WARRINGTON – Luke Berry and the Nyfease West combined for 350 yards of rushing offense in North Penn’s 35-28 victory over Central Bucks South on Friday night. The Knight’s battled the Titans in a back and forth game with South getting on the board first with a 30 yard touchdown pass. The Knights answered back with Luke Berry’s 46 yard touchdown run to tie the game. After the North Penn defense stopped the Titans, the offense answered with a Berry TD on a 1 yard run. The Titan running game led by South’s Josh Adams and Deon Clinton drove through the Knights line and missed tackles to tie the game at 14.
In the second quarter, North Penn’s defense continued to bend but did not break in stopping South’s potent running and passing game. “We knew we had to come out strong on number twelve [Josh Adams]. We knew he was going to run all over us and if he breaks one tackle, then he is gone,” commented senior lineman Connor Gill. “We all played team defense, that’s the key to stopping the option offense.” Nyfease West’s 7 yard touchdown run gave the Knights a 21-14 lead going into halftime.
The second half started like the first half with a long touchdown run by Josh Adams to tie the score at 21. The Knights mounted a drive behind the hard running of Berry and West. Kris Akins was able to get it over the line to give the Knights a 28-21 lead. Coach Beck was upbeat on the performance of the running game. “I am pretty happy; I thought we finally came off the ball. I told Luke Berry I wanted to get him at least 20 touches and he was running hard. Nyfease really looked good…it was really nice to see us get positive yardage on almost every play.”
The Knights were able to increase their lead to 28-21 after a 68 yard run by West set up a 2 yard plunge by Akins. The Knight defense came up big knocking down South passes and covering the Titan receivers. “I thought we covered well. Liddy gets hurt and Marquis Watson comes in and just has a heck of a game,” added Coach Beck.
The Knights behind the hard running of Berry scored again to increase their lead to 35-21. “The key to tonight was the offensive line. They blocked great and the holes were huge tonight and we just ran through them,” stated Berry.
The Titans quickly responded with a score to cut the lead back to a seven point game. At this point it looked like whoever got the ball last was going to win and with five minutes remaining the Titans took possession of the ball. Behind a rushing and passing attack, the Titans drove the ball down to the Knight’s 30 yard line. But the Knight defense did not break and stopped the Titans on downs with a minute remaining. The Knights were then able to run out the clock and seal their third conference victory and a lead in the Continental Conference.
The Knights look to continue their winning ways next week away against Hatboro-Horsham.
Stats provided by Kev Hunter of The Reporter
North Penn (3-3, 3-0) 14 7 14 0 – 35
Central Bucks South (4-2, 2-1) 14 0 7 7 – 28
First Quarter
CBS: Kevin Moran 30 pass from Matt Radwanski (Jon Williams kick), 9:50
NP: Luke Berry 46 run (Matt Ammendola kick), 7:35
NP: Berry 1 run (Ammendola kick), 4:50
CBS: Dion Clifton 7 run (Williams kick), :19
Second Quarter
NP: Lewis Dickinson 2 run (Ammendola kick), 9:04
Third Quarter
CBS: Josh Adams 53 run (Williams kick), 9:18
NP: Kris Akins 3 run (Ammendola kick), 5:52
NP: Berry 2 run (Ammendola kick), 4:11
Fourth Quarter
CBS: Paul Weeks 8 pass from Radwanski (Williams kick), 10:10
NP CBS
First Downs: 19 14
Rushing yards: 405 171
Passing yards: 31 136
Total yards: 436 307
Passing: 4-6-0-0 13-22-2-0
Fumbles lost: 0 0
Turnovers: 0 0
Punts: 3 4
Penalties: 5-45 4-35
Rushing
North Penn: Berry 20-188, 3 TD; Nyfease West 23-184; Austin Shearer 3-9; Akins 4-22, TD; Dickinson 1-2, TD
CB South: Adams 11-100, TD; Radwanski 9-0; Clifton 13-71, TD
Passing
North Penn: Shearer 4-6-31-0-0
CB South: Radwanski 13-22-136-2-0
Receiving
North Penn: Berry 1-1; Dickinson 1-6; Nick Wright 1-14; Brandon Quinn 1-10
CB South: Moran 2-39, TD; Eric Katz 5-40; Clifton 3-18; Adams 1-20; Weeks 2-19, TD