TOWAMENCIN- The North Penn Knights (1-2) are looking to rebound from a tough loss last week against Archbishop Wood, as they face the Pennridge Rams tonight in their first game in the newly aligned Suburban One National Conference. The Rams (3-0) come in undefeated winning their first three games all by a comfortable margin.

Unlike Pennridge, North Penn has not gotten off to an unblemished start. Some of the Knights struggles can be attributed to the difficulty of their non-conference schedule. North Penn started their season against three state champion contenders, at their respective levels, in Lasalle, West Catholic, and Archbishop Wood. The Rams on the other hand opted to go with more familiar Suburban one foes in their non-conference schedule playing three teams, C.B. East, C.B. West, and Hatboro Horsham.

However records are beside the point, if the Knights want to hand Pennridge their first loss of the season they’re going to have to figure out a way to slow down the Rams tailback Joe Unangst. Unangst comes into the game with 508 yards rushing and 5 rushing touchdowns, he’s also averaging 12.1 yards per carry.

“We have to keep them inside, keep contain on the outside.” stated senior captain Ryan Nowicki.

North Penn will also be undergoing a change under center as Junior Jake Bevan gets the starting nod at quarterback this week.  Bevan impressed last week after entering the game midway through the second quarter. He completed 4-7 passes for 55 yards; he also rushed for 33 yards on four carries.

The unrest at the quarterback position will not affect the Knights going into the game Friday night.

“We try to not let it affect us. We’re just going to go out and play hard no matter who is back there.” said Nowicki. “We definitely have confidence in Bevan. He had a couple nice runs last week, [he] made some good throws [also].”

Bevan’s ability to make plays with his legs may also North Penn an added dimension to their offense.

“We’re going to let Jake Bevan run the ball a little bit more tonight. We’re going to see if we can be more efficient, especially when we get inside the ten [yard line]; we’re kicking too many field goals. I’m hoping Jake will give us a spark there,” said Knights head coach Dick Beck.

An improvement North Penn must make however is along the offensive line. The line has struggled to control the line of scrimmage the first three games, subsequently Junior tailback Nyfese West has been held to under 4 yards a carry. The Knights have to improve their running game if they want to knock off the Rams.

“[The offensive line] has to be assignment strong. They’ve got to cut [down on] the mental errors. There have been too many mental errors for my liking” Beck added.

If the offensive line can improve West’s production should increase as well.

“We’re going to run a lot. A lot of teams key him so we’re going to try to  get him the ball this week. We’re going to try to open up some holes for him [to run through] and see if he can get going.” Nowicki said.

The Knights have put themselves in a tough spot starting the season off 1-2. They do not have much more room for error going forward if they want to solidify a seed in the District 1 playoffs. A win on Friday night would go a long way towards helping them achieve that goal.