Mayhem’s Game of the Week- Central Bucks South @ Pennsbury (Week 5)
Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News, pfn
Michael Pietrangelo | September 21, 2023
The Game:
Central Bucks South @ Pennsbury
Friday, September 22, 2023
Kickoff: 7 pm
Falcon Field
705 Hood Blvd, Fairless Hills, PA 19030
The Deets:
Head Coach: Tom Hetrick (9th Season)
League: Suburban One-Continental National(6A)
Last season: (7-4) Overall (4-3) Conference
This Season: (4-0) overall (1-0) Conference
Last Week: Won, 13-6 against Central Bucks East
Titan’s Notables: The Titans and head coach Tom Hetrick are off to a dominating start. They are averaging 28.6 points per game offensively & the defense is only allowing 5.8 points per game. The undefeated Titans have non-conference wins against Father Judge, Harry S. Truman, & Council Rock North. Their conference win came last week against Central Bucks East. This week I caught up with Coach Hetrick to see what he had to say about his team’s early success. He replied, “Our defense has been playing great football. We have played very effective team defense and a lot of guys have contributed to that success.” He continued, “We have been sound at all three levels of the defense. We also have a lot of experience back on the Offensive Line and have been playing a very physical style of football. I asked, “While your offense is averaging nearly 29 points per, what do you have to do against a powerful Pennsbury defense who just held Central Bucks West to only 20 points to be successful?” The coach replied, “Pennsbury’s defense is very well-coached. They have a bunch of tough kids who all play their positions very well. It will be a very physical game, so we need to be able to control the Line of Scrimmage. We need to execute with more consistency and continue to play ahead of the sticks.” The offense has put up some points, but that defense has been a bigger strong point in my opinion. I needed to know, “What does your defense need to do to be successful against Pennsbury?” he responded, “Pennsbury doesn’t disguise what they are trying to do offensively. They want to control the football and force you to defend every gap on every rep. We need to be disciplined and continue to play effective Team defense.” My final question for him was who he thought I should feature and without hesitation coach responded, “Jack Mauz, so far Jack has 7 catches for 103 yards & 2 TDS, On the other side of the ball he has 10 tackles & 3 PBUs. He continued, “Jack is heavily involved on both sides of the ball for us this season. He is a great athlete who has come up with some big plays for us on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, he is the QB of the defense. He has a very high football IQ and his technique in the secondary is at times flawless.” After hearing about Jack, I got in touch to talk to the senior wide receiver/ defensive back. My first question was the same as the coach’s, I needed to know what he thought contributed to the early success & 4-0 start. Jack responded, “Playing our physical and tough brand of football has been a huge part of our 4-0 start. Our sound, technical, and aggressive defense has put us in a position to be as successful as we are. On offense, we have to continue to execute and make plays. When the ball is in our hands, make a play.” Secondly, I needed to know what he thought he and his offense needed to do to be successful against such a stout defense. Jack replied,“Our offense needs to be consistent, and we can’t get behind the sticks. Limiting penalties will be crucial to have success against a very good Pennsbury defense. Our offense is our offense, we do what we do, and nothing changes we just have to execute and be more physical than these guys. We have to play our style of football.” Finally, I wanted to know what he thought the defense needed to do to be successful against the Falcons and he responded, “This week against Pennsbury we have to be sound and be able to put our heads down and make tackles. Our defensive coordinator coach Cataldo and the rest of the coaching staff put together great game plans every week. Our communication has been a key part of our success. We stress communicating; a big part of how we have been so sound on defense. Our players have to trust in each other which is essential on the field and something we pride ourselves in. We will play our brand of physical team defense to get the job done.”
Head Coach: Galen Snyder (2nd Season)
League: Suburban One-National Conference(6A)
Last Season: (9-2) Overall (7-1) Conference
Season: (2-2) Overall (0-1) Conference
Last Week: Lost, 20-3 to Central Bucks West
Falcon’s Notables: Head coach Galen Snyder left the program he coached for 14 seasons to see his son play college football. After losing 16 games in a row between the 2020 and 2021 seasons he was rehired, and the Falcons made the playoffs & won a Conference title in year one back at the helm, finishing the season 9-2 overall and 7-1 in the conference. This season they have had a similar outcome to date with the exception of the Central Bucks West game, which slipped this reporter’s mind when asking Coach about his team’s performance to this point. I thought they were undefeated heading into this game last season, but I had forgotten about the loss to Coatesville. He kindly responded, “We were actually 3-1 last season. The results have been very similar other than the West game.” I then asked what they needed to do against such a stout defense yielding less than 6 points per contest and the coach said, “We have already faced a couple of stout defenses in Coatesville and CBW. CB South will also present a strong challenge for us.” their offense is scoring almost 30 points per game, I needed to know what he thought his defense needed to do to be successful against the Titans. He responded, “Defensively, we’ll have to continue to battle as we have thus far this season.” To end our chat, I asked Coach Snyder who he believed I should feature on my preview, and he wanted me to feature senior linebacker Ben Primich. The coach said, “Ben Primich, LB, is leading the team in tackles. He also made the switch from nose guard last season (1st team All SOLN) to LB this season to help his team.” Snyder continued, “Last game against CB West he had 13 tackles & 2 TFLs.” Ben is not only great on the field, but I also found out that last summer while he was at a wrestling camp, he noticed a swimmer at the bottom of the pool not moving and he quickly jumped into action and pulled the swimmer to safety. The hero applied lifesaving compressions as he waited for emergency services to arrive. He was honored this past spring by receiving the Air Force Junior ROTC Silver Valor Award which has never been given out at Pennsbury. Realizing what a standout human he was, I immediately hit him up and we talked about the same things as his coach. First I wanted his perspective on their season to date in comparison to last year and he responded, “I see us relatively in the same spot with a lot more to come. I think after we lost our starting center (Rocco May) in the first drive, the odds of winning that game against CB West were not in our favor. There was too much improvising and confusion on the offensive side of the ball to really get something going against a team as good as them. However, the defense was a bright spot in the game and we really found out who we were in that game and made strides of improvement, personally, I think we only legitimately let them score on us once, that being the first drive. Other than that, the points came from field goals and a crappy field position because of a failed fake punt. So, I think we are just getting started and only getting better.” My second question focused on the offense and what he and his team need to do to be successful against such a dominating defense. He replied, “What we need is execution from not just the offensive side of the ball but also the defensive side. The offense needs to stick to what they know and execute those adjustments made this past week at practice. We spent a lot of time figuring things out and making sure we knew what to do, they needed to perform, not just go through the motions but play with mean intentions. For us over on the defense, our role in all this is to get turnovers and put the ball back in our offense’s hands.” Defense is Ben’s specialty and lastly, I wanted to know what he thought they needed to do to be successful against CB South. Ben responded, “For defense, it’s pretty simple, we know what they like to do, and we need to stop it. We’ve been seeing the play style CB South likes to run for 3 weeks now. There’s not much to say other than that everybody has to do their job and do it with a passion and if we do that, we will shut them down.” He continued, “It’s going to be a physical game and I like that, I know that myself, as well as my teammates, will bring the physicality, we’ll see what CB South brings. At the end of the day, talk is cheap and we just need to impose our will on the field.”
I would like to give a special thanks to @mayhemslegitsnax, Body Armour & Imperial Nuts for sponsoring my POTG T-shirt and swag bags for the student athletes and students that receive them each week. Without your support none of this would be possible! Please follow both and check out all the amazing things they offer!
*Photos this week were compiled from Daniella Heminghaus, & Mike Apice
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