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Strong Victory: Council Rock South Dominates William Tennent with 27-3 Win

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

| August 26, 2023

Newtown- The start of the 2023 high school football season got underway last night and host Council Rock South put on a show in front of their home crowd. As with most early-season contests, the weather was less than ideal for both squads. The kickoff temperature was 78 degrees however the artificial turf made it seem like the mid-90s which caused some issues. The visiting Panthers of William Tennent had a half dozen players go down with cramps and or injuries. Council Rock seemed to power through though. Head Coach CJ Szydlik said of his team, “I think we did things that we wanted to do early, then like with both teams the heat and other stuff we got sloppy, it got chippy and we let things get out of hand, but we got to keep our composure there.” He continued, “If you’re going to be a Senior team & lead like that then you need not act that way, especially in big moments. You can’t get penalties and give teams longer drives. In reality, we were better than we were last week & hopefully, we will be better the following week and so on.”  

Tennent won the toss and elected to defer to the second half, so South would receive first.  Senior Quarterback Chase Ennis led his team down the field with a mix of throws and a nice 20-yard rush to extend the drive while Senior running back Chase Myers chipped in to move the chains. The 10-play drive was capped off with an excellent 32-yard pass from Ennis to Junior wide receiver Nick Haurin for the first TD of the young season. After the PAT, it was 7-0.

Tennent’s first drive was a three-and-out as Sophomore quarterback Derrek Guenther couldn’t find an open man on three failed passing attempts and where forced to punt. Rock’s second possession ended just like the first. This time it was 7 plays until paydirt, where Senior wide receiver Jake Hemple hauled in a 14-yard dart from Ennis for the touchdown.

The PAT from Senior Kicker Frank Rafferty was good and the lead was stretched to 14-0. Tennent took over from their own 35-yard line and again was forced to punt after another three-and-out. The Hawk’s defense was dominating the line of scrimmage and Tennent had no answers. Council Rock took over again and this drive went 5 plays before the first quarter came to an end.

The second quarter began and again South ate up more clock as they ran an additional 8 plays before Tennent’s secondary forced the incompletion on fourth down from the 18-yard line. Tennent took over and again had no answer for the Rock defense as SR Defensive lineman Tom Gallagher sacked Guenther for a 6-yard loss. Guenther then fired a beauty to Senior running back RJ Rosales for a 10-yard completion, but it wasn’t enough for the first down, and on fourth and three Guenther tried to sneak through the line and was stopped for no gain. Rock to over again from Tennent’s 27-yard line. In one play Senior Chase Myers patiently waited as his offensive line opened up a huge hole and he took it up the gut for a 27-yard TD.

After the PAT the lead was extended to 21-0.  On Tennent’s next possession SR Defensive lineman Tom Gallagher would sack the QB yet again and they were forced to punt.  The Hawks again went to the rushing attack and ate up a massive amount of clock. On a high note, Junior Defensive end Ajmal Alwan strip-sacked Ennis to and caused a turnover.  With only 29.3 seconds remaining in the half Tennent tried to run a play but Senior Defensive back Wesley Waninger blitzed and sacked the quarterback to run out the clock. We went into the half still locked at 21-0.

To open the third quarter, Tennent started at their own 40-yard line and were met yet again with a brick wall and were forced to punt. Rocks’ next possession ended also ended in a three-and-out. Tennent took over at the Rock 35-yard line where Guenther and Sophomore Running back Lorenzo Hurley combined for a first down but then were forced to punt after unsuccessfully picking up another first down. This part of the game began to affect both sides of the ball, mainly the heat as the players began to chirp and chatter at each other. Tennent’s’ defense again sacked Ennis, this time it was Senior defensive lineman Jayden Lee with the stop. Tennent ran one play for two yards and then the next play was stopped after a massive unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against South. They were finally knocking on the door of South because the penalty brought the Panthers to Rocks’ 13-yard line. Running back Lorenzo Hurley was stopped behind the line of scrimmage for negative 3-yards. Sitting at the 16 now, the Tennent quarterback got sacked on the next play by Senior Luke O’Hanlon. Now at the 30 yard line, Tennent was forced to settle with a 40 yard field goal attempt. Senior kicker Kyle Flack put it right down the middle to make the score 21-3.

The quarter would end 50 seconds later.

We finally reached the fourth quarter and again Chase Ennis & Chase Myers with a little bit of younger brother Sophomore Running back Shane Myers mixed in ate up the clock. The 12-play drive was capped off with a 14-yard scamper by the younger Myers.

Tennent line was able to block the ensuing PAT, but the lead was extended to 27-3.  On the Panther’s next possession, QB Derrek Guenther dropped back and was picked off by Junior defensive back Jake Maurer. Council Rock took over and ran out the rest of the clock with an 8-play drive that ended with Rock in the victory formation. After the game, I caught up with Head Coach Colin Leach of William Tennent and asked how he thought his first game went. He had this to say of his first game on the sidelines as HC, “Honestly you hit the nail on the head. They’re savvy. That’s a veteran team right there. We knew what we were getting into. For us, taking over as a new program we knew this would be a challenge, but we wanted a challenge. We don’t back down from a fight. The positives were, we could have rolled over at halftime, but we came out and fought tooth and nail. We were dealing with injuries and a bunch of stuff on the sideline which caused guys to line up in positions they never played before because of depth. Overall, I loved the way we fought, I loved their heart and that’s something you are going to see from Tennent all season.”

 

Stats

CRS- 14-07-0-6-27

WT- 00-03-00-00-3

Passing

CRS- Ennis 12/14 133 yds, 2 TDs

WT- Guenther 2/7 16 yds,  2 INT

Rushing

CRS- Chase Myers 18-150 yds 1TD, Shane Myers 12-49 yds  1TD, Chase Ennis 4-21 yds, Xavier Smith 2-20,Gavin Bird 1-0

WT- Lorenzo Hurley 6-17 yds, Gary Miluzzo 2-7 yds, Isaiah Rosario 1-3 yds, Derrek Guenther 4-3 yds, LJ Rosales 1-0

Receiving

CRS- Nick Haurin 4-55 yds 1 TD, Jake Hemple 4-52 yds 1 TD, Chase Myers 2-17 yds, Caleb Christian 1-6, Nate Szydlik 1-3

WT- LJ Rosales 1-10 yds, Stephen Cosenza 1-2 yds, Isaiah Rosario 1-4 yds

Defense 

CRS- Tom Gallagher 2 sacks, Luke O’Hanlon 1 sack, Jake Maurer 1 INT, Chase Myers 1 INT

WT- Jayden Lee 1 Sack, Ajmal Alwan 1 sack, FF

Kicking

CRS- Frank Rafferty 3/4 PAT

WT- Kyle Flack 1 FG 35 yds

 

 

 

 

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