Patriots overcome the heat, improved Bensalem

BENSALEM >> Penn Wood football coach Nick Lincoln remarked that a Bensalem football program that had fallen on hard times in recent years is showing obvious improvement.

So is Lincoln’s Patriots team, even if his players didn’t make it quite so obvious Friday.

Penn Wood needed two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to extend Bensalem’s losing streak to 27 games and trudge off with a 20-9 season-opening victory.

The Patriots, down 9-6 at the half, needed what Lincoln called a “very big” stop on a Bensalem fourth down in the Penn Wood red zone. That helped awaken the Penn Wood offense, which tallied on a 64-yard run by Answered Gleplay and a 17-yard TD run by quarterback Javon Lindsey-Terrell to put it away late.

While Lincoln indicated the shortened practice season showed up in the play of both teams, he said, “We’re feeling good about where we are, but we have to improve. We have to come out of the gate better in our games did today.”

That said, Lincoln added that the 1 p.m. start on a 90-degree humid day certainly took its toll on everyone.

“Very hot out there,” he said. “We had some dehydration issues.”

Penn Wood opened last year with a 20-6 win at home over Bensalem, but Lincoln said the nonleague than we opponent didn’t make things easy this time around.

The Fighting Owls struck first on a 23-yard field goal by Matt Corbett, but the Patriots took a 6-3 lead on a 12-yard screen pass catch and run by Edward Fields III. The Owls got the lead back on a fumble recovery returned for touchdown that Lincoln thought was an incomplete pass for the Patriots. Little matter, because the Patriots made a stand at their six-yard line, a Bensalem fourth-down pass attempt sailing high.

“That was a big shift in the game,” Lincoln said. The long scoring dash by Bartram transfer Gleplay helped a bit, too.

The Patriots move on play Overbrook Friday Kerr Field. to at