Perk Valley pulls away from Boyertown for 46-20 win

BOYERTOWN >> Before Thursday night’s game at Boyertown, the Perkiomen Valley football team found themselves in the proverbial ‘bad spot.’

Coming off a huge shutout win against previously undefeated Owen J. Roberts — and with traditional rival Spring-Ford on deck next week — the Vikings found themselves with a short week to prepare for a Boyertown team, returning home after notching their first win last week against Methacton.

It had all the makings of a trap game — until the PV offense got rolling after halftime.

Quarterback Cole Peterlin led a strong second-half effort for Perk Valley, as the Vikings broke a tight game wide open in the 4th quarter, prevailing by a final score of 46-20 to remain undefeated in the PAC (5-1, 2-0 PAC).

“We didn’t have a great week of practice,” admitted Ryan Cerula, who got the offensive explosion started after halftime with a 36-yard touchdown catch. “But once our offense gets rolling, the results speak for themselves.”

But no matter what the final tally says, make no mistake — this game was dead even for three quarters. Early on, PV’s Isaiah Domine returned a punt 46 yards to the Bears’ 25-yard line. Four plays later, Brendan Schimpf carried for a 4-yard score to put the Vikings ahead 7-0. The PV offense was off and flying — little did they know they’d barely see the ball the remainder of the first half.

After a Ryan Cerula interception gave PV great field position, the Vikings took the ball inside the Boyertown 15 before missing a field goal on the final play of the first quarter. Boyertown immediately embarked on a drive that featured two highlight catches by Jerry Kapp.

The first catch saw Kapp drag his right foot in-bounds to move the ball into PV territory for the first time. For an encore, he out-jumped a PV defensive back for a first down at the 17-yard line. On the ensuing fourth down, however, Schimpf intercepted Boyertown quarterback Ayden Mathias at the 9-yard line to quell the threat.

But when Boyertown regained the ball with seven minutes left in the half, they began another methodical march that featured three fourth-down conversions before Jamie Moccia finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown plunge just 14 seconds before halftime to tie the score at 7-7.

“We only had three offensive possessions that first half,” said Perkiomen Valley coach Rob Heist, “and that’s a testament to Boyertown and (coach) TJ Miller’s gameplan. In the second half, we had a couple things go our way, got some short fields, and made some plays.”

Quite a few plays, in fact. Peterlin found Cerula in stride for a 36-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings the lead just three minutes into the third quarter, but a personal foul penalty pushed the PAT back to a 35-yard attempt, which was wide left. The Bears responded immediately, with Mathias finding Blaise Caroselli inside the 5-yard line before Marcus Thomas’ 1-yard run tied the game at 13-13.

But the game would turn permanently in PV’s favor on the ensuing possession, when Peterlin converted consecutive 3rd-and-13 situations with respective completions to Domine and Jon Moccia to extend the drive. Two plays after the second conversion, Peterlin finished what he started with a 5-yard touchdown run to give the Vikings back the lead for the third time. This time, they wouldn’t look back.

The running game finished the job for the Vikings, with Schimpf adding two more rushing touchdowns and Jon Moccia and Zachary Lomonaco each adding a tally for PV in the fourth quarter. Thomas, who rushed for exactly 100 yards on the night, closed out the scoring for Boyertown (1-5, 1-1 PAC).

“When you look at a team like Perk Valley, they know how to close out games,” said Boyertown coach TJ Miller. “It’s something we’re still working on, and we’ll get there.”

For the victorious Vikings, the win sets the stage for the likely Game of the Year, at least in the Liberty Division — next week’s showdown with Spring-Ford.

“Spring-Ford’s gonna be up, they’ll be ready — we’re gonna get their best punch,” said Heist. “But we finally get a chance to play at our field, in front of our community. It’s gonna be a great week.”