COATESVILLE – “They had all the pressure, we didn’t have any pressure,” explained North Penn senior Kris Akins on their opening round game against the higher ranked defending District One champions Coatesville on Friday night. That attitude and an over powering offensive and defensive performance by the Knights led to an impressive 31-0 shutout victory.
The defensive battle was broken open early as the Knights recovered a fumble by the Red Raiders in their first offense drive of the night and turned it into a 44 yard field goal by Matt Ammendola. The score remained 3-0 until late in the second quarter when North Penn decided to go for it on a 4th and one from the Coatesville 30 yard line. Instead of calling a quarterback sneak to gain a first down, Coach Beck called a trick play with North Penn faking the quarterback sneak and instead hiking the ball to Kris Akins who then completed a pass to Connor Gill for a 28 yard touchdown. The score gave the Knights a 10-0 halftime lead and totally demoralizing the Red Raiders. When asked if he thought his second career touchdown pass changed the momentum of the game Akins replied “it woke everybody up the on the sidelines and our fans.”
After halftime, the Knight’s kept their momentum rolling with Austin Shearer’s 9 yard touchdown pass to Colby Beck to make the score 17-0. On the Knight’s next drive, Shearer’s 44 yard pass to Justin Hudimac set up a 4 yard touchdown run by Kris Akins upping the score to 24-0.
The Knight defense ruled the night totally shutting down the Red Raider offense. The Coatesville running game never got on track and their passing game was frustrated by the tough Knight defense.
“I think the secondary played really well tonight, we seemed to be in position,” added Beck.
To top off the third quarter, North Penn was able to recover a Coatesville fumble on the kickoff and convert it into a 3 yard touchdown run by Luke Berry to make the score 31-0.
The two teams traded field position in the fourth quarter without scoring and the Knights left the field as 31-0 upset winners in the opening round of the District One playoffs. The stellar performance and victory was not a surprise to Beck.
“We had a great week at practice, the enthusiasm was up, our focus has been the best it has ever been and the kids are so excited.”
The 11th seeded Knights travel to Pennsbury on Friday to take on the 4th seed Falcons in the second round.