H.S. football: CB East uses punishing ground game to upend CB South
WARRINGTON — Central Bucks East showed its mettle early in Friday night's 21-7 win over host Central Bucks South and did so while not even scoring.
The Patriots, now 4-0, took the opening kickoff and moved 62 yards on 12 plays only to fumble the ball away on the Titans' 14-yard line.
Doing that can crush a lot of teams, take away their momentum, and stick in their heads.
None of that happened.
Central Bucks East just kept on playing, kept eating up yardage and clock, and did what it needed to do.
"You just have to forget about the fumble and keep going," said Patriots junior tight end Jack Donnelly, who scored the game's first touchdown on a 16-yard strike from senior quarterback Pat Keller.
"We just kept thinking about the next play and what we had to do to try and win. South is a really good team and we knew this was going to be a tough game."
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Despite dominating in the first half, the visitors led just 7-0 at halftime.
"That's a credit to a really good South team," said East head coach John Donnelly, who is also Jack's father. "We knew this wasn't going to be easy and it sure wasn't
"(South head coach) Tom Hetrick is such a good coach and he has some players that can make things happen against you."
The Patriots built a 14-0 lead on a 79-yard touchdown run by senior running back Ethan Shine (217 rushing yards and two scores) before the 3-1 Titans answered right back when gritty senior quarterback Brett Szarko found junior Sebastian Pacchione for a 9-yard score.
A 7-yard touchdown burst by Shine on the Patriots' next possession put things away.
"They go 4 yards, 4 yards, 4 yards and it's another first down and they keep moving down the field," CB South head coach Tom Hetrick said. "That's a really good football team that we played against and they're just tough to beat."
Three things we learned
That you'd better score when you get the chance against Central Bucks East because you won't get many chances. The Patriots dominated possession (they ran 36 plays from scrimmage in the first half to just 12 for the Titans) and ended up running the ball on 50 plays. Doing that successfully eats away at the clock.
That Central Bucks South senior wide receiver Tommy Donnelly has only gotten better and better through his career. He's small, maybe 5-foot-6 or 5-7 and 150 pounds, but with the ball in his hands he's as big, and elusive, as any player on the field. And he's been doing it since his sophomore season.
That Central Bucks East has another weapon in junior kicker Jack Corrigan. Corrigan didn't just convert his three extra-point tries, he hammered them. In other words, when the Patriots are thinking about a long field-goal try, having Corrigan around will make the decision easier.
Game balls
Central Bucks East senior running back Ethan Shine is a tackle-breaking machine. He ran through a multitude of tackles and continually moved the pile, ran over the pile or ran past the pile. "If he's not the best running back in the SOL (Suburban One League) I don't know who is," Central Bucks South head coach Tom Hetrick said.
Central Bucks East junior tight end Jack Donnelly scored the game's first touchdown and already has three on the season. He wasn't the first read on his TD catch, but he knew good things could happen. "With the way they were lined up on defense, I knew that if they came my way I would be able to score," he said.
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They said it
"We know a lot of their guys and they know a lot of ours," said Jack Donnelly of the rivalry with the Titans. "But out on the field, nobody knows each other."
Check it out:CB South's Szarko family making it work on the football field and off, too
Drew Markol: dmarkol@theintell.com; @dmarkol
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Central Bucks East runs past Central Bucks South to stay unbeaten
