Defense leads NP past Souderton
Knights defense peaking at right time
FRANCONIA » North Penn football coach Dick Beck feels the strongest part of his defense is on the back end.
The Knights’ corners and safeties are more often than not going to have their guys covered. If the front seven can sustain any kind of consistent pressure, than it means a big night is probably in store for the secondary.
Friday night, the Knights got a big push up front all game, recording six sacks and the secondary feasted on three picks, with Shamar Edwards taking one to the house
as North Penn rolled Souderton 47-20 on the Indians’ Senior Night.
“The strength of the team is the secondary and the four guys we have in the secondary are very good,” Beck said. “Owen (Thomas) is healthy, he’s starting to get his wind back, so I feel pretty good about those guys. We’re still mixing and matching on the
d-line and trying to get that figured out. I thought tonight was our best night.”
Souderton turned the ball over four times as the line’s pressure hounded Soquarterback Dean Dipisa all through the first half. Dipisa absorbed five of the six sacks and threw the three picks, all with North Penn players breathing down his neck.
Still, the Indians had been doing a good job moving the ball on the opening drive, getting down to the North Penn 40 before senior Justis Henly picked off Dipisa at the Knights’ 20 and returned it 11 yards. It only took North Penn one play to score, with Steve DePaul finding wide-open Jon Haynes down the seam for a 69-yard score.
“That picked us up a lot,” Edwards said. “Justis himself picks us up when he makes big plays.”
Henley turned in another big play on North Penn’s second drive. After a pair of sacks forced Souderton to punt, the senior picked up 10 yards on a run, then taking the next snap out of a wildcat formation, raced 50 yards down the right side for a touchdown.
If North Penn wasn’t already rolling, it was after the next Souderton drive. Thomas engulfed Dipisa for a sack, putting the Indians into a throwing situation and after the line flushed the quarterback out of his pocket, Edwards picked off a pass and returned it 55 yards for a score and 21-0 lead.
Noah Fox recovered a fumble on the next drive and Dars Bowsky ended the first Indians drive of the second quarter with an interception of Dipisa. Bowsky’s pick set up a 10yard rushing touchdown by KJ Cartwright just two plays later as North Penn started toward earning a running clock in the second half.
Fox had a half-sack, Owen Versepy and Nathan Brown combined on two sacks with Versepy also getting other half of Fox’s takedown. Zach Smeltzer had a second-half sack for the Knights.
“We were just playing our positions and doing what we had to do on the field,” Edwards said. “The line getting pressure made it so easy for us. Their quarterback had to just throw it once he felt that pressure and that let us just pick it off.”
The Indians had won last week and hoped to carry some of that energy into Friday. Even with a good crowd, once North Penn got in gear, the Indians couldn’t do much to stop the slide.
“We made a few mistakes early, we had a few turnovers that gave them extra possessions and they took advantage of it,” Indians head coach Ed Gallagher said. “I still have been fighting getting the kids to believe that they can compete at that level and it just didn’t seem like we believed we could tonight.”
Edwards caught a 31yard pass from DePaul for a score with 1:35 left in the half for the final North Penn touchdown of the game. The Knights took a 44-6 lead into the half with the other nine points coming from the foot of senior kicker Kelly Macnamara.
Macnamara had a monster evening, contributing 18 total points between her four made field goals and a perfect 6-for-6 on extra points. The senior kicked field goals of 20 yards, 43 yards and 36 yards in the first half, with the last one coming at the halftime buzzer.
Macnamara also hit on a 37-yard try to end the first drive of the second half. Her only blemish was a 44yard try that was blocked by Souderton.
Souderton’s lone score in the first half came when senior Oscar Hughes returned a kickoff 85 yards following Macnamara’s 43-yard field goal. After halftime, the Indians got a one-yard run from senior Jeremy Tammaro and a five-yard score from Daniel Pineda.
North Penn held freshman Willie Goods to zero rushing yards and a 22-yard catch a week after the back had gone for 171 yards and three scores on 10 carries.
North Penn, which won its sixth game in a row, will try to finish its SOL Continental schedule unbeaten against William Tennent next week.
“Since Week 1, we’ve been talking about picking our defensive intensity up,” Edwards said. “This week we just brought it.”