Friday night will mark the third consecutive year the Archbishop Wood Vikings and the North Penn Knights square off in a non-conference football clash. North Penn won in 2012, knocking off the Vikings 24-10. The Vikings then returned the favor, stomping on the Knights in a 49-3 blowout last season.
Wood (2-0) comes in as the heavy favorite following wins in their first two games by a combined score of 80-20. With the first of those wins being against then nationally ranked Dematha High School 34-13.
North Penn (1-1), coming off of a come-from-behind, overtime win against West Catholic 19-16 last week, will go into the game short handed. The Knights will be without the services of star running back Nyfease West who is nursing an ankle injury.
North Penn Head Coach Dick Beck has decided to go with a running back by committee approach in order to replace West’s production. Beck indicated that seniors Anthony Cameron and Mike Liddy along with sophomore Elgin Horton will all get action on Friday night.
With or without West, Beck wants his Knights to make it a game.
“We just wanna compete against Wood. They’re one of the top teams, if not in the state then in the nation. You know we’re still feeling our way through with some inexperience. We just wanna be able to compete.” stated Beck.
The Vikings sport a multitude of weapons on the offensive side of the ball, namely running back Jarrett McClenton who rushed for 170 yards on 21 carries against Dematha in week one. It will be crucial for North Penn to slow down Wood’s rushing attack in order to have any hope pulling out the victory.
“We gotta stop the run. We can’t let them maul us down the field. Ya know, force them to pass.” said Beck when asked what the Knights needed to do to slow down Wood’s offensive attack.
The Knights will also need further improvement from their Quarterback position. Junior Spencer Jones has started both games and played an overwhelming majority of the snaps at the position, but the overall results have left the door open for fellow junior Jake Bevan to possibly unseat Jones as the starter.
“I think that it’s still a competition.” said Beck. “Jake Bevan will probably most likely play tomorrow night [as well as Jones]. Before we get into the league, I think we need to figure out who will give us the best chance to win at quarterback.”
On offense the Knights will need to hang onto the ball as much as possible in order to keep it out of the hands of the Vikings playmakers. But they also need to find the end zone. Senior kicker Matt Amendola successfully hit four field goals last week as the Knights were only able to score one touchdown. That will not be good enough this week.
“On offense we gotta be able to sustain drives and eat clock up and score touchdowns instead of kicking field goals every time.” Beck said about his offense.
Ultimately the key to the game is going to come down to North Penn’s ability to get off to a fast start. They need to either get a quick score to start the game or a big play from the defense in order to get a sense of belief going on the sideline.
That is what it will ultimately come down to- whether or not the Knights believe they belong on the same field with the Vikings.