CB East fends off South rally

The Central Bucks East football team seems to have gotten on track.
The Patriots posted a 24-19 win over Suburban One League National Conference opponent Central Bucks South on Friday night at CB South.
It was the second consecutive win for CB East, which opened up the season with a loss to Ridley but topped Neshaminy last week. The Patriots are now 2-0 in conference play, 2-1 overall.
CB East got on the board first with just 1:06 to go in the first quarter when junior Ethan Shine went 15 yards for a touchdown to cap a 75-yard drive. Jack Corrigan’s extra point was good.
They added to the lead in the second quarter with a 37-yard field goal by Corrigan and an 8-yard touchdown run by Declan Kelly. Corrigan put it through the uprights to make it a 17-0 Patriots lead at halftime.
With 8:49 to go in the third quarter, the Titans got on the board by virtue of a 2-yard touchdown rush by Cole Maholtz. The extra point attempt was no good, but the Titans were in business.
The momentum went back to the Patriots, when Shine broke loose and went 50 yards for a touchdown. Corrigan was good again, and CB East entered the fourth quarter with a 24-6 lead.
But the Titans were not finished.
Maholtz ran 23 yards for his second Titan touchdown for the night. The two-point conversion was unsuccessful, but CB South had cut the lead to 24-12 with 11:41 left in the game.
The Patriots got the ball back and, although they did not score, managed to chew up a lot of time in the drive, giving the Titans very little breathing room.
Maholtz still managed to find the end zone with a 2-yard run and 44.9 seconds on the clock. Kevin Carrigan’s extra point was good.
CB East recovered the onside kick and quarterback Pat Keller took a knee to end the game.
“We had a big win against Neshaminy last week and that gave us confidence,” Shine said. “It’s always good to get a win under your belt. We started off the season with a loss, but then we came back and beat a team by a couple of touchdowns and now we’re up, and it feels good.

“This is a big win for us, it’s always big to win against one of our rival schools. They started to come back on us in the second half, so of course there are things on defense that we’re going to be working on. We’re always working, we’re always picking things up and learning with each game.
“I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season because I think our team can really do well.”
Shine led all rushers with 238 yards on 33 carries. Kelly had eight carries for 41 yards and Keller had two completions for 29 yards.
The game was originally slated for Saturday morning at CB East, but was moved due to flooding conditions at CB East’s Patriot Stadium after last week’s storm.
“It wasn’t hard for us to switch and play on their field at all,” Shine said. “It doesn’t matter where we are, home or away, CB East football, we do whatever we have to do every single time.”
CB East notched three interceptions in the game, all in the first half. Matt LaBouliere, Nick Carter and Dan Vogelsong each picked off a pass from CB South quarterback Patrick Maerz.
“South is a well-coached team,” CB East coach John Donnelly said. “Tom (Hetrick, South head coach) does a great job. We said the first drive was huge for us, and it was. They had the ball first and went three-and-out then we went down and scored. Then late in the game we had a big drive, we moved the chains and kept the clock running.
“You’ve got to give credit to our offensive line, they blocked their tails off all night for Ethan and for all our other running backs.
“Our guys were really excited to play this game and there was a lot riding on it, a lot of incentive for sure. This was not going to be a letdown game for us after Neshaminy, that was for sure.”
The Patriots are scheduled to host Bensalem on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Maholtz ended the day with 101 yards on 15 carries and all three of CB South’s touchdowns. He also led CB South’s receivers with five catches for 62 yards. Maerz completed 12 passes for 184 yards. Tyler Robinson made one catch for 43 yards.
CB South drops to 0-2 in the SOL National, 1-2 overall.
The Titans are back in action on Friday, when they play host to Hatboro-Horsham at 7 p.m.

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