To Run in the November 12th Bucks County Herald
Wil Rittenhouse caught three touchdown passes Friday night in Perkasie as #14 North Penn defeated #3 Pennridge (9-2) 38-21 in the opening round of District One 6A playoffs. Knight quarterback London Evans completed 9 of 12 passes for 250 yards.
North Penn “had their two linemen back and they played really physically,” commended Pennridge coach Kyle Beller. “I thought they did a really nice job controlling the game there and credit to them. And we had trouble on the deep ball.”
North Penn drove to the Ram-12 on the opening series but Marquan Walker forced a fumble that the Knights recovered for a four-yard loss. North Penn had to settle for a 33-yard field goal.
After Pennridge punted came one of the wildest sequences of the year. Evans threw a 54-yard bomb to Duke Horgan, who was tackled at the Ram one. Jamison Dulin stuffed Sal Colella for a two-yard loss, but Colella’s halfback option pass to Rittenhouse extended the lead to 10-0.
Michael Ferguson then returned the kickoff 93 yards to put Pennridge on the board 10-7. On the ensuing kickoff, Chuck Long recovered a North Penn fumble and the Rams were in business at the Knight-25. North Penn ultimately blocked Austin Keller’s 51-yard field goal attempt.
The Knights entered halftime up 17-7 after Rittenhouse caught an eight-yard touchdown late in the second quarter.
A previously sluggish Ram offense came alive in their opening second half drive, moving to the North Penn-20 before turning it over on downs. Evans hit Horgan on a 62-yard bomb to extend North Penn’s lead to 24-7.
Pennridge countered, moving 70 yards on seven plays and ending with Trevor Picciotti’s 19-yard touchdown run with 48 seconds left in the third quarter. The failed conversion made the score 24-13.
“We came out with a couple of new formations and went back to playing our style of football,” Beller commented. “We moved the ball well and got some scores there. We just couldn’t get a stop.”
Rittenhouse responded with a 42-yard touchdown catch, but with 4:03 remaining, the Rams sliced the lead to 10. Aiden Tetkowski connected with Bradley Dornon on a 15-yard touchdown to end a drive where Picciotti had two touches for 39 yards. Colby O’Connor’s conversion made it 31-21.
The Rams nearly recovered the onside kick, but Colella’s 52-yard insurance touchdown with 2:11 left sealed the game.
Pennridge went to Lansdale on week seven and came home with a 20-8 win. The Rams held the Knights to 218 total yards and forced three turnovers, with Walker’s pick-six being the most impactful.
Picciotti had 138 yards on 17 touches against the Knights. In week 10 against CB South, Picciotti went over 1,000 yards rushing while Tetkowski exceeded 1,000 yards passing.
North Penn faces Saturday evening’s winner of #11 Council Rock South at #6 Downingtown West.
Pennridge, the SOL National co-champs, still can get a double digit win season. They play Quakertown for the 97th time on Thanksgiving morning.
“We want to play to the standard of physical football. We had a couple of hiccups at the end of the season,” Beller said. “But that doesn’t take away from the season and what these guys did. We just have to re-group and go from here.”