North Penn tops Neshaminy in District 1 6A Semifinals Matchup

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Jason Napoli | November 16, 2025

LANSDALE — Well, how’s that for revenge?

The North Penn Knights dominated Neshaminy on a windy Friday evening at Crawford Stadium, by a final score of 35-7. Beating North Penn twice in a season seems to be pretty difficult these days. Last season, Central Buck South took down North Penn in the regular season, just to lose to them in the semifinals. This season, no different. Back in week four, Neshaminy took down the Knights, 18-14.

“We kind of used the first game as motivation, but we’re a different team then we were back then,” said North Penn head coach Dick Beck postgame. “For us, when we stay in front of the sticks, we’re a much better offense in front of the sticks.”

North Penn’s offense turned on the jets from the opening kickoff and never looked back, scoring 35 points. This came to no surprise as the Knights have scored a combined 415 points this season. A major help to the scoring outburst was Rylei Gray. Gray had three touchdowns, or a hat trick. Senior Matthew Pownall also had two scores.

“Last time we played them we made a lot of mistakes. We weren’t physical, they beat us fair and square,” Gray told the assembled media afterwards. “We had to watch a lot of film and I think we just came out and played a lot more physical than last time.I just have to give props to the O-Line, they did amazing. It feels great, I had a hat trick my first game, I think this is my second and it feels amazing.”

The Knights defense should not go under the radar and should get the same amount of props as the offense. They only let up 7 points, which is the lead amount given up all season outside of a 2o-0 win over Pennsbury in october. Things on the defense got moved around. Different schemes and players in different positions. When a defense is versatile, things can get ugly for an opposing offense.

“Our emphasis on defense, after losing to Pennridge was to get more speed on the field,” said Beck. “We moved Christian Barnes, who’s just so fast at end. Ever since he’s been starting he’s been explosive. We put Aiden Ashley at as the other end. He’s another guy not, but super athletic. The three D-Tackles that we work in, they all can run. The linebackers all can run. But, our secondary is probably the strength of our team. With Pownall and Gray and Sal Colella, I mean they just have been outstanding all year for us.”

North Penn make a trip for a date with Pennridge next weekend for the PIAA District 1 Class 6A Championship. The Knights previously got handled by the Rams in the regular season, but will look for a better, more improved outcome this time around.

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