FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. — With both defenses dominating play on a stormy night, it was one of those games destined to be determined by which team made the big mistake.
Unfortunately for Pennsbury, it was the one that made it and the result was a killer 9-0 loss to Central Bucks South at rain-soaked Falcon Field Friday night.
With the loss, Pennsbury dropped to 3-5 and is going to need a miracle to somehow squeeze into the playoffs. C.B. South, meanwhile, is now very much alive at 4-4.
The pivotal moment occurred late in the third quarter when Pennsbury muffed a punt on its 15 yard line. Given the break its offense needed, C.B. South took advantage by reaching the end zone three plays later on a 7-yard run by Gavin Graham.
The Titans later added a safety to up the score to 9-0 when it sacked Pennsbury quarterback Jack Arndt in the end zone with :55 remaining in the game.
Although C.B. South does have a tough defense that shut out Neshaminy and held Central Bucks East to six points, there was reason to think the Pennsbury offense had found its stride after scoring 27 points in an overtime loss to C.B. East the previous week. In that game, Arndt completed 18 passes for over 200 yards.
Perhaps the weather conditions had something to do with it, but none of that was on display against C.B. South. Pennsbury attempted just 11 passes against the Titans and its ground game never achieved much traction either.
That’s not the say Pennsbury didn’t have its chances. The most notable example of this came when the Falcons drove to the C.B. South 9 yard line in the fourth quarter after falling behind in the third. Three running plays and an incomplete pass in the end zone, however, led to a turnover on downs. Pennsbury later had the ball in C.B South territory again, but this also amounted to nothing.
There were also a couple of Pennsbury drives that ended when it was unable to run clean plays and bobbled the ball on fourth-down plays.
Making the loss even more frustrating was this was another outstanding by a swarming Pennsbury defense that wasn’t far away from recording its fourth shutout of the year.
C.B. South completed just one of six passes and its rushing yardage was minimal.
Furthermore, it needed to go only 15 yards to record the game’s lone touchdown in its only real scoring opportunity of the night.
As it turned the Falcon defense effort wasn’t enough because Pennsbury followed up its best offensive showing of the year with one of its worse. Luke Beighley did rush for 52 yards, but he needed 18 caries to get them against a Titan defense led by end Jacob Friedman (two sacks).
It won’t get any easier next week when the Falcons host C.B. West, which was to have hosted Neshaminy Friday night before the game was moved to this Saturday. Not only is powerhouse C.B. West 6-1, but consider just last week it put 45 points on the board against C.B. South.Central Bucks South (4-4) 0 0 7 2 — 9
Pennsbury (3-5) 0 0 0 0 — 0
Third Quarter
CBS-Gavin Graham 7 run (kick good)
Fourth Quarter
CBS-Safety quarterback tackled in end zone.