TOWAMENCIN- If one thing is certain, it is that the 2017 North Penn Knights have a lot of work to do if they want to match their success from last season. The North Penn Knights (0-1) faced the LaSalle Explorers (1-0) in their eighth consecutive season opener against the Catholic League rival. With North Penn having to fill the holes of several key losses, LaSalle boasted seven returners on their offense and defensive line up, not to mention one of the best quarterbacks in the area, Isaiah Jones. The Explorers won 41-28 after a late surge from the Knights was not enough to top an early lead by LaSalle.

North Penn started senior Justis Henley at quarterback, and he ran plays with the Knights’ new Plymouth Whitemarsh transfer, Khan Jamal. Jamal stood out both offensively and defensively during his first start as a North Penn Knight. The Knights eventually put junior Steve DePaul, their Norristown transfer, in at the quarterback position, trying to utilize Henley as a receiver. DePaul’s debut at Crawford Stadium got off to a rocky start with some communications issues and incomplete passes.

“Steve has some little things to clean up, but I was proud with his poise and attitude when things weren’t going our way,” said Henley.

While North Penn was adjusting to a new and young quarterback, LaSalle was more than comfortable with senior Isaiah Jones commanding the Explorer’s attack. Jones, who finally got to start as quarterback after a knee injury last year, immediately established himself as a dual threat quarterback that would be a challenge for the Knights new defense.

“It’s really nice to have [Jones] back on the team. He can throw the ball and run the ball, so he is a dynamic threat,” said LaSalle Head Coach John Steinmetz.

In the first quarter, both North Penn and LaSalle held the other scoreless.

“If you can get out of the first half letting no points go to a team like North Penn, you should be pretty happy,” said LaSalle Head Coach John Steinmetz.

It wasn’t until the second quarter that the Explorers started to light up the scoreboard. LaSalle junior Manny Quiles rushed for a 1 yard touchdown after North Penn kept LaSalle from scoring with a tackle right before the end zone (9:27). LaSalle took an early 7-0 lead that gave them a scoring attitude. After a low snap to North Penn punter Noah Clemens resulted in his knee touching the ground, LaSalle capitalized on their opportunity to attack offensively again. Once again, the Explorers were stopped only a few yards from the end zone, and Jones ran it in for another touchdown on the next play (2 yards, 3:18). On the extra point, North Penn senior captain Owen Thomas blocked the kick by Daniel Karrash, putting the Explorers up 13-0.

“It felt great to finally be back on the field. I ran the ball a lot tonight, and since I used to be a running back, I was happy I got to run and throw,” said Jones.

Towards the end of the second quarter when North Penn had the ball, a miscommunication resulted in an interception, and a DePaul pass quickly turned into another LaSalle touchdown (Quiles, 3 yards, 0:47).  To make up for the missed extra point, LaSalle successfully executed a two point conversion with a pass from Jones to senior Troy Holland, extending their lead 21-0.

“We played pretty poorly in the first half,” said Thomas, “we made a lot of mental mistakes. It’s easy stuff to fix, we were just really rusty today.”

To start the second half, LaSalle once again earned another touchdown. After a 28 yard pass to junior Brett Malley, Quiles ran another 1 yard touchdown (8:48). Although the Knights were trailing by a daunting 28 points with less than half of the game left, that reality didn’t seem to phase North Penn’s junior running back Xzavier Gorski. The junior carried the ball for an impressive 18 yards, which started to bring the Knights some much needed energy.

“Xzavier gave us a lot of momentum. He ran the ball really hard tonight and I was proud of him. I’ve known he could run the ball well since last year, he was just waiting for his time to shine, and I think that was tonight,” said Henley.

However, right after, Gorski was taken out and two long passes from DePaul to Henley fell incomplete. Left with no other options, the Knights sent out Clemens to kick the ball away when a strange turn of events took place. Before his punt hit the ground, it bounced backwards off of a LaSalle player’s helmet in North Penn’s favor. The ball was recovered by North Penn’s Nick Intrieri. North Penn capitalized on this rare opportunity to be back in scoring position. Gorski made another long run, this time into the endzone (18 yards, 7:04).

“The line just opened holes. I tried to make LaSalle miss and then ran for every yard I could,” said Gorski.

The Knights struck again in the endzone before the fourth quarter after a 75 yard pass from DePaul brought North Penn 1 yard away from scoring (Jamal, 3:24). After a two point conversion pass to senior Owen Thomas, the Knights were halfway to the Explorer’s score, only trailing 28-14.

In the final quarter, DePaul connected early with Henley for a touchdown pass that put the Knights one touchdown away from tying up the game (16 yards, 10:44). The North Penn defense started to wear down LaSalle by using all the energy they had left to pressure the Explorers’ attack. However, when the Jones saw freshman Harrison Marvin wide open in the end zone, North Penn watched the 27 yard pass that made their chances of coming back nearly impossible to achieve (6:46). Less than two minutes later, Jones and Mallee connected for another touchdown, extending their lead, 41-21 (5:29). LaSalle’s extra point was blocked by Thomas again.

North Penn battled until the last play, earning another touchdown off of a DePaul pass (Shamar Edwards, 8 yards, 1:12). However, North Penn’s final efforts to come back were overshadowed by the 20 point deficit that they trailed LaSalle by.

“It hurts to lose your first game, but we have nine more regular season games to go. Although we weren’t able to win, our ability to put numbers up after being down 21-0 showed a bright side of our team,” said senior captain Matt Bevan.

North Penn will be traveling to Downingtown East (1-0) next Friday to take on the Cougars at 7pm.