{"id":49589,"date":"2025-11-22T12:42:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/?p=49589"},"modified":"2025-11-30T16:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:20:24","slug":"the-north-penn-knights-are-your-district-one-6a-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/sports\/2025\/11\/22\/the-north-penn-knights-are-your-district-one-6a-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"The North Penn Knights are your District One 6A champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PERKASIE &#8211; The Knights are in victory formation. Quarterback Matt Bucksar takes the knee and as the clock hits zero the Knights celebrate their hard fought victory. The North Penn Knights were victorious over the Pennridge Rams beating them 21-14 to claim their 8th district championship title.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rams had the first possession of the game but were forced to punt. The Knights then got the scoring started with a 15-yard rushing touchdown from Matt Pownall with 5:28 left to go in the first quarter. After another Rams punt the Knights would extend their lead [14-0] off an explosive 67-yard rushing score from Rylei Gray with 1:36 left to play in the first.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49591\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49591\" style=\"width: 317px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-49591\" src=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-300x289.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"317\" height=\"305\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-300x289.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-600x578.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-1200x1155.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-768x739.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3-1536x1479.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3.jpeg 1560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49591\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Barnes with a big hit as Noah Keating tries to get the pass off. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/staff_profile\/ty-bryson\/\">Ty Bryson<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rams would cut the Knights lead in half [14-7] on a 3-yard run from Trevor Picciotti with 6:38 in the first half. The Knights next drive would be slowed down from false start penalties; eventually leading to a turnover on downs. It would not matter though as the Knights defense stood strong and forced another punt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right as they were gaining momentum they fumbled the ball giving the Rams a chance to score before the end of the half, but with 18 seconds left in the half Nate Schepian picked off Noah Keating. The Knights had all the momentum going in their favor as they walked to the locker room for halftime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt felt great finally getting that pick after dropping one earlier,\u201d Schepian stated. \u201cI was so proud of the defense tonight.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The third quarter was filled with an intense defensive battle from both teams as the Knights turned it over on downs and the Rams were forced to another punt. The Knights would end the stalemate with 3:57 left in the third off a 16-yard rushing score from Pownall extending their lead to 14 [21-7].<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49592\" style=\"width: 224px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-49592\" src=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2-200x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2-200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2-399x600.jpeg 399w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2-798x1200.jpeg 798w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2-768x1154.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2-1022x1536.jpeg 1022w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2.jpeg 1038w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rylei Gray and Matt Pownall embrace after the win. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/staff_profile\/ty-bryson\/\">Ty Bryson<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pennridge would not be able to find the endzone in the third, but with 4:46 left in the fourth quarter Ryan Rowe lowered his shoulder and scored from 3-yards out on a toss play to cut the Knights lead back to 7 [21-14]. The Knights would turn the ball over on downs with 0:37 left to play, giving the Rams one last chance to tie or take the lead. A Ziyon Smith interception would be the dagger to finish a very entertaining district championship game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cZiyon [Smith] making that pick at the end of the game, very exciting for us,\u201d head coach Dick Beck said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Knights defense once again proved to be the X-Factor in the win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe defense played big and I thought the defensive line was amazing,\u201d Beck added. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSo proud of the kids. Couldn\u2019t have been happier for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCould not have asked for a better senior year,\u201d Schepian concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Knights will play La Salle in the 6A state semifinals next week. For now though, they are the District champions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49593\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49593\" style=\"width: 239px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-49593\" src=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4-211x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4-211x300.jpeg 211w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4-422x600.jpeg 422w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4-845x1200.jpeg 845w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4-768x1091.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4-1081x1536.jpeg 1081w, https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4.jpeg 1098w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49593\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Head coach Dick Beck gets a victory shower from North Penn players. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/staff_profile\/ty-bryson\/\">Ty Bryson<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PERKASIE &#8211; The Knights are in victory formation. Quarterback Matt Bucksar takes the knee and as the clock hits zero the Knights celebrate their hard fought victory. The North Penn Knights were victorious over the Pennridge Rams beating them 21-14 to claim their 8th district championship title.\u00a0 The Rams had the first possession of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1475,6,11],"tags":[],"staff_name":[1537],"class_list":["post-49589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-sports","category-top-stories","staff_name-jonathan-han"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49595,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49589\/revisions\/49595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49589"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=49589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}