Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Jenkintown football can’t keep up with New Hope Lions in loss.
Jenkintown can’t keep up with Lions
JENKINTOWN >> One two-play drive encapsulated the keys to New Hope-Solebury’s offensive success on Saturday against Jenkintown.
The Lions, already leading by 20 points, started a second-quarter sequence on their own 43yard line with a 17-yard, play-action pass from sophomore quarterback Philip Weinseimer to senior tight end Patrick Cooney. On the next play, senior wide receiver Patrick Tangradi scored on a 40-yard sweep.
Tangradi accounted for 108 of New Hope-Solebury’s 201 yards rushing, and Cooney led all receivers with 98 yards and a touchdown in the Lions’ (4-2, 3-1) 45-18 victory against the Drakes.
“From watching the film, we’d seen that they ran that reverse and they were successful with that,” Jenkintown (3-2, 2-1) coach Anthony Owens said. “Our guys, sometimes the kids don’t take their responsibilities and they overpursued or got blocked and they just came back the other way.”
Tangradi’s touchdown and the ensuing extra-point attempt put the Lions up, 27-0, with just less than six minutes left in the second quarter.
“We just tried to switch it up, run screen passes, run the ball a lot, throw it deep, just keep the defense off guard,” said Weinseimer, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for another.
“I saw their corners, they all play like 10 yards off, so that kind of opens us up for passing,” he added. “And rushing the ball, they’re just very aggressive, so any trickeration will usually get them off guard.”
New Hope-Solebury jumped on Jenkintown on the Drakes’ second offensive play. Senior cornerback John Flavin intercepted a pass intended for Jenkintown junior Johnson John and returned it 21-yards for a touchdown.
“They came well-prepared,” Owens said. “You can’t turn the ball over, you can’t have unnecessary penalties. You have to have good field position.”
“That pick six set the tone because we were three and out and they got the ball back,” New Hope-Solebury coach Jim DiTulio said. “I mean, it was right in front of me. He threw it right to our
D-back . ... I think that sets the tone. You get a big momentum switch like that, it kind of picked us up a little bit and we were off from there.”
After the interception, Jenkintown’s next four drives ended with a punt, interception and two more punts. The Drakes fell behind 27-0 before they first scored on a 66-yard pass from junior quarterback C.J. Jackmon to John.
John false-started on the play before the touchdown. The Drakes committed 10 penalties, many of which occurred before the snap, for 82 yards on Saturday.
Jenkintown and New Hope-Solebury matched each other with 12 points each in the second half, but the Drakes still struggled to cover Cooney. He caught a pass and evaded a tackler on his way to a 20-yard touchdown reception on the Lions’ first drive of the third quarter to give them a 40-6 lead.
Cooney also had a 23yard catch and a 17-yard catch on a Lions’ fourthquarter drive that ended with a 4-yard touchdown run by junior fullback Tom Raupp.
Jenkintown junior running back Bert Koniers didn’t play in the first half because of an internal issue, coach Anthony Owens said, but Koniers impacted the game in the final 24 minutes. He caught a 24-yard swing pass on the Drakes’ first drive of the half.
He also had a 30-yard receiving gain on the first play of the fourth quarter. Two plays later, Jackmon scored on a 6-yard rushing touchdown.
“I feel like when I came out in the second half, I helped my team,” Koniers said. "We had some hope. We had a nice little run at the end of the (first half). So I feel like we used that momentum to lead us out into the third quarter and have a couple of big plays.”
Three Drakes had more than 50 yards receiving. Koniers finished with 57 yards, John had 66 yards and a touchdown and senior Adam Giammanco led Jenkintown with four catches for 89 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“We started realizing that our running game wasn’t working,” Jackmon said of the Drakes’ second-half approach. “So we figured that passing the ball more and getting to gaps that were going to be open was going to help us and we did. So hopefully we remember that and next year we’ll start it at the beginning.”
New Hope-Solebury originally was slated to play Delaware County Christian School next, but is instead searching for a new opponent because the Knights cancelled their season.
Jenkintown, coming off its second consecutive loss, will face Morrisville on Friday.
“With Morrisville, they’re a big, strong, athletic squad,” Owens said. “And to have a puncher’s chance, we can’t fall apart early. We can’t commit turnovers.”