FOOTBALL: CB West overcomes slow start to advance past Cheltenham in district playoffs

By Christiaan DeFranco

DOYLESTOWN — Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

Nothing in life is guaranteed.

Even when you’re the top seed in the district, there’s no “tomorrow” guarantee of reaching the next round. There’s no guarantee you’ll get past No. 16 Cheltenham.

At halftime in the opening round of the District 1-6A football playoffs, the scoreboard showed goose eggs. But No. 1 Central Bucks West, after some early self-inflicted wounds, finally woke up and erupted in the third quarter and went on to a 27-12 win Friday over the Cheltenham Panthers to reach the coming week’s quarterfinals against Garnet Valley.

“We were flat in the first half,” CB West coach Rob Rowan said on suburbanonesports.com. “It’s something I was concerned about leading up to the game.”

Rowan’s concerns were allayed in the third quarter, when West (11-0) put up 24 points to take control of the night in front of its home crowd.

As many points as the Bucks have put up all year — they averaged 31.4 points per game during the regular season — it was their defense that took center stage in the first round Friday.

“Coming out flat … it wasn’t because we didn’t prepare or know the type of team we were playing,” Rowan said. “We have to play our two rivalry games back-to-back in the last two weeks of the season. Those games are emotionally charged games. The energy was different in the stadium tonight, and it all contributed to a really slow start for us.”

CB West beat Central Bucks South in Week 9 and Central Bucks East in its season finale.

“Cheltenham played a great first half,” Rowan said. “Their effort was incredible defensively. They were flying to the football. We knew they had a lot of speed defensively, so they gave us everything we could handle. I don’t want to take anything away from Cheltenham.”

The Bucks may not have brought the same energy to Friday’s game against Cheltenham. The stands at War Memorial Field also weren’t as full as the previous two weeks. Nonetheless, CB West ultimately got the job done.

Cheltenham (5-6) got on the board first in the second half, when running back Tre McLeod broke free for a 53-yard score. But CB West immediately answered. Devin McGowan returned Cheltenham’s kickoff to the 10-yard line, and Ryan Clemens nailed a 26-yard field goal.

On Cheltenham’s next possession, the Bucks’ Noah Miller blocked a punt that the Bucks recovered on the Panthers’ 6-yard line, and then scored to take the lead on a Clemens run.

CB West then recovered a Cheltenham fumble, and quarterback Cooper Taylor hit McGowan for a 32-yard touchdown.

CB West never looked back. It was over.

“I was proud of the way our kids responded in the third quarter,” Rowan said. “That’s when things changed.

“This was a good lesson for us about mental preparation.”

Clemens finished with 97 rushing yards on 22 carries and also kicked two field goals.

No. 8 Garnet Valley (9-2) knocked off ninth-seeded Owen J. Roberts Friday, 28-21.

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CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 27, CHELTENHAM 12

Cheltenham                 0          0          6          6          —        12

CB West                      0          0          24        3          —        27

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Email Christiaan DeFranco at cdefranco@thereporteronline.com. Follow him on X at @the_defranc, or visit ChrisDeFranco.com.