Big plays carry Boyertown past Pope John Paul II
UPPER PROVIDENCE >> He’ll admit it, he was tired.
But boy did he wake up, and in a big way.
Dan Heller hauled in a 83-yard touchdown before taking a reverse 54 yards for another score as the Boyertown offense came alive in the second half to come away with a 42-22 victory over Pope John Paul II Monday afternoon.
“I was feeling tired in the beginning of the game, a little out of it,” Heller, a 5-8, 156-lb senior running back, said. “But once we got the train going on offense, I picked it up a little bit.”
Heller finished the game with 74 yards rushing and 83 yards receiving as Boyertown outscored the Golden Panthers 30-8 after trailing 14-12 midway through the second quarter. Heller’s big plays were a theme as the Bears finished with four touchdowns from 15 or more yards out.
Boyertown (2-2 PAC-10, 2-3 overall) overcame another penalty-filled game, getting flagged eight times for 65 yards. Quarterback Lawrence Garnett was the main offensive contributor for
Boyertown, throwing for 158 yards and a score on 8-for-10 passing while rushing for an additional 147 yards and two scores on 14 carries.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Boyertown.
“We had big plays today, a lot of our kids came up big,” Boyertown head coach George Parkinson said. “We gave up the big plays with penalties. I wanted to see us be more disciplined because a couple of those big plays came back. I thought that PJP did a pretty good job stuffing us inside.
“This win is very big, extremely big. If it went the other way it could have been pretty devastating for us. Things were clicking. We’re not exactly where I want us to be but we’re a step further than what we were.”
The Golden Panthers (0-4 PAC-10, 0-5 overall) were led by big performances from seniors Matt Duff and Jared Johns-Lupold. Duff, a senior quarterback, threw for 122 yards and three touchdowns while captain Johns-Lupold had another big day hauling in six passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns. Johns-Lupold also completed his second pass of the season, connecting with
Dan Cirino for a 51-yard completion on a gadget play that set up the team’s first score — a Duff pass to Ricky D’Aquilante that made it 12-8 in the first.
“He’s not the loudest kid but he really leads by example,” PJP head coach Rory Graver said of Johns-Lupold. “He’s the first one out at practice, he stays extra and does extra work. He’s a great all-around kid.”
The big players couldn’t overcome the big plays, however.
Boyertown struck first as Garnett took a 54-yard run to paydirt before finding time in the pocket and launching a deep ball to Heller who hauled it in and shirked off a PJP defender before running it in for the 83-yard score to make it 12-0.
“I thought he was going to tackle me,” Heller said. “Lawrence had good awareness seeing me downfield, seeing that I was open. It was a good pass.”
The Golden Panthers struck back with the aforementioned Duff to D’Aquilante touchdown pass before Duff found Johns-Lupold for a touchdown to give them a 14-12 lead midway through the second — their only lead of the game.
Boyertown struck back with Heller gaining the edge on a reverse for a 54-yard score to give the team a 20-14 lead at the half. Then, Garnett led the Bears to touchdown drives on three of the team’s next four possessions in the half, Hunter Vogels’ (10 carries, 65 yards and two touchdowns) 15-yard score capping off the team’s scoring and giving the team a 42-14 lead with five minutes left in the game.
“We’re trying to figure out what exactly we need to do in order to play a better second half,” Graver said. “I told the team that it’s been four or five times when we’re in the game at the half. We’re either a score up or a score down. I can’t figure out what it (our problem) is yet.”
NOTES >> Boyertown had three sacks in the game, Jacob Gambone, Pat Ricci and Max Dominique all with one. … Boyertown was 2-for-2 on fourth-down conversions. … Andrew Salvo finished the game with 52 yards rushing for PJP.
