To run in the October 23rd Bucks County Herald
The score of Friday night’s game- host Pennridge 15 and CB East 8- was close.
The yardage- 297 for Pennridge (8-1, 5-1 SOL National) and 271 for the Patriots- was close.
The number of plays were not. CB East (5-4, 2-4 SOL National) ran 34 plays. The Rams ran 62 plays, none more than 21 yards, and used that attrition to get the win.
“We’re a ground and pound offense and that is what our O line trains for,” said senior offensive lineman Shane Rowand. “We’re not the biggest O line but we give all we got. This week, we really focused on the basics and technique. It showed.”
Pennridge remained in first place in the SOL National.
Liam Hoey’s third effort 45-yard run brought the ball to the Pennridge 8 in East’s opening drive, but the Rams blocked the 25-yard field goal attempt and marched 92 yards the other way. Noah Keating hit Blake Landherr on a 21-yard touchdown to open the second quarter and Ryan Rowe’s two-point conversion made it 8-0.
“It was my first touchdown on varsity,” said Landherr, a sophomore. “It felt awesome. They are big guys over there but we kept chopping wood and carrying water.”
When East got the ball back, Hoey broke a tackle and raced 77 yards on an end around for a touchdown. Hunter Pulford’s pass to Sam Piszel knotted it at 8.
Pennridge converted a 4th and 2 on their subsequent drive which ended with Keating scoring on a 15-yard bootleg. The 15-8 score stood until game’s end.
Pulford’s 35-yard run fueled a late East second quarter drive. The Patriots’ fake field goal attempt was picked off by Sean Leuthe at the goal line.
East, who was pinned at their own six to start the 4th quarter, briefly surged into Pennridge territory. Leuthe forced a fumble that Landherr recovered at the Ram-49 with 6:30 remaining.
“I got beat inside a little bit but our corner (Leuthe) wrapped him up. I saw the ball and it bounced my way,” Landherr described.
The Rams drove to the East-16. Magnus Figueroa responded with two big tackles for loss, to set up third-and-17. Keating connected with Chase Clontz for 15 yards and the Patriots jumped offside during the field goal attempt, giving Pennridge a first down and three victory formation plays.
Trevor Picciotti paced Pennridge with 70 yards on 13 carries. Keating completed 11 of 16 passes for 141 yards. The story for East was the breakout of the slippery Hoey, a junior who ran for a career high 161 yards. Pulford added 88 yards on 12 lugs.
Pennridge had its best start since 1964- going 7-0- before a week eight loss to CB West. They entered Friday as the top ranked team in District One 6A.
Keating became the school’s all-time yardage leader against Abington on week six. He is the only Ram to accumulate 4,000 career rushing or passing yards. Keating teams with the running back stable of Will Dougherty, Ryan Rowe and Picciotti to give Pennridge multiple weapons.
“Every block that you do can turn into an amazing play,” Rowand noted. “I love having all of these options, and our backs and wide receivers absolutely make the best of the blocks we make.”
East opened 3-0 before losing dynamic junior running back Mike Price in week four. Price, who rushed for nearly 1,300 yards as a sophomore, was expected to be a key piece of the Patriot offense. Sophomore Pulford has stepped up, going over 1,000 total yards on Friday.
Defensively, senior Timmy Fuhrmeister set a CB East record with 5.5 tackles for loss in a week two win over Cheltenham- and nearly matched it five weeks later with five TFL against Abington.
East hosts archrival CB West next Friday; Pennridge hosts CB South to conclude the regular season.