Mercury Football Preview: Turnaround tale sees Pottstown hosting district playoff game vs Springfield Twp.

As recently as two years ago, the thought of hosting a game on the first Friday night of the district playoffs was unfathomable at Pottstown.

For one thing, there weren’t any lights at Grigg Memorial Field to host night games (that was remedied early in the 2017 season.) But more importantly, the team had just wrapped up a two-win campaign featuring only one Pioneer Athletic Conference victory.

Mark Fischer’s first season at the helm didn’t yield immediate results on the scoreboard, as the Trojans would finish 2-9 once more. But quietly, he was laying a foundation for a turnaround with several goals along the way.

A 3-1 start this season was a big step to the 5-5 record the Trojans ultimately built, allowing for the year’s second landmark accomplishment. It comes this Friday night, when Pottstown plays host to Springfield Township (6-3) in a District 1 Class 4A semifinal. It’s Pottstown’s first trip to districts since PIAA restructured Pennsylvania football after the 2015 season, and their first home playoff game in recent memory.

The Trojans’ opponent Friday, Springfield-Montco, is enjoying its own rise from the ashes after being forced to abandon its season in 2016 due to lack of players.

As with most teams, Pottstown’s turnaround started with senior leadership.

“Two guys who stand out — Destyn Snyder, and Nehemiah Figueroa,” said Coach Fischer. “Destyn is the leader on our offensive line, he’s a kid who bought into what we were doing from the beginning, inspired the others along the way… he’s been that way all year. Nehemiah — he leads the PAC in interceptions, and he leads our team in tackles and in receptions on offense. A strong senior class is essential for getting your football team going.”

But that doesn’t mean the cupboard will be bare in 2019. Junior quarterback Josiah Wiggins finished the regular season among the top 10 rushers in the PAC this year with 737 yards and a league-high 12 rushing touchdowns. Defensively, Jorge Mundo is a junior pass-rushing defensive end who’s shown steady improvement throughout the year, while the Darden brothers, Dereck and Daniel, lead the linebacking corps and secondary respectively.

“Dereck is the heart and soul, in on every tackle,” said Fischer, “and Daniel, over the past two years, I can only remember one receiver beating him. We can match him up on any team’s top receiver and he won’t give up a catch.”

Fischer singled out the Phoenixville and Pope John Paul II games as turning points for an improving team. “Phoenixville — low-scoring, and we make a goal line stand to preserve the victory,” he said of the 14-8 triumph. “You look back and you see the things we did well in that game, the kids really came together and believed they would get that stop in the end.”

Against PJP, who finished 8-2 on the year, Wiggins was knocked from the game early with an ankle injury, but WR Darius Smallwood moved behind center and righted the ship, keeping the Trojans competitive until the final whistle.

This week, the underrated Trojans’ defense will be tasked with stopping Springfield Township’s do-it-all quarterback, Max Perry, whose rushing numbers resembles Wiggins’ but also has 1,080 yards and 20 TDs to his credit in the passing game. “He runs the ball more than anyone — strong arm, he makes that offense go,” said Fischer. “Even when they design other plays, he’s the focus. They want the ball in his hands, so we want to force someone else to beat us.”

Springfield-Montco, which played a non-league schedule this season, is the No. 3 seed and is riding a two-game win streak into the playoffs after a 41-20 win over George School on Oct. 20 and 55-12 win over Thomas Edison on Oct. 26.

Fischer notices a different culture of excitement surrounding Pottstown football this season. “Any time you win more football games, everybody’s more excited, they’re happy to be there,” he said. “It’s not just in school — the fans, the community have been supportive. Everybody has taken a step forward and created a better atmosphere.”

Class 4A: No. 4 Bishop Shanahan (4-6) at No. 1 Pottsgrove (9-1) >> After falling to Perkiomen Valley in the Pioneer Athletic Conference title game last weekend, the Falcons go after a three-peat of their own in District 1 Class 4A. Coach Bill Hawthorne hopes to see up-and-coming tailback Kayden White build on his 103-yard performance from the championship game. The Falcons will look to take better care of the football (four turnovers in the 35-17 loss to Perk Valley), but Hawthorne believes resiliency is the strength of a team looking to bounce back from its first loss.

“For a team that had to replace 15 starters from last year’s district championship team, we’ve persevered all year,” he said. “And we’ll be looking to do so again Friday.”

Similarly, Bishop Shanahan likes to rely on their guys up front to do the dirty work, and build out from there. Offensive tackles Lenny Kresefski and Nick Schell lead a rugged offensive line, while Tyler Kingsbury is the offensive X-factor. The Eagles work to get the ball in Kingsbury’s hands as much as possible not only from his wide receiver position, but in the kicking game as well.

Class 6A: No. 11 Quakertown (8-2) at No. 6 Perkiomen Valley (8-2) >> After another thrilling run to the PAC title, the Vikings will need to guard against any letdown. Luckily for them, do-or-die scenarios have a way of preventing such lapses. Coach Rob Heist called the 35-17 victory over Pottsgrove “the most complete game we’ve played all season” but quickly added that similar efforts will be needed to keep that season rolling. “Offensive, defensive lines — Quakertown has great size, they’re very physical, so we need to continue to improve and gel as one cohesive unit.”

Heist has maintained that if healthy, senior Cole Peterlin is his quarterback — but if Peterlin is unable to go, freshman Ethan Kohler has proven more than capable of piloting the Vikings’ ship, leading the Liberty Division championship comeback against Spring-Ford and last week’s title game win over Pottsgrove.

For the Panthers, senior Christian Patrick leads a balanced offense while Nick Levinski and Micah Kunkle are the leading tacklers on the other side of the ball. With 34 sacks on the season, Quakertown’s defense figures to get after either PV quarterback, and the scrambling abilities of Peterlin and Kohler could be a determining factor in this opening-round matchup.

Class 6A: No. 10 Downingtown East (8-2) at No. 7 Spring-Ford (8-2) >> Spring-Ford earned the right to host a first-round game, but the draw did them no favors, bringing Downingtown East to Royersford Friday. The Cougars’ only losses in 2018 are to Ches-Mont rivals Downingtown West and last week, 42-7 to Coatesville — both top-5 seeds in District 1.

The past few weeks have seen the Rams run out to big leads, only to let their opponents back into the game. They survived this scenario last week, holding on to top Pope John Paul II, 42-21, after running up a 35-0 lead early. But late-game troubles plagued the Rams in their showdown with Perkiomen Valley, as they fell 27-20.

Look at Downingtown East and you get the feeling the Rams would be best served to build another early lead and get the Cougars out of their comfort zone. Garvey Jonassaint led the Ches-Mont League with 1,270 rushing yards this year and was ably complemented by Zach Hamilton’s 773-yard output. Add it all up, and you get a team putting up almost 38 points per game while surrendering the second-lowest yardage total to opposing offenses. Weston Menzie leads an offensive line that’s been able to give Jonassaint and Hamilton ample room to run this season.

It’s hard to draw comparisons to Downingtown East’s most recent opponent, Coatesville, for any squad, but Spring-Ford also likes to rely on numerous skill-position players, which will limit the Cougars’ ability to focus on any one playmaker. Dante Bonanni led the PAC with 40 receptions in 2018, while WR Blaize Scarcelle and RB Stephen Brill have been increasingly relied upon in the past few games. At the helm of it all is QB Ryan Engro, whose 27 TD passes have him tied for the school record in a single season.

Class 5A: No. 15 Phoenixville (4-6) at No. 2 Upper Dublin (8-1) >> The Phantoms make their return to the playoffs after last week’s 14-7 victory over Methacton clinched their first trip to the postseason as a 5A team. Coach Don Grinstead applauded the defense’s effort in keeping Phoenixville’s heads above water until the offense was able to put up a pair of touchdowns in the late going for the final margin.

They’ll have their hands full with No. 2 Upper Dublin, the big-school District 1 champion as recently as 2015. Lucas Roselli leads a balanced Cardinals attack, while Brody Basala spearheads a stingy defensive unit.

For the Phantoms, Grinstead sees a sustained, four-quarter effort from his offensive line as the key to competing with the powerful Cardinals.

Class 5A: No. 9 Interboro (5-5) at No. 8 Upper Merion (6-4) >> It’s the first home playoff game in 15 years in King of Prussia, where the Vikings take on the Del-Val Conference’s Interboro Bucs. Last week’s 29-27 victory over Owen J. Roberts avenged a Week 4 shutout loss, and offered concrete proof of the Vikings’ improvement throughout this season. QB Dale Clayton had, in coach Victor Brown’s estimation, his strongest week throwing the ball, while Anthony Swenda’s tough running provided a second-half spark and gave Brown another weapon to add to the already-strong backfield of Zaire Savage and Mike Zelli.

Similarly, the Bucs will look to establish the run as they did in last week’s 41-6 thrashing of Glen Mills. The offense is led by second-year starting QB Jared Dellipriscolli, who ran for three scores last week, and two-way standout RB/DE Mike Moore, who has almost 900 yards on the ground to go with 14 scores this season. Moore has forced three fumbles on defense, while Ryan Galanaugh anchors the line on both sides of the ball.

Class 3A: No. 3 New Hope-Solebury (8-2) vs. Pope John Paul II (8-2), Saturday, 7 p.m., at Conshohocken’s A Field >> The teams have met before this season, as the Golden Panthers traveled to New Hope to upend the Lions, 39-27. PJP’s offense has remained consistent throughout the season, led by the breakout season of junior quarterback Kamal Gray (27 TDs to only 6 interceptions passing). Gray’s favorite targets, Steve Skarbek and Justin Kormos, have been challenging matchups for even the Panthers’ strongest opponents. Skarbek put up 145 yards and a score on eight catches against Spring-Ford last week.

The combination of QB Phil Weinseimer and TE Patrick Cooney is the key to the Lions’ offense, as the duo has connected 42 times this year for 732 yards and 10 TDs. Four different Lions have accumulated at least 350 yards rushing in 2018. The Lions bring a seven-game winning streak into action on Saturday night, during which their defense is allowing a paltry 7.6 points per contest.

The Class 3A district playoff field is combined with District 12. The winner will meet the winner of Conwell-Egan and School of the Future in the regional final on Nov. 9.

Eastern Conference Championship: Daniel Boone (5-5) at Owen J. Roberts (6-4) >> Another rematch from the regular season (OJR topped Boone 28-7 in Week 2) will decide this year’s 5A/6A Eastern Conference championship. Each team will be looking to end their season on a high note after suffering losses to end their district playoff hopes last week (OJR falling 29-27 to Upper Merion, while Boone dropped a 28-14 decision to Exeter.)

PAC leading rusher Marcus Martin and DE Aidan Hayward, the school’s all-time leader in quarterback sacks, look to cap off their high school careers for the Wildcats, while QB Tommy Buchert and RBs Chase Lacey and Tanner Vanderslice lead a run-heavy attack for the Blazers. A win at OJR would give Boone a winning record for 2018—quite a feat for a squad that came into the season having only won five combined games the past two seasons.

The Eastern Conference consists of member schools primarily in Districts 3, 4 and 11. The organization stages four classification-size determined ‘championship’ games for the top schools in each division to not make their respective PIAA district playoffs. Boyertown won last year’s 5A/6A Eastern Conference final.

Lawrenceville School (1-7) at Hill School (1-7), Saturday 2 p.m. >> After claiming their first victory last week against Mercersburg, the Hill School celebrates the 131st anniversary of their rivalry with Lawrenceville School this weekend. The Rams look to end their season on a winning streak, while simultaneously ending the Big Red’s eight-year stranglehold on this storied football rivalry.