Ervin carries NP to win
By DOM COSENTINO
The Intelligencer
PERKASIE — One team wore white while the other wore green, but if you were to hold a mirror up to the white team, the image would have looked an awful lot like green — with one notable exception.
North Penn (white) and Pennridge (green) were almost indistinguishable Thursday night. Both played smash-mouth football with their best running backs leading the charge, both dug in and made big defensive plays, and both even felt like playing giveaway when the game began.
Upon closer inspection, however, one thing separated the Knights from the Rams in their Suburban One League National Conference opener at Poppy Yoder Field.
Tyrece Ervin.
North Penn had him and Pennridge didn't, and his presence — 23 carries, 218 yards, two touchdowns — proved to be just enough to lift the Knights to a 19-13 victory.
“He is tough as nails,” NP coach Dick Beck said. “He runs like a caged animal. He's really a difference-maker for us.”
And to think Ervin still isn't 100 percent, that he's still feeling the effects of a sprained ankle that caused the 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior to miss the Knights' season-opening loss to Archbishop Wood. He also didn't have a carry in their Week 2 defeat against Cardinal O'Hara.
Now, after a rocky start, NP (2-2 overall, 1-0 SOL) can carry a two-game winning streak into next week's showdown with unbeaten Pennsbury, a favorite to win the conference title.
Ervin, who broke several tackles, said the injury bothered him “a little bit, but not enough to keep (him) out of the game” on Thursday.
“Our line did great, our line sucked it up,” Ervin said. “Everyone knew we had to step it up and play hard.”
After a scoreless first half that somehow included five combined turnovers in the game's first 31/2 minutes, Ervin took off on a 12-yard run that he followed with a zig-zagging, 43-yard TD run to give the Knights a 7-0 lead. He would later score on a 27-yard run to extend the lead to 19-7 after Pennridge (2-2, 0-1 SOL) turned the ball over on downs on its own 27 with just 2 minutes, 51 seconds remaining.
On the Pennridge side, senior Tristan Roberts was almost equally as difficult to corral. He rushed for 183 yards and a TD on 24 carries, including an 11-yard TD run that concluded an eight-play drive on which Roberts got the ball every time to the tune of 72 yards.
“He was awesome tonight,” said Beck of Roberts. “Running through arm-tackles, his vision was great, he cut back and always seemed to find the whole. I was very, very impressed with Tristan.”
Pennridge coach Randy Cuthbert said the game came down to missed tackles and turnovers. After Ervin's first TD run, the teams traded possessions before an interception that NP's Mike Katch returned 20 yards to the Rams' 25 set up a 2-yard TD run by Katch four plays later.
“You've got to take advantage of the turnovers when you get them,” Cuthbert said. “The difference was missed tackles and turnovers, from our standpoint.
“A lot of times we had their ballcarriers wrapped up at the line of scrimmage and they broke through tackles and made a lot of great plays. That hurt, but also the turnovers. You can't keep putting the ball on the ground or throw interceptions against good teams.”
Dom Cosentino can be reached at (215) 345-3185 or dcosentino@phillyBurbs.com.
September 22, 2006 8:32 AM
