vierling found Jake Herbert for an 11-yard touchdown with 7:04 in the period to even the Suburban One League Continental Conference football contest at 20, it wasn’t odd to think that on Friday the 13th, the Panthers had a chance to end its long stretch of bad luck.

“We definitely came in overconfident. Came out flat,” Rams junior running back Ryan Garner said. “I don’t know, we came out flat, we just weren’t ready to play today.”

But execution on two-point conversions on both sides of the ball allowed Pennridge to escape Alumni Stadium with a 35-26 victory — the Rams’ third straight win that also extend Tennent’s winless stretch to 25 games.

“My message to them was we need to be 1-0 this week, meaning we’re not looking at anything else, we’re not thinking about anything beyond William Tennent,” Pennridge coach Jeff Hollenbach. So that was our message all week. Now, what you say to a teenager and what they believe or bye into can be two different things something. It’s hard to explain that.

“But I do want to credit Tennent, they played really well. They had a nice game plan offensively and defensively. They made some unbelievable catches. They got some athletes at wide receiver. It’s a little hard for me to believe they haven’t won a football game.”

The Panthers tied the contest twice after halftime, but Pennridge (6-2, 3-1 conference) took the lead for good when quarterback Zak Kantor rolled left then found Garner on the right side for a 45-yard touchdown with 4:30 left in the third.

“I fake that handoff and I was just running down the right side. No one saw me so I was left wide open,” Garner said.

After Tennent (0-8, 0-4) was called for offsides on the extra point, the Rams opted to go for two and Kyle Schetter bulled over the goal line for a 28-26 lead.

In the fourth, Vierling hit a streaking Eddie North down the middle for a 53-yard TD with 8:31 remaining. Tennent went for two and the tie, but pressure from Nick Tarburton forced an incompletion.

“It was kind of a broken play,” Vierling said. “I saw my receiver (Dan) Goodz at the end but I got hit by Tarburton as a threw it and it came short.”

Pennridge proceeded to make it a two-possession game when Schetter capped a seven-play, 71-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run with 6:03 left.

Tennent got to the Rams 29 but the series was derailed by a intentional grounding penalty. The Panthers turned the ball over on down at 4:32 and the Rams ran out the clock.

“We finally played together as a team, we showed heart the whole game,” Vierling said. “We had them the whole game, we just couldn’t finish at the end,”

Vierling got off throws before the aggressive Pennridge defense could get to him most of the night, the WT senior quarterback completing 21-of-39 passes for 353 yards — 216 in the second half — and four touchdowns, the first three going to Herbert.

“We knew they were going to load the box and blitz. They got that All-American linebacker (Tarburton) and they love bringing pressure,” Plenski said. “We were either going get it out fast are we were going to take shots deep downfield. We saw on film the last couple of weeks they were getting beat and then we did that. Our receivers came to play today.”

North caught seven pass for 152 yards while Herbert had five receptions for 92 yards.

“We finally got that connection down,” Vierling said. “These last two games, they’re going to be something special.”

William Tennent visits North Penn next week while Pennridge continues its District 1-6A playoff push — going into Friday, the Rams were seventh in the district rankings —   with a home game against Central Bucks South.

Kantor threw three touchdowns passes for the second straight game, the Rams junior QB finishing 10-of-16 for 221 yards and an interception. Schetter collected 81 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries while Garner ran 14 times for 71 yards and had two catches for 43 yards and a score.

“Offensively, we made some adjustments at halftime. Fixed that,” Garner said. “We were able to run the ball much better the second half I felt like. O-line did great tonight.”

Pennridge lead 13-6 at halftime but had two drives inside Tennent’s half of the field during the first quarter which ended with a turnover on downs. Also, Josh Pinkney came close to scoring off a Kantor pass as time expired in the first half, but North tackled him a few yards short of the end zone.

Tennent drove 73 yards on the first series of the third quarter — 42 yards courtesy of Pennridge penalties — to make it 13-13 when Herbert scored on a 13-yard TD pass from Vierling at 10:13.

The Rams went back up 20-13 on Schetter’s seven-yard TD run at 7:04, but Herbert’s leaping, one-handed snag in the end zone for an 11-yard score made it 20-20 at 7:04 in the third.

“We were trying to stunt and trying to get to the quarterback and they were just getting rid of the ball quick,” Hollenbach said. “And they had some bubble plays, they hurt on some nine patterns, some deeper patterns also. I told the quarterback I just really impressed with him cause he just stood in the pocket and made some throws. Number seven (North) made some plays, 21 (Sean Bragen) is a heck of a runner. I’m really impressed with their skill.”

William Tennent missed a 46-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter before pulled within two in the fourth on the Vierling-to-North 53 yard TD.

In the first quarter, Kantor’s 46-yard touchdown pass to Joe Devine put the Rams up 7-0 at 5:59. It became a 13-0 advantage at 9:19 in the second when Tucker Chaikin hauled in a 32-yard TD pass.

William Tennent got on the scoreboard the next series as Vierling’s first touchdown pass to Herbert came from 21 yards out with 6:22 left in the half.

Mike Cabrey

Mike Cabrey
Mike Cabrey is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Reporter and Montgomery News. Email him at mcabrey@thereporteronline.com.

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