Quakertown dominates second half against Plymouth Whitemarsh
WHITEMARSH >> Quakertown went into halftime Friday night trailing Plymouth Whitemarsh by 20 points.
The Panthers defense couldn’t stop the Colonials wildcat offense — two touchdown runs for Dontae Wilson and one for Kirk Bell — and the Panthers offense went three-and-out on its first two possession, fumbled on its third and turned the ball over on downs on its fourth and final drive of the half.
The team was not happy during the extended halftime for PW’s Homecoming ceremonies.
“Our kids were ripping each other pretty hard and pretty tough,” Quakertown coach George Banas said of the halftime mood. “They came around together. I could hear it because I was outside the locker room and I was just letting them go. I could tell it was a positive thing — it wasn’t that they were starting to get after each other, per say, but they were emotionally charging themselves up.
“I told them, ‘Once in your life, you’ll have to do things for each other or for somebody else and put somebody else ahead of you. This is one of those opportunities when you can put the team first. You can put the players in this room first instead of yourself. You can go out there and play assignment football and be unselfish.’ That’s what they did in the second half. They played Quakertown football.”
Quakertown looked like an entirely different team after the intermission. The offense scored touchdowns on all six of its possessions and the defense only allowed one first down in a 42-23 Suburban One League American Conference win at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
“We played together as a team,” running back Michael Terra said. “Everybody just feeds off each other and I can tell you that with these guys we feed off of energy. Once you get that energy, it’s extremely hard to stop us.”
“You have to give credit to (Quakertown),” PW coach Dan Chang said. “They came at us down hill hard and we struggled on both sides of the ball coming out in the second half. That’s on me.”
The Panthers scored six rushing touchdowns — three in the third quarter and three in the fourth quarter.
Terra finished with 157 rushing yards and three touchdowns, Christian Patrick 102 yards and three touchdowns and Mike Friel 50 yards.
“Mike Friel and Christian Patrick — amazing,” Terra said. “It really gives us a good opportunity when there’s three backs that can really do some damage, because (the defense) doesn’t know where the ball’s going. Some teams don’t really have that opportunity.”
Rolling the dice
Plymouth Whitemarsh had some fun in its season finale.The Colonials came right out of the gate with an onsides kick on the game’s opening play — and Michael Iannarelli recovered.
Stephen Longo attempted three more onsides kicks and another was recovered by Wilson in the second quarter.
George Rocchino ran for 16 yards on a 4th-and-14 counter play and the team tried a fake punt early in the fourth quarter that came up short of the first down marker.
“I told these guys we’re playing with nothing to lose,” Chang said. “We wanted to give them everything we’ve got. I was really proud of how these guys came out excited and playing for each other. They played hard, as hard as they could.”
Playoff bound
Quakertown entered Friday night’s game ranked No. 11 in the District 1 Class-6A power rankings, where the top 16 teams qualify for the playoffs.
The win against Plymouth Whitemarsh secures a spot in the tournament and they will wait to see who their opponent is later this weekend.
“We’re just trying to get a higher seed, so this win definitely helped us out,” Terra said. “Hopefully we just snowball and go into the playoffs playing like we did in the second half.”
Season over
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s season came to an end at 1-8 after the Quakertown loss. The players showed their emotions and spent a little more time on the field talking with their positional groups than they normally do.
“These guys are brothers,” Chang said. “They are all part of the same family. It’s tough when it’s over. The tears are not about losing this game. It’s about this experience being over for them. I feel for the guys. They have bigger and better things. They’re always a part of our family.”
Quakertown 42, Plymouth Whitemarsh 23
Quakertown 0 0 21 21 — 42
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7 13 0 3 — 23
1st Quarter
PW – Dontae Wilson 12-yard run (Stephen Longo kick) 8:04
2nd Quarter
PW – Dontae Wilson 27-yard run (Stephen Longo kick) 6:46
PW – Kirk Bell 1-yard run (kick blocked) 1:43
3rd Quarter
Q – Michael Terra 9-yard run (Gavin Croissette kick) 7:19
Q – Michael Terra 80-yard run (Gavin Croissette kick) 4:23
Q – Christian Patrick 16-yard run (Gavin Croissette kick) :45
4th Quarter
Q – Christian Patrick 27-yard run (Gavin Croissette kick) 10:49
PW – Stephen Longo 25-yard field goal 7:36
Q – Michael Terra 10-yard run (Gavin Croissette kick) 6:23
Q – Christian Patrick 3-yard run (Gavin Croissette kick) 1:03
Individual Statistics
Passing: Q: Brad Bryan 7-12-54-0-0. PW: Larry McLaughlin 0-1-0-0-0, Stephen Maslij 3-8-40-0-1.
Rushing: Q: Michael Terra 11-157-3, Christian Patrick 10-102-3, Mike Friel 9-50-0, Brad Bryan 3-(-10)-0. PW: Kirk Bell 21-117-1, Dontae Wilson 26-83-2, Stephen Longo 1-2-0, Larry McLaughlin 2-0-0, Michael Iannarelli 1-(-14)-0, George Rocchino 1-16-0.
Receiving: Q: Tim Shevlin 2-9-0, Nick Levinski 1-9-0, Kyle Tooley 1-17-0, Christian Patrick 2-10-0, Charlie Klock 1-9-0. PW: Michael Iannarelli 3-40-0.
Interceptions: Q: Jacob Barndt.
