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Phoenixville's Ryan Yenchick is tackled by Methacton's Sean O'Neill during Friday's game. (Photo by Barry Taglieber)
By Barry Sankey bsankey@journalregister.com
PHOENIXVILLE — Ryan Yenchick rushed for 124 yards and three touchdowns as Phoenixville jumped out to a 16-3 halftime lead and used a number of big plays to defeat Methacton, 37-10, in the Phantoms’ Pioneer Athletic Conference opening game Friday night at Washington Field.
Yenchick scored on runs of seven, one and two yards as the Phantoms (1-0, 2-1) controlled the line of scrimmage against the Warriors (0-2, 0-3).
“We came out and played very well with pride today like we did against Exeter,” said Yenchick, who doubles as a safety on defense. “That is Phoenixville football. We show passion and pride. It felt good, but I wouldn’t be anything without my line.”
Phoenixville’s Cole Luzins returned an interception 29 yards for a touchdown to give the Phantoms the lead for good in the opening quarter. Ian Harrigan booted a 27-yard field goal to stretch Phoenixville’s lead to 10-0 by the end of the first period.
“Cole got the touchdown on the interception, that was a huge play,” said Yenchick, “especially with him stepping up on defense in his first start at safety. He played an incredible game.”
WILMINGTON, Del. — Perkiomen School sputtered at the outset, showed some signs of progress in the middle of the game, and then struggled at the end. That amounted to a 23-0 loss for the Panthers in their football season opener Friday night at Tower Hill School.
John Garrett ran for 45 yards on 12 carries, Isaiah Smith passed for 98 yards, and John Williams caught a pair of passes for a total of 33 yards for Perk School, which actually wound up with a 168-145 margin in total yards and a 9-6 edge in first downs. But the Panthers suffered from horrible field position throughout the night due to fumbles and a couple of short punts and sustained only one long drive, that coming in the final minutes. Will Mette rushed for 50 yards for the Hillers (1-1) in the non-league contest at DeGroat Field.
“In the beginning we came out slow and we picked it up through the game,” said Garrett, who also caught a pass good for 20 yards. “At the end, we fell apart.”
“Slow start,” said Panther coach Tom Calvario. “How we practice is how we play. We just didn’t play well.”
FINAL SCORES
Pottstown 51, Boyertown 47
Phoenixville 37, Methacton 10
Pottsgrove 56, Upper Perkiomen 7
Perkiomen Valley 35, Owen J. Roberts 13
Tower Hill 23, Perkiomen School 0
Manheim Central 29, Daniel Boone 0
Video of the Owen J. Roberts band getting ready for the game.
If you can believe it, we're already in Week 3 of the season. Where has the time gone?
Week 3 means PAC-10 showdowns across the board, along with the start of the season for The Hill School and Perkiomen School. Overall, we have seven games on the docket for tonight and two more tomorrow. Those games are listed below, along with our reporters on the scene and the Twitter handle you should be following for updates.
(... of course you are already following all of our Twitter accounts, right?)
First, enter our #MercPerk contest for this week for your chance to win a T-Shirt. Tweet us @PottsMercSports with the answer to the following question and the hashtag #MercPerk:
Pick the winners of tonight's four PAC-10 games (listed below. For the tiebreaker, guess the total points scored in the Pottstown/Boyertown game.
Tonight's Rundown
Perkiomen School at Tower Hill (Del.) / DENNIS WELLER (@PottsMercSports)
Owen J. Roberts' Tom Barr and Perkiomen Valley's Scott Reed chat during pregame warmups on Friday night. (Photo by Darryl Grumling)
Perkiomen Valley training staff, from left, Karen Beaver, Tracey Hatch and Kelsey Martin, wait for the start of Friday night's showdown with Owen J. Roberts. (Photo by Darryl Grumling)
LOWER POTTSGROVE – There wasn’t anything all that special about
Pottsgrove’s game against Pope John Paul II last Friday night except for it being
both teams’ Pioneer Athletic Conference openers.
But when it was over, there certainly was.
For the first time since the second game of the 1968
season, Pottsgrove’s program owns an overall winning record (329-328-20).
Quite an achievement, or milestone, when considering only
four other area schools – The Hill School, Owen J. Roberts and Phoenixville, as
well as the former RoyersfordHigh School – can brag
about having more wins than losses in the history of their respective programs.
Pottsgrove, which kicked off its first season in 1957, was
able to stay above the all-even line early on thanks to 8-1 and 8-1-1 runs,
respectively, in 1963 and 1964 while playing in the Inter-CountyLeague.
After the conclusion of the 1967 season, the mark was still 47-45-8. But two
games into the following season, which ended at 0-9-1, Pottsgrove fell under
.500 and didn’t make it back until last week’s 53-14 win over Pope John Paul.
Nothing has helped the Falcons’ surge back more than four
unbeaten regular-season runs since 2000, and their current string of nine
consecutive winning seasons – all under current head coach Rick Pennypacker.
As impressive as that may be, their consecutive winning
seasons mark is still short of the area record of 17 in a row – which Hill
achieved from 1929 through 1945. The next longest streaks are 13, set by the
former SpringCityHigh School
from 1939 through 1951; and 12, by Phoenixville from 1912-23.
Pottsgrove moved out of the Inter-CountyLeague
following the 1964 season and joined the Ches-Mont League. In 1986, the school
teamed up with four other Ches-Mont rivals (Phoenixville, Pottstown,
Spring-Ford and St. Pius X), two Bux-Mont League teams (PerkiomenValley and Upper
Perkiomen), and Lansdale Catholic to form the Pioneer Athletic
Conference.
Among Pottsgrove’s other miscellaneous achievements are
holding the area records for most points scored in a season (497 in 2009 and
2010) and the average points scored in all games played (19.5).
DISTRICT NOTES
Showtime (again): North Penn faces its third straight
state-ranked opponent this weekend when the Knights entertain No. 10 St. Joseph’s Prep (2-0). … No. 8 ranked Downingtown East
will be tested by unranked but good Pennsbury (1-1). … A couple of unbeaten
matchups feature Henderson at
Plymouth-Whitemarsh and Sun Valley at AcademyPark.
STATE NOTES
Out-and-out brawls: Class AA’s No. 3 ranked Wyomissing visits unbeaten AAA
rival Muhlenberg tonight. … Class AAAA’s No. 1 ranked La
Salle entertains AAA’s No. 6 Cardinal O’Hara. … District 10-AAAA
power Eric McDowell (1-1), ranked No. 9, hosts defending state champion and now
Class AAA’s No. 7 Lancaster Catholic from District 3. … And probably the best
one of them all – a District 4 battle between Mount Carmel (No. 5 in Class AA)
traveling to Southern Columbia (No. 2 in Class
A).
Rank and file: The state’s other three No. 1 ranked teams, all unbeaten
through two games, all face winless opponents this week, so don’t expect any
shocking upsets. Class AAA’s Cathedral Prep is out at Lake Catholic in Mentor,
Ohio (0-3); Class AA’s Aliquippa hosts Riverside (0-2); and Class A’s Clairton
shouldn’t have a problem extending it’s national-high winning streak to 50 in a
row against visiting California (0-2).
No streaking: Holy Redeemer ended the state’s longest active losing
streak last week with a win over Holy Cross in District 2, but now faces
state-ranked Old Forge tonight.
Milestone: CumberlandValley head coach Tim Rimpfel picked up his 300th career win last
week when the Eagles ripped Red Lion, 44-10.
Encore: Lancaster Catholic’s Roman
Clay, who opened with 442 yards and six touchdowns, added another 249 yards and
four scores to his totals during last week’s 27-20 win over Governor Mifflin.
Clay is averaging 15.7 yards a carry and ran for 50 yards or more for six of
his 10 scores – which account for all of LC’s touchdowns through two games.
Quote of the Week: After Warren embarrassed
Clarion-Limestone, 83-12, in a game called halfway through the fourth quarter
(because of the score and an incoming storm), Warren head coach Brad Wright had this to say
(as ridiculous as it sounds): “We have to look at the tape,” Wright told the
Times Observer. “We had some dropped balls (and) some missed assignments on
defense that need to be taken care of.” … Those 83 points, by the way, only
rank fourth in Warren’s
97-year history of football.
NATIONAL NOTES
Moving on: Right behind Clairton’s national-high winning streak of
49 is Hornell (N.Y.), which owns 41 straight. Waunakee (Wisc.) is next with 39
in a row, and Truckee (Calif)
with 38 straight.
Outrageous numbers: Beech (Tenn.)
junior Jalen Hurd has run for 1,230 yards in three games to lead the nation,
but second-place Justin Crager of East (Ohio) is averaging .345.3 in three
games (for 1,036 overall). … NelsonCounty (Kty.) quarterback
Dylan Beasley – who threw for 652 yards and eight touchdowns last week – has
thrown for 1,738 in four games. Folsom (Calif.)
sophomore standout Jake Browning – who unloaded for 689 yards and 10 touchdowns
in last week’s win – is averaging 461 a game (1,383 in three outings).
BOYERTOWN – When Mark Scisly bid his farewells to Jared Von
Dohren, Max Marcus and Jon Neiman last year, he reached into his desk for a
calculator to add up all the yards the three ran up out of the Boyertown
backfield. Then he wondered where he could get his hands on a crystal ball to
see exactly who would be replacing them this year.
Scisly never did find that crystal ball, but he did discover
Matt Moccia, Cody Richmond and Eric Heller.
Moccia, Richmond
and Heller have combined for a workmanlike 95 carries and eye-opening 603 yards
in the Bears’ first two games, good enough to help Scisly’s team to a split …
and more important 1-0 start in the Pioneer Athletic Conference.
And the new threesome, along with veterans Nick McMenamin
(center) and Austin Jacobs (tackle) – and the rest of the unsung gang of
blockers in front of them – will be counted on heavily in tonight’s game
against visiting Pottstown.
“All three of those backs run so hard,” said Trojans head
coach Brett Myers. “All three are outstanding. I think if you took any one of
them and put him on another team he’d likely lead that team in rushing. All
three of them really stand out.
“(Boyertown) keeps you honest. They line up as pretty much
the same team you’ve seen before, but now they have three running backs who can
go to the left side, the right side and up the middle on you. They obviously
make you cover the whole field.”
Moccia led the way in a season-opening loss to C.B. East
with 150 yards and two touchdowns. Richmond
grabbed the honors in last week’s win over Upper Perkiomen
with 160 yards and two touchdowns. And Heller has contributed another 172 yards
and a score.
In the 47-15 rout of the Indians, the three accounted for
most of the 443 yards on the ground and 531 overall – the best offensive showing
by any Boyertown team in a PAC-10 game.
“They run all over the field, so we have to improve on our
tackling if we want to have any success,” Myers said.
The run game also eases up the pressure on quarterback
Griffin Pasik, who has responded with his own offense by throwing for an
additional 233 yards and three touchdowns.
“We saw a big improvement in our overall performance from
Week One,” Scisly said. “The C.B. East game was a learning experience because
we’re so young (only six seniors on the roster). But we definitely made huge
strides from that week and we feel we’ll get better as our guys get some
experience.”
Getting better is what Myers and his staff has seen through
the first two weeks, too.
The Trojans didn’t play quite as badly as the lopsided score
indicated against SchuylkillValley indicated. They
played as well as that lopsided score indicated in the pummeling of Penn Wood.
“Our blocking and tackling was much better the second week,”
Myers said. “We’re hoping to make that same growth this week.”
Exactly where the Trojans will need it is on the defensive
side of the ball.
“The kids are learning a new defense, a defense that I’ve
never been part of in my life as a coach,” Myers explained of defensive
coordinator Tim Hughes’ 50-scheme. “But the kids trust him. From our first
scrimmage to our second scrimmage, from our first game to our second game,
we’ve seen the improvement. And that’s our goal … to get better every week.”
That, of course, is precisely what Scisly wants.
“We just want to keep seeing improvement throughout the
season,” he said.
What Scisly isn’t happy about thus far, though, are the
mounting mistakes – as in five turnovers last week (seven overall) and 11
penalties for 100 yards last week (18 for 160 yards overall).
“I’ll take a win anytime, but all (those mistakes) are
unacceptable,” he said.
*
Last week’s Boyertown-Upper Perkiomen affair was the third
straight in which officials nearly wore out their whistles as the two teams
combined for 15 penalties for 140 yards. But last year, Upper
Perkiomen got hit with a PAC-10 record 17 for 184 yards. And in
2010, Boyertown was hit with 15 for 130 yards – the second most penalties and
yards in the league’s history. …
*
Congratulations to PerkiomenValley’s
Scott Reed, who picked up his 40th league win last week at Methacton. The
Vikings need two more this season to become the seventh team to reach 100 wins since
the PAC kicked off back in 1986. … Pottsgrove’s Mark Dukes went over the
1,000-yard mark in PAC-10 career rushing last week, joining teammate Tory
Hudgins and Spring-Ford’s Jarred Jones as the only other active players to
reach that mark in league play.
* * *
Don Seeley is the
sports editor of The Mercury. His high school football column appears Tuesdays
and Fridays through Thanksgiving. He can be reached at dseeley@pottsmerc.com
