Upper Moreland wins game of emotions over Pottstown

POTTSTOWN >> Emotion-fueled play can produce great results.

Or it can derail the best of efforts.

Emotions ran high Friday at Grigg Memorial Field, where Pottstown was hosting Upper Moreland on the second weekend of the 2019 season. As it turned out, the visiting Golden Bears worked through the emotional intensity better than the Trojans, coming away with a 25-13 victory.

The evenly-matched proceedings came undone early in the fourth quarter, when UM scored twice off Pottstown turnovers. Ryan Schernecke picked off Trojan freshman Joneil Oister late in the third quarter to set up the Bears’ go-ahead score — a 21-yard TD toss from quarterback Bryon Hopkins to T.J. Troxell in the opening minutes of the fourth — and the Bears recovered a Trojan fumble to set up a drive-capping 35-yard scoring run by Cameryn Jackson with 3:33 left.

“We’re a very young team, like Pottstown is,” UM head coach C.J. Szydlik said. “We played an emotional first half, and that got the best of us.”

Pottstown, which rode Oister’s fleet feet and speed to its second-quarter scores, found itself undone by turnovers and untimely penalties toward the end. The Trojans (1-1) lost three of four fumbles, got picked off three times and saw a number of big-gaining plays negated by yellow flags.

The emotions reached a crescendo on the game’s final play, Pottstown reacting to a hard tackle of Oister with some of its players scuffling with several Golden Bears at the conclusion of Oister’s 13-yard run.

“We let the emotions kill us,” first-year Pottstown head coach Jeff Delaney said. “When you play under control, you can make good things happen. When you get out of your game, things change.

“We have to keep our emotions in check.”

Oister, who finished with 159 yards on nine carries, showed athleticism beyond his youth. He bulled his way up off center for Pottstown’s first score at the 9:35 mark of the second quarter; and two possessions later, scrambling away from Upper Moreland’s defensive pressure, cut to the Trojan sideline and roared on a 65-yard run that brought the locals back even with the Golden Bears with 3:04 remaining in the first half.

“He’s a very good athlete,” Delaney said of the younger of his team’s two Oisters — senior Jon a standout on the defensive side. “He needs to work on fundamentals, though.”

While its running game was marginally successful — its three principal rushers had 122 yards between them — Upper Moreland made up some of the difference through the air. Hopkins completed 14 of 24 passes for 161 yards, connecting twice with Troxell (six catches, 100 yards) for scores of 35 and 21 yards.

Hopkins, whose lone pick of the game was collected by Jon Oister late in the first half, hit Jahaire Johnson four times for 41 yards. He had three pass completions in excess of 20 yards, the longest the 35-yard TD pass to Troxell.

“With Jahaire dealing with cramps, we went to other players,” Szydlik said. “The kids were making plays.”

Defensively, Jon Oister and Jahzeel Watson made big individual plays. Oister recovered a Bear fumble on the visitors’ second possession, and Watson pounced on a loose ball in the Pottstown end zone to stem a UM drive that got to the Trojan four.

But at least two penalties negated what had been big runs by Joneil Oister in the first half.

“The big plays that got called back … you can’t win games that way,” Delaney said.

With both teams of Class 4A size in District 1, the possibility of a rematch during the postseason exists.

“We should see them in the playoffs,” Szydlik predicted.

NOTES >> Joneil Oister was named Pottstown’s Adam Sabuacak Player of the Game. … Upper Moreland was hit harder in penalties. The Golden Bears were whistled 16 times for 115 yards.