TOWAMENCIN – While at the end of the night the scoreboard at Crawford Stadium indicated that The LaSalle Explorers had beaten the North Penn Knights 24-12 in their football season opener, the game was just as much about North Penn beating itself than it was about LaSalle outplaying The Knights. 

North Penn turned the ball over three times Friday night which led to two Explorer touchdowns, the first of which came on the first North Penn possession of the game. 

With under a minute left in the first half it looked as if North Penn would head to the locker room only trailing by four, having just come up with a big stop to hold LaSalle to a field goal. However following a fumble with eight second left in the half, Chris Ferguson was able to connect with Winston Eubanks for a 52 yard touchdown pass. 

“It’s the mental mistakes,” said North Penn Coach Dick Beck. “We give up the bomb at the end of the half while in prevent (defense). We can’t do that.”

The connection stole all of the momentum that North Penn had just gained following Nyfease West’s three yard Touchdown run.  West finished with 70 yards on 18 carries along with both of the North Penn touchdowns.

 In the third quarter it looked as if North Penn was poised to mount a comeback. The Knights drove from their own 28 to the red zone, only to have two false start penalties push them out of field goal range and a busted play on a fourth and long gave the Explorers the ball back. 

“We can’t make the mistakes that we made and expect to win” said Beck. When asked about the red zone penalties, Beck called it “A terrible display of discipline.”

The Knights were flagged eight times for 50 yards. They also had to burn four of their six timeouts due to apparent alignment issues. 

 In the fourth quarter the knights looked to be storming back again, and were able to claw themselves within five following Nyfease West’s second rushing touchdown. However Winston Eubanks returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown which seemed to take the life right out of the North Penn sideline and crowd. 

“I told the kids they have to take the blame here,” said Beck. He added “It’s early and we are going to work on (the discipline issues) for next week.”

The Knights look to get back on track next Friday as they travel to West Catholic.