A rivarly -- a bitter, ugly, hateful, nasty, dirty, obnoxious, oncouth, steaming rivalry -- was born on the football field Friday night between Souderton and Downingtown East.

Well, apparently the rivalry is a year old. Souderton just didn't know it.

After the Indians desimated Downingtown East, 42-14, in the opening round of the 2006 district playoffs, there was some trash talk -- between players and between fans. Souderton didn't give it much thought, but the Cougars stewed over the humiliation.

So, this year, when District One surprised everybody with its seedings and had Souderton matched up against Downingtown East in the first round again, the Cougars jumped all over it.

The Cougars coaching staff harassed Souderton coach Ed Gallagher on his answering machine, claiming he was violating an "unwritten rule" by not exchanging game film -- and threatening to report him to District One. Gallagher, meanwhile, had only just found out about the seedings himself and hadn't had a chance to give Downingtown game film yet.

"How are you going to report someone for violating an 'unwritten rule' anyway?" Gallagher wondered.

On Friday night, the Cougars didn't want to just beat Souderton on the Indians' home field, they wanted to rub it in. There was viscousness in Downingtown's postgame celebrations -- pointing and posturing and more trash talk.

If the Indians didn't feel a sense of rivalry with Downingtown East in the past, they do now.

-C.D.

A dirty little secret was exposed in Souderton's loss to Downingtown East in the opening round of the district playoffs.

Penalties.

The Indians have been so dominant all year, overlooked has been the fact they've averaged nearly six penalties per game. That's not an extraordinarily high number, but it's more than Quakertown and Central Bucks West (four per game each) -- whose combined record is 3-18. It's almost twice as many as North Penn.

On Friday, Souderton was flagged nine times, including twice on the Cougars' game-winning drive.

Souderton coach Ed Gallagher, emotional after the defeat, wasn't happy with the officials. In fact, he'd had issues with the same crew in two previous games, which Souderton won.

Nonetheless, penalties alone didn't cost Souderton -- and plenty of good teams absorb penalties. The offense couldn't sustain drives on Friday, particularly in the second half. A running attack that averaged 280 yards per game produced just 95 yards on 41 carries against Downingtown. There was also a missed extra point.

And there was the fact Downingtown just kept hanging around. Although the Cougars truly seemed out of it at times, and Souderton simply felt destined to win this one, the Indians couldn't ever deliver that final knockout blow.

"I started getting an eerie feeling as the game went on," Gallagher said. "I can't explain it, but I think they wanted this more than we did."

-C.D.

Got to go to two games this weekend: Souderton-CB East and Pennridge-CB South, both of which had teams clinch shares of conference titles.

- Another conference challenger, another shutout for Souderton. First it was dropping Hatboro-Horsham 35-0, then Big Red went up to Doylestown and blanked East 31-0. The Indians may have started slow, but they're wasn't any doubt who the better them was at War Memorial Field. Souderton's Wing T offense has been tough to stop, but respect alao has to go the Indian defense, which has a little more than a touchdown per game in conference play.

-Pennridge may be 1-8, but they gave CB South everything they could handle. Playing on a sloppy Poppy Yoder field, the Rams and Titans were tied at zero at the half. Pennridge should have be up at least six points but couldn't punch it in from a yard on their first drive.
But even down 12-0, Gang Green keep fighting and made it a six point game before Eric Reynold's 48 yard touchdown run basically put the game away.
Randy Cuthbert's squad is showing some fight and that should translate into some more wins in 2008.

- Had my first look at Reynolds on Saturday. He sat out the first half, but more than showed why he's getting looks from D-I schools after intermission. He's a legit threat to break any run for a touchdown and is also hard to take down.

-That North Penn-CB South matchup this Friday is going to be an interesting one. The game might not be just for the National, but also for the top spot in the District. Having South and North Penn playing in week 10 is a great set up, with the Titans looking to win the conference outright against the defending champs.

-College tangent: Good work to Ohio State, didn't think the Buckeyes would handle Penn State so easily in Happy Valley. It should give OSU some respect, but I think Jim Tressel's squad will still be look at as a soft No. 1. Oregon looks legit after dropping SC at Autzen. That's a hard thing to accept for a Washington grad. Huskies are 2-6 after giving up a 41-26 lead in the Arizona game to lose 48-41. Ty Willingham's seat has to be getting a little hot.

-Still have a bunch of games to go this week thanks to the rain, including a bunch of PAC-10 games, along with Hatboro-Norristown and CB West-Rock North on Monday.

Video of the moment
Since the Eagles are playing the Vikings on Sunday, here's a video of who the Birds have to stop-Adrian Peterson. Bonus points to the video creator for the use of the Quad City DJs.


-Mike Cabrey

Watch your step. Nobody is safe anymore. These districts are a minefield.

Just ask the Souderton field hockey team, whose 2007 dreams blew up.

The Indians, who have reached states five times this millenium and were seeded sixth in this year's District 1 tournament, went down 3-2 in overtime to No. 27 Unionville on Monday.

Heartbreaking.

The North Penn Maidens almost suffered a similar fate, but somehow tiptoed their way to safety. Or, perhaps more accurately, they just said screw it and sprinted through all the bombs.

The seventh-seeded Maidens had a heart attack and survived, beating No. 26 Radnor in OT.

Thank god for halftime speeches, courtesy of the Maidens coaches. Thank god for teamwork, which acted as a defibrillator after North Penn's lifeless first half. Thank god for Julie Rosenkaimer, who scored two goals to erase a 2-0 deficit. And thank god for Taryn Gjurich, the lively North Carolina-bound senior who scored the game winner on an assist from Meghan Collins.

As listless as the Maidens looked in the first half -- and they didn't look good -- they appeared virtually unbeatable in the second half and overtime. As the minutes ticked away, so did Radnor's spirit.

What a game! Instant classic. Nearly catastrophic. Even people who don't follow field hockey would have loved it.

If you weren't there to see it, where the hell were you?

North Penn hits the turf again on Wednesday, this time against No. 10 Central Bucks South. Be there. These girls are good.

-C.D.

A Norman, Oklahoma car dealership does its own rendition of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy's now epic press conference.


And if anyone hasn't seen it, here's the original press conference.

Week Six of the high school football season is almost over and by now there's been enough action to get a good idea of what the landscape looks like at this point.

The Suburban One National reminds me of the nation's favorite tedious carnival activity - Sand Art. Not shaped by a bottle, but basically stratified into three components. You got the heavyweights in North Penn, Neshaminy, and CB South, then Abington and Bensalem right now in tier two, Pennsbury just behind, and winless Pennridge and Truman at the bottom.

Preseason, the though was maybe Abington could break into the top spot usually reserved for NP, Neshaminy and Pennsbury. But losses to the 'Skins and South have the Ghosts at 3-3 and thinking more about salvage playoffs dream rather than conference titles. And it doesn't get any easier with North Penn visiting Saturday.

Anyway, the layers might get a little mix this upcoming week when Neshaminy and CB South play in a battle of undefeated and Truman and Pennridge hit the field with the winner getting its first win. Then half this post will be worthless.

The PAC-10, meanwhile, appears to look like something created from my greatest pleasure- spin art. Squirting paint on a spinning canvas until it created a multitude of color circles. Best thing ever.

The conference can thank Pottstown for reopening the title race after it mega surprise 28-27 overtime win over previously undefeated Lansdale Catholic. It was just the third win for the Trojans since the start of 2005, and went winless in '05.

It was hard to even think the Crusaders were going to drop Friday's game after blasting Upper Perk the week before. But, hey, it happens, that's football and sports in general.

A four team race has now been created with LC and Perk Valley at 4-1 and Pottsgrove and Spring-Ford at 3-1. The conference wasn't decided until the final week last season, it may end up doing the same this year.

-Mike Cabrey

The revamped blog, "Local Sports Beat," will be updated every week (sometimes a few times a week) by various members of The Reporter's sports department. It will focus on local teams and the local sports scene.