Defense carries Perk Valley over Pottstown, 42-7

POTTSTOWN >> He was quick to point out his defensive stars.

Each and every one of them.

But in a game this defensively dominated, it’d be hard for Perkiomen Valley head coach Scott Reed not to.

The Vikings defense limited Pottstown to 49 yards of total offense in the first half and forced two turnovers while the offense took advantage of fortuitous field position in a 42-7 victory over the Trojans Saturday at Grigg Memorial Stadium.

“TJ Foley, Ryan Light, Nick Marren, Jon Rotonda, Tim Nestor, Kyle Beaudoin, Jack Lindberger, all the guys up front did a nice job and the corners seemed to do a good job keeping the edge,” Reed said.

“With (Bryant) Wise going on the outsides and (Brandon) Tinson pulling, we were on high alert to secure the perimeter of the field today and I thought our corners and safeties did a good job of coming up. It was a great effort by them.”

The Vikings (4-0 PAC-10, 5-0 overall) defense limited Pottstown (2-1 PAC-10, 4-1 overall) to 153 yards of total offense and limited senior quarterback Brandon Tinson to 49 yards on the ground, the first time he’s been held under 100 yards in three games. The defense forced two turnovers — including one on Pottstown’s first drive which yielded a Viking touchdown three plays later — and forced the Trojans to punt on seven of their 10 possessions.

Junior quarterback Stephen Sturm finished the game 16-of-24 for 177 yards and two scores while adding 23 yards and two scores on the ground. David Williams finished the game with 59 yards rushing and two scores while junior receiver Justin Jaworski finished with 53 yards receiving with one touchdown as the Vikings built a 28-0 lead entering the half.

“I felt it was just nerves,” Pottstown head coach Don Grinstead said. “I felt like the first quarter and a half we were just fighting nerves. We had stupid penalties, turned the ball over twice.

“This is a great teachable moment for our kids. We’re learning how to win against good football teams, and that’s a real good football team. We’re going to take a lot from this game. This game is going to make us better, no doubt about it.”

The Trojans defense forced four punts but couldn’t get off the field as the offense ran only 25 plays before launching a seven-play, 80 yard touchdown drive to make it 35-7 a minute into the fourth, Wise hauling in a 3-yard pass from Tinson.

That spelled trouble against a Vikings offense that came in averaging a PAC-10 best 49 points per game.

Following a fumble on Pottstown’s first play from scrimmage, Sturm scored from 1-yard out to make it 7-0. Williams capped off an eight-play, 48-yard drive on the next possession to make it 14-0 before Sturm ran another one in from five yards out late in the second. Following a successful pooch kick that was recovered by Remy Sell, the Vikings added another touchdown as Sturm connected with Jaworski for a 20-yard scoring strike to make it 28-0.

Here comes PV pic.twitter.com/TNiTmhTOVe

— Sam Stewart (@Samuel_Stewart7) October 3, 2015

The second half featured more of the same with Sturm connecting with a wide open Aaron Morton for a 47-yard touchdown midway through the third before Williams capped off a nine-play, 79-yard drive with a 3-yard sweep into the end zone.

“It feels amazing to get this win. All this week we heard about how they were 4-0 and they were ready to play. I’ll give it to them, they have a couple of real nice football players,” Sturm said. “When you play a team like them, you really have to stay focused because at any moment they could have scored, and they showed that on their last drive.

“We just came out focused and it was real nice to get the win.”

NOTES >> The Vikings finished with 20 first downs to Pottstown’s five. … Arch finished the game with 49 yards rushing on nine carries. … Chris Jimenez, the Vikings’ starting left tackle, finished with 17 yards rushing after picking up a fumble. … Anthony Wiggings finished with a game-high 57 rushing yards for Pottstown.