Pennsbury pounds Abington early and often

FAIRLESS HILLS – You can sort of excuse the top-ranked Pennsbury High football team for taking a third-quarter siesta in its 52-21 win over Abington Monday night (Oct. 5) at Falcon Field.

Between knowing it could run through the Ghosts at will and an incompetent flag-happy officiating crew, this was simply a tough game to watch.

Just ask the fans, who cleared out en masse before it was over in one of the longest games in the history of Pennsbury football. Heck, even the bands had enough and weren’t to be seen in the second half.

What many people missed were two Abington touchdown passes from David Kretschman to George Reid in the second half that actually made it somewhat of a game as the Ghosts closed to within 36-21.

It was here where the Falcons regained their focus and roared down the field to score on a 7-yard run by Rob Daly. Pennsbury quarterback Mike Alley then later scored on a 9-yard keeper before both teams cleared the bench and the refs more or less finally kept the laundry in their pockets.

With the victory, the Falcons improved to 4-1 heading into a Friday night game at Bensalem. Normally a force in the Suburban One National Leuage, Abington is now a dismal 0-5.

It was vintage Pennsbury football at the start as they scored 24 points in the first quarter, starting with a 4-yard run by rugged fullback Chris Rupprecht.

From there, Falcons halfback Daulton Hose exploded through the Abington defense for a 29-yard touchdown run and Alley scored on a 1-yard run.

The Ghosts finally got on the board when Reid returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. This TD was almost comical because in a first half in which the refs threw a penalty flag on nearly every other play, Reid’s TD was set up a blatant clip right in front of an official’s view.

Suffice it to say the referee was probably the only one in the stadium who didn’t see the obvious penalty.

Abington’s touchdown was followed by two more TD runs by the weaving Hose, including a beautiful 21-yard effort in which he dove towards the end zone and just extented the ball over the goal line.

In addition to his three touchdowns, Hose led the Pennsbury Ground and Pound game with 173 yards on 15 carries. Rupprecht wasn’t far behind with 142 yards on 11 carries and Daly carried the ball five times for 72 yards.

After throwing three touchdown passes the previous week, this time, the Falcons completed just one of two passes for one yard. After often experiencing problems kicking extra points in their first four games, Pennsbury also elected to go for the two-point conversion all evening. They were successful on five of their seven attempts.

NEXT: Pennsbury travels to Bensalem and Abington (0-5) hosts Pennridge in a pair of Suburban One League National Conference matchups at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9. The Rams (3-2) are coming off a big win over Neshaminy (3-2) and winless Bensalem (0-5) was crushed by Souderton (3-2).

Contact the author at rfortenbaugh@trentonian.com, or @RickFort7 on Twitter

Pennsbury 52, Abington 21

(Oct. 5 at Pennsbury)

Abington (0-5) 0 7 7 7 – 21

Pennsbury (4-1) 24 12 0 16 – 52

P — Rupprecht 4 run (Alley run)

P — Hose 29 run (Rupprecht run)

P — Alley 1 run (Alley run)

A — Reid 60 punt return (kick good)

P — Hose 1 run (run failed)

P — Hose 21 run (pass failed)

A — Reid 27 pass from Kretschman (kick good)

A — Reid 30 pass from Kretschman (kick good)

P — Daly 7 run (Daly run)

P — Alley 9 run (Daly run)

TEAM STATS

A             P

First Downs        13           14

Yards Rushing    87           476

Yards Passing     223         1

Total Offense    310         477

Comp. Passes, Int.            13-2       1-0

Fumbles-lost      0-0          1-0

Penalties-yards 13-100   13-125

Punts-Avg.          3-30       2-33.5

Sacked-Yds. Lost              1-4          0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Abington

RUSHING: Davis-McNeil 9-11; Kretschman 9-44; Brooks 6-7; Williams 1-0; Pitts 4-26

PASSING: Kretschman 13-28 223 yards, 2 TDs, 1 Int.; Pitts 0-1, 1 Int.

RECEIVING: Webb 3-16; Davis-McNeil 1-7; Reid 7-175, 3 TDs; Greene 2-7

Pennsbury

RUSHING: Hose 13-164, 3 TDs; Rupprecht 10-134, TD; Alley 7-26, 2 TDs; Daly 7-82, TD; Bost 2-14; Meglen 4-23; Burch 3-28; Demarchis 1-5

PASSING: Alley 1-2 1 yard, 0 TD, 0 Int; Demarchis 0-1

RECEIVING: Rupprecht 1-1 yard

INTERCEPTIONS: Daly, Lewis