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North Penn continues dominant start to the season, defeating Upper Dublin 35-20 @UpperDublinFB @NorthPennKnight

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

| September 18, 2021

Ryan Zeltt has been throwing to Levi Carroll for years now and they’re chemistry was on full display Friday. Ever since they were at Penndale Middle School together the two have been connecting on and off the field, building up to this season where they’re ready for it all to come together. Although Zeltt is still a junior he wants to help send Carroll and the other seniors out with a bang and a deep run into the playoffs.

Zeltt didn’t waste any time getting the ball to his favorite target on Friday. On North Penn’s opening possession, Carroll caught a swing pass to the outside on third down, taking the ball up the sidelines and into the end zone for a 32 yard score. Carroll and the rest of his offense came prepared into the game, not getting caught off guard by a stout Upper Dublin defense, “We’ve been running their defense all week, so we already knew how they were going to come at us, so we were ready for them” Carroll explained.

Carroll finished the game with only 3 catches for 69 yards, but his big plays had a huge impact early along with his stellar work in the return game. He was on the receiving end of another Zeltt touchdown pass early in the second quarter to give North Penn a commanding 21-3 lead before Upper Dublin could really get a footing in the game.

That’s been a them so far for North Penn this season, jumping out to big leads before teams can really get going. The Knights have been dominant this season, winning every game by double digits, and outscoring their opponents 170-55, including a 42-27 win over defending District 1 6A champs Souderton in the opening game.

Levi Carroll seems to think it’s the teams chemistry that has them playing so well after playing with each other for so many years, “Everybody on the team is friends and close with each other, so we’ve got the chemistry together to be great, so we just have to keep working,” He explained, “Most of these guys I’ve been playing with since middle school and even before that for little league. We’ve been playing our whole lives together and it’s a great feeling to keep playing with them.” Carroll continued.

Another offensive weapon for the Knights was the always dangerous Khalani Eaton, who put on another stellar performance. Eaton was a workhorse all night, carrying the ball 17 times for 138 yards and two touchdowns. The 5’11”, 210 pound senior back is a tough guy to bring down and a nightmare for defensive coordinators.North Penn relied on him early on and late when the game needed to be put away after Upper Dublin had gotten the game to within two possessions. Eaton picked up a few first downs, which meant all the Nights had to do was take a knee and they would be victorious. Eaton was breaking tackles all night as he’s been doing all season, which gave North Penn head coach Dick Beck something to be happy about,”He’s a workhorse. He’s tough. Big strong, fast, good vision, can do a lot of things and certainly makes us right in a lot of positions.” He also gave Upper Dublin head coach, Brett Stover headaches on the other sideline.“We made a lot of mistakes. They’re a very good football team, so by no means did our mistakes hand the game to them, but we have got to tackle better and come out of the locker room better and I take the blame for that”

Eaton’s threat of the run helped to open up the play action passing game for Ryan Zeltt. Zeltt only completed 9 of his 16 passes, but he made the most of them throwing for 172 yards and two touchdowns. “I think we can throw the ball against anybody, we’ve just got to pass protect. If we’re not pass protecting it makes things a little difficult.” Explained Coach Beck.

Even though his team dismantled the number two team in the 5A classification, Dick Beck still wasn’t satisfied with his teams performance, feeling there was a lot left on the table. “I’m happy, but this team can be much better. We still have a lot of work to do. Right now they’re their own worst enemy, so if we can work out some of the mental errors, I think we’ll be in good shape.”

On the flip side, Upper Dublin put up a good fight against a very good team, finding success especially in the second half rushing the ball, as well as on the defensive end. Even though Brett Stover isn’t interested in moral victories, the Cardinals have been through a lot the past few weeks. After a tornado devastated the Upper Dublin area, the high school turf field was left with major damage and the Cardinals haven’t played a home game since their opening game and it’s unclear when they’ll be able to have their next game at home. “It was a learning experience. Good news is that it’s September and not November or December where this would be final and your last game and then we don’t have to see them in the playoffs.” Stover explained when discussing the loss, “The one that’s great is I have an amazing staff and we’re going to fix this so we’ll be ready for our tough game next week.” he added.

“They also didn’t do any favors with the schedule” Stover mentioned when talking about his team having to travel to Quakertown next week, which will be another tough early season test for his squad. North Penn will look to stay undefeated against Pennridge, who’s a top 10 team in District 1 6A and who’s only loss was 14-7 against Downingtown East, who’s number three in the District as of now.

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