William Tennent looking forward to SOL Continental matchup with Quakertown
For the seniors of the William Tennent football program they’ve now bought in to third new system in four years.
The Tennent football program hired its third head coach in four years, this year’s installment, former Bristol coach Leo Plenski. So far on the young season for the Panther’s Plenski’s program and philosophy seems to be baring immediate fruit.
“I’m a young guy, so I know how these guys feel,” Plenski said. “I get enough respect from these guys, they understand that part but at the end of the day we’re all out here to succeed and play our part.”
Last Friday, Tennent put a smack down Oxford Area High School with a convincing 54-14 win, pushing the Panthers record to an undefeated 3-0.
The Panthers didn’t get the start it was looking for as some sloppy play in the first half resulted in Tennent only holding a 14-8 lead at halftime.
“It was a tough bus ride, I’m not going to use that as an excuse for our slow start,” Plenski said. “We got to do a better job coaching these guys up right off the get go it’s time to play football.”
Once the offense got on track the Panthers attacked Oxford with a balanced attack as they finished the night with 431 yards of total offense, 228 on the ground and 203 through the air. The offense put up six touchdowns on the game, three on the ground and three through the air.
“I feel the more you hit your open receivers in the pass game the more that’s going to open up your run game and vice versa,” Plenski said.
The Tennent passing attack was led by quarterback Tyler Lynch who completed 13-of-21 passes for three touchdowns as he found six different Panther receivers.
“Tyler, ever since he’s taken over behind center he’s done everything we’ve asked of him,” Plenski said. “We expect Tyler to be a big part of our offense especially when we’re clicking on all cylinders because everything goes through Tyler.”
The ground game was controlled by Sean Bragen and Dan Costello who ran for 97 yards on 12 carries and 77 yards on 19 carries, respectively. Both Bragen and Costello found the end zone once.
“We look for certain things out of each one of our backs and they complement each other very well,” Plenski said. “It seems like every time Bragen touches the ball something big happens. Costello’s a work horse and [Mendez] gives us a speed burst.”
Plenski acknowledges that the 3-0 start is great but with conference play looming the schedule gets significantly harder. The Panthers first conference contest will be tough right out of the chute as it takes on the defending Suburban One League Continental Conference champion in Quakertown Friday night.
“Each kid on this football team is confident we can get this done every weekend,” Plenski said. “We’re excited for Quakertown. We know their coming in here [as the] defending champions and it was a tough game last year and we’re looking to add a little more and make this weekend even more special.
“I explained to the kids from here on out we can be 3-7, we can be 10-0, we can be half way in the middle. From here on out each week is going to be a test.”
