Spring-Ford hands Boyertown third straight shutout loss

BOYERTOWN >> Just a week ago, Spring-Ford head coach Chad Brubaker stood on the sideline, waiting for one of the Rams to make a play.

On Friday night, that wait was finally over.

On the game’s opening snap, quarterback TJ Pergine hit Stone Scarcelle, who then took it 61 yards to the house to kick-start the Rams’ 52-0 rout of Boyertown.

“That’s what we said in the locker room before the game,” said Brubaker, “‘Don’t wait for somebody else to make the play. You make it happen.’ We were able to get off to a pretty good start from there.”

The Ram offense rolled from that point forward.

Pergine finished the night with three passing touchdowns while Scarcelle hauled in two receiving scores and also passed for one.

The result improves Spring-Ford to 3-1 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Liberty Division (6-2 overall), their lone conference loss coming last week against Perkiomen Valley.

Boyertown — victim of three consecutive shutouts — falls to 1-3 in the Liberty Division and 2-6 overall.

Selwyn Simpson took it for 96 yards and two rushing touchdowns on 10 carries and also hauled in a 6-yard receiving touchdown while Justin DeFrancesco had 100 yards rushing with a touchdown and hauled in a 50-yard receiving touchdown from Scarcelle.

“I think all of us took a lot from last week’s loss,” said Scarcelle. “We were all ready to move on from it, though. Tonight was big. We came out, played smash-mouth, and we’re leaving here with the win.”

Defensively, the Rams sacked Boyertown quarterback Jerry Kapp twice while Matt Booth came up with an interception. Boyertown was held to just 122 yards of total offense and went 2-for-10 on third down tries.

Boyertown head coach George Parkinson deemed it a mismatch from the start.

“They’re bigger, they’re stronger,” he said of Spring-Ford, “they won the line of scrimmage battle all night. We couldn’t even get a hitch-pass off.

“Our passing game was shut down, our running game was shut down. We just couldn’t handle them.”

Kapp completed only three of his 11 passing attempts for 25 yards while Hunter Vogels rushed it six times for a team-high 36 yards. The Bears were unable to move the chains until about four minutes left in the first half, when Kapp held it on a keeper on 3rd-and-1.

“I’m not sure that there was anything we could have done differently,” Parkinson added. “That’s just a really good all-around football team.”

Scoring Drought

Boyertown hasn’t scored since Marcus Thomas’ 2-yard touchdown run with 10 seconds left during the Bears’ win over Methacton on Sept. 23. Since, the Bears have been shutout by Perkiomen Valley (30-0), Owen J. Roberts (29-0) and now Spring-Ford (52-0).

To Parkinson, it’s imperative that the Bears get on the board during next week’s game against Norristown.

“We haven’t had that excitement of scoring a touchdown,” he said. “That’s been deflating for us. We’ve got to get our offense going next week and try to get some momentum from that.”

Home, Sweet Home?

Boyertown has been abysmal on the road this season, compiling an 0-4 record in games outside of Bear Memorial Stadium. In those four losses, the Bears have been outscored 116-20. At home, they now sit 2-2, despite being outscored 146-87.

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Spring-Ford is now 9-4 against Boyertown dating back to the 2004 season. The Rams have won six straight against the Bears, dating back to a 20-0 Boyertown win during the 2010 season.

Homecoming

Boyertown senior Natalie Wynne was named the 2016 Homecoming Queen at halftime.