To run in the November 24th Bucks County Herald
Host #1 Pennridge never led in Friday night’s District One 6A title game against #2 North Penn.
Yet the Rams (12-2), down 21-14, had a chance: Pennridge possessed the ball at the Knights’ 49-yard line with 13 seconds left.
Ziyon Smith intercepted a long Pennridge pass attempt and the Knights ran out the clock for their first District title since 2016. They face juggernaut LaSalle next Friday in state semi-finals.
Pennridge made their first District final appearance since 2020. The Rams, who set a school record with three playoff wins, are winding down arguably their most successful season in the PIAA’s playoff era.
They still have one more game- Turkey Bowl 96- at home against Quakertown on Thanksgiving morning.
“This group is special. They’ve been special since the Greenjackets,” reflected head coach Kyle Beller emotionally. “If you ever sat in the room and talked with them, you’d know you’re around some really great young men. And that is the way they play. When they come to practice, they have fun but they get after it. They understand the process that needs to get done. They play with heart. They’re warriors.
“They play for the community and they know they are doing something bigger than just this year,” Beller continued. “They know their past and they know they are playing for the future kids who look up to them.”
North Penn exploited a short field on their opening drive. Navy signee Matthew Pownall’s 15-yard touchdown run put the Knights up 7-0 midway through the first quarter. Rylei Gray’s 67-yard touchdown run extended North Penn’s lead to 14-0 minutes later.
The Rams retorted with a touchdown, marching 69 yards. Noah Keating and Ryan Rowe both converted a fourth down, and Will Dougherty carried three Knights with him on a 21-yard run to the NP-3. Trevor Picciotti pounded it in one play later to put Pennridge on the board.
“It was great to get some momentum there,” said Princeton-signee and co-captain Rowe. “The O line was blocking great and I give a lot of credit to them. The touchdown put us back in the game. We just have to get the job done next time.”
The Pennridge defense settled down. Michael Ferguson broke up a fourth down pass to give the Rams the ball back at their own 43. Chase Clontz ended another North Penn drive by pouncing on a fumble late in the second quarter.
“At halftime, we drew up some stuff to fix our mistakes,” Rowe noted. “We went into halftime like it was a fresh start.”
“We knew they were going to come in the personnel that they ran. We made some slight adjustments to take some things away,” Beller added. “We talked to the players to see what was working and we’ve done that all year: we talk to them. We started making plays and settled in a bit.”
Pennridge was unable to convert either stop into points however and North Penn entered the break with a 14-7 lead.
The Ram defense made a huge stop to open the second half. Pownall took the half’s second play 69 yards to the Ram-3. But on fourth-and-goal at the 1, Jackson Gregoire stuffed Pownall for a loss.
North Penn’s defense forced a three and out and the Knights got the ball in Pennridge territory. Pownall bounced right for a 16-yard touchdown to extend North Penn’s lead to 21-7.
Pennridge answered with a sharp, 64-yard scoring drive. On fourth-and-two at the North Penn 3, Rowe took a pitch and muscled in to pay dirt, which cut the Knights’ lead to 21-14 with 4:46 remaining.
Dougherty led the Rams with 56 yards on eight carries. Keating hit seven different receivers for 11 completions on 25 attempts for 71 yards while adding 32 yards on the ground. Pownall’s 174 yards on 22 carries led all rushers. Gray added 94 yards on 10 rushes.
Pennridge used a great defense effort, and some mishandled kickoffs, to hang 28 second half points and beat North Penn 34-10 in week five. It marked the Rams’ first win over the Knights, a District finalist last year, since 2012.
Some things changed and some stayed the same since that September 19th game. What changed was North Penn- who responded by rattling off eight straight wins by an average margin of 25 points per game.
What stayed the same was the Pennridge defense: they had yielded barely 11 points per game over their last 11 games. Seven different Rams have three or more tackles per loss.
The Rams had just six giveaways over their last eight games prior to Friday. While no Ram had rushed for even 700 yards entering North Penn, Pennridge won by moving chains and having dual threat Keating keeping defenses honest with a strong and accurate arm.
“At the start of the season, we came out hot and really started believing in each other,” Rowe shared. “We knew this was a possibility since the chemistry on the team was so strong the whole time.”
Beller reflected on when he knew this was a special year. “Maybe when we played these guys the first time around,” he said thoughtfully. “I knew early on. With the way we played week one and battled week two, I knew there was something special about this group. And they just kept battling.”