GAME 5
GAME 5
GAME 5
New-look Souderton cruises past Pennridge

DOM COSENTINO
The Intelligencer

Andrew Coyle and Derek Brown returned to the Indians' lineup and made big impacts.

EAST ROCKHILL - So this is what the Souderton football team looks like.

Exactly halfway through the season, the Indians have at last come forward to reveal themselves as a healthy, complete unit capable of + well, that remains to be seen, obviously.

But get a load of what Souderton showed Friday night, when it played a near-flawless first half on both sides of the ball en route to an astonishingly easy 27-7 victory over host Pennridge at Poppy Yoder Field.

Don't look now, but after starting the season 0-3, the Indians (2-3, 2-0 SOL) have won their first two games in the Suburban One League Continental Conference - a distinction they share with North Penn, which USA Today has ranked No. 22 in the country, and Hatboro-Horsham, whom Souderton hosts next Friday night out on Lower Road.

"It's," said Ed Gallagher, the Souderton coach, "a completely different team."

Friday night, it was easy to see why: Two of the Indians' most dynamic talents were back in the lineup together for the first time in roughly a year.

Andrew Coyle, a senior running back/cornerback, had missed the previous two games after suffering a bruised kidney in a car accident. And Derek Brown, a gifted running back/safety, had been suspended for the season's first four games for violating the school's code of conduct.

"Finally, we're back together," Coyle said. "We're putting those three games behind us at the beginning of the season. Now we're starting out league 2-0 and we're just going to keep working our way up the ladder."

Coyle and Brown also hadn't played together toward the end of last season because of injuries. Friday night? Brown rushed 17 times for 86 yards and a touchdown, while Coyle carried nine times for 50 yards and two TDs, in addition to recovering a fumble on defense and racing 35 yards with it for another score.

"They're our two fastest kids, our two most skilled athletes," Gallagher said. "Having them come back, we felt like we were able to click on full cylinders."

Did they ever.

Souderton scored touchdowns on its first three possessions, around which it also got Coyle's defensive TD. With 3 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first half, the Indians led, 27-0. And by halftime, Souderton had a 10 to 1 advantage in first downs and an edge in total yards of 206 to 12.

"We didn't play well at all tonight," said Randy Cuthbert, the Pennridge coach whose team lost its second in a row to fall to 2-3 overall, 0-1 in the SOL.
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"We didn't execute, we missed a lot of checks on defense. Offensively, we didn't make good decisions, we didn't stay on our blocks - it was, like, one or two guys every play.

"We really never gave ourselves a chance from the beginning. It's frustrating, a frustrating night in general."

Souderton's defense, which is coached by Barry Benfield, a Pennridge alumnus and longtime former Rams assistant (along with Gallagher), had hoped to keep Pennridge running backs Jesse Knepp and Ian Walbridge from getting outside.

And that's exactly what happened.

"The main thing we wanted to do was limit them getting to the corner," Gallagher said. "We knew they were going to hit us with some screens - Walbridge is a heck of a football player - but if we could contain him from running sweeps and getting Knepp around the corner, we'd be successful."

It wasn't until the third play of the fourth quarter, in fact, that Pennridge finally scored on a 56-yard screen pass from Kyle Peters to Walbridge - a TD that kept the Rams from being shut out for the second consecutive week.
PENNRIDGE7
SOUDERTON    27
GAME SUMMARY
Souderton 7 20 0 0  -27

Pennridge 0   0 0 7    -7

SCORING SUMMARY

S - Brown 2 run (Gianninni kick)

S - A. Coyle 1 run (kick failed)

S - A. Coyle 35 fumble return (A. Coyle run)

S - A. Coyle 8 run (kick blocked)

P - Walbridge 56 pass from K. Peters (Caya kick
INDIANS DOMINATE RAMS
S     P

First Downs                  14            8

Yards Rushing             182         77

Yards Passing             130       113

Total Offense               312       190

Comp. Passes, Int     7-10-0 7-16-0

Fumbles-lost                1-0         3-1

Penalties-yards            3-15     1-5

Punts-Avg.                   1-38      4-38

Sacked-Yds. Lost         0-0       2-8

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Souderton

Rushing: Brown 17-86, 1 TD; A. Coyle 9-50, 2 TDs; Kelly 8-30; Brokenshire 2-11; Stein 1-3; Scholl 3-2

Passing: Brokenshire 7-10-0, 130 yards

Receiving: Brown 2-58; Scholl 1-30; Bohidar 1-21; A. Coyle 1-16; K. Connolly 1-7; Kelly 1-(-2)

Interceptions: None

Pennridge

Rushing: Knepp 11-31, Walbridge 7-23, K. Peters 9-15, Metzler 4-6, C. Peters 1-2

Passing: K. Peters 7-16-0, 113 yards, 1 TD

Receiving: Walbridge 4-68, 1 TD; Metzler 2-9; Smith 1-36

Interceptions: None
PENNRIDGE7
SOUDERTON    27