Pennridge’s Second Half Stance Secures Victory over Pennsbury 18-13.

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

Michael Pietrangelo | September 14, 2024

Perkasie—We had ourselves an old fashion donnybrook last night as the Rams (3-1,1-0) picked up their first conference win of the 2024 season after defeating Pennsbury (2-2,0-1) 18-13 in an all out defensive slugfest.

Pennsbury won the toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff however, their first drive ended in a punt. The positive? It was downed at the Pennridge 1-yard line after Ray Vareen covered the punt remarkably and settled it at the one. Though Pennridge’s first drive went slightly longer than the Falcons, it yielded the same result, a punt. On Pennsbury’s second possession, they were forced to punt again, and a fumbled snap set the Rams up in great field position. The Rams again couldn’t capitalize and failed to move the ball and with 3:33 left in the first quarter Junior Luis Nunes connected from 25 yards out to give the Rams a 3-0 lead.

Pennsbury leaned heavily on their rushing attack and found a groove, as they ran 9 consecutive plays taking us to the end of the first quarter and 8 seconds into the second quarter. With 11:52 to go Junior running back Jordan Bresinger took the pitch around the end and raced 25 yards to the house. Angelo Pereira connected on his PAT and gave the Falcons a four-point lead 7-3. On the Ram’s next drive, they were moving the ball effectively when Noah Keating tried to hit Zach Swanson for a huge gain but the Falcon’s Lamar Kamjay nabbed the interception with 8 minutes and some change to go in the half. The Falcons moved the chains and crossed over into Ram territory. Jordan Brensinger who out-gained all rushers on the evening had 121 yards in the first half and picked up a crucial first down then standout linebacker Trevor Fuhs came up with a big tackle for loss on third down. With only 4.2 seconds remaining on the clock Angelo Pereira lined up to extend the lead to 7, however, Defensive back Chase Marshall had other plans. He got his hand on the kick and blocked the attempt as time expired. The two teams headed into the half still knotted at 7-3.

The third quarter got underway and the Rams were chomping at the bits to get the second half started. Multiple players came out heated, knowing they could play better and felt they could win. Keating found a wide open Chase Clontz for a 34-yard gain and some life. Keating connected with Chase Marshall multiple times to set up the Rams from the Falcon 12-yard line. On the final play of the drive Keating floated up a beauty into the endzone and Trevor Fuhs came down with the toss. Ryan Rowe completed the two-point conversion and with 8:50 to go I. The third quarter the rams jumped out to a 11-7 lead. “Our first half wasn’t played how we wanted to play.” Stated Noah after the game. He continued, “We had some rough plays but then to come out in the second half and score right away, that was huge it was the momentum change we needed.” Pennsbury would again get the ball back and shave off precious time before being forced to punt by the Rams suffocating defense which caused a turnover on downs. The Rams took over and carried the ball for a three yard loss. On the very next play, Chase Marshall split two defenders and Noah Keating hit him for a huge 60-yard touchdown bomb. The Nunes PAT was converted with 4:19 to go in the third quarter which made it 18-7 Rams.

A personal foul set the Falcons up on the Ridge 15 yard line and on third and two, Kaiden Brown juked two defenders and raced across the goal line. The Falcons attempted to go for two but failed to convert but did cut the lead to 5 at 18-14 with 11:54 in the game. Both defenses bent but never broke the rest of the way. Both teams exchanged punts after picking up a few first downs but neither could ever capitalize. Trevor Fuhs and the stingy Ram defense came up with a big sack on third down with only two minutes to go which made Pennsbury go for it on fourth down. Chase Clontz batted the pass down and forced yet another turnover on downs. Keating and his offense ran a few more plays before lining up in victory formation and running out the rest of the clock. After the game, head coach Kyle Beller spoke with me and had this to say about his team’s performance, “I thought our boys did some growing up tonight. That is a really good football team, a very physical football team and we are young especially on the defensive side of the ball and even on our up front on the line on the offensive side we’re still young.” He continued, “I honestly didn’t know where we’re going to be at with the physicality of that football team and the way they keep coming at you on both sides of the ball. Man, having to block 44 and then trying to take down their backs. They got three guys that can run the ball and they’re bigger than us up front but I thought our kids rose to the challenge and kept playing.”

Scoring

Pennridge 03-00-15-00-18

Pennsbury 00-07-06-00-13

Stats

Passing

Pennridge- N. Keating 9/14-152-2TDs-1INT

Pennsbury- H. Garlits 3/8-18-0-0

Rushing

Pennridge- N. Keating 13-52, W. Dougherty 8-48, R. Rowe 8-24, Z. Swanson 3-(-1), M. Ferguson 2-25, S. Lethe 2-2

Pennsbury- J. Brensinger 23-164-1 TD, H. Walker 9-45, K. Brown 5-20- 1TD, J. Bright 2-7

Receiving

Pennridge- C. Marshall 9-94-1 TD, C. Clontz 1-34, T. Fuhs 1-12- 1TD, Z. Swanson 1-12

Pennsbury- D. Sciolla 2-15, M. McGinty 1-3

What’s next: Pennridge (3-1,1-0) is away next week at North Penn (4-0,1-0) while Pennsbury is home against CB East (2-2,0-1).

Congratulations to Trevor Fuhs for being selected as my Player of the Game. Trevor had 1 catch for 12 yards and a touchdown. On the defensive side of the ball he had 11 tackles, 2 TFL, and 1 sack.

Chase Marshall was my second star of the game as he had 4 catches for 94 yards & 1 TD. On the defensive side of the ball he had multiple tackles, 2 passes defended, and a blocked field goal.

My third star of the game is Noah Keating. Noah completed 64% of his passes for 152 yards & 2 TDs. He also rushed for 52 yards on 13 carries.

Congratulations on 3 great performances.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate my student Spotlight recipients senior Anamarie Peruggia of the Pennridge Cheerleading Team and senior Joey Seif of the Pennridge Marching band.