Indians blank William Tennent
cor BucksiocalSports NEWTOWN — Although its offense was a bit on the erratic side, the Council Rock High School North football team did get the kind of defensive effort last Friday night that lived up to its preseason billing.
In a game the Indians absolutely had to have, Rock North blanked William Tennent, 17-0, to improve to 1-1 in the Suburban One National League and 2-3 overall.
The biggest difference in the game was the way Rock North’s defensive front whipped the Panthers all night. The result was Tennent never really came close to scoring after posting a big upset win over Neshaminy the previous week.
How dominant was Rock North on defense?
Consider in the second quarter Tennent ended up in third-and-44 and thirdand-38 predicaments on consecutive possessions. With that kind of field position it was only a matter of time before the Indians cashed in and the scoring started at the end of the first quarter.
Putting together its best drive of the night, Rock North went S5 yards and scored when Brandon McIlwain bolted 17 yards up the middle on a quarterback draw play. A promising freshman with a very bright future, McIlwain led the Indian ground game with 84 yards on 21 carries.
Rock North built the lead to 14-0 midway through the
second quarter after taking over at its own 46 following a partially blocked punt. This time it was standout senior speedster Brandon Knotts with the TD honors when he scored on a 30yard pass from McIlwain over the middle.
Other than a late fourthquarter 30-yard field goal by Shawn Yoder, who has a very impressive leg for a freshman, that was it for the Rock North scoring. It didn’t matter because Tennent continued to go nowhere against an Indian defense that didn’t allow a big play all night.
Leading the charge up front was end Curtis Cothran, a Penn State recruit who constantly disrupted the Tennent offense by bursting into the Panther backfield. Also causing their share of havoc were defensive linemen Billy Boot and Tyler Callender, who is also a wrestling standout.
Linebacker Nate English also got in the act with a host of tackles and a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter
William Tennent did manage to complete 11 passes, but they were mostly of the short variety. The Panther running game, which consisted almost entirely of jet sweeps and quarterback draws, never was able to operate effectively more than one or two plays in a row.
The victory sent up an interesting game for Rock North at Neshaminy this coming week.
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