Moccia, Boyertown run wild on Methacton, 40-6
BOYERTOWN >> It was the Jamie Moccia show in Boyertown on Friday night.
Visiting Methacton (2-3) had no answer for the speedy senior Bears running back, who accounted for a pair of first-quarter touchdown runs and never seemed to slow down en route to an impressive 209-yard rushing performance and four scores to lead Boyertown (2-3) to a 40-6 win in Pioneer Athletic Conference action.
“It was huge (establishing the run early) tonight. We really needed to,” Boyertown head coach TJ Miller said. “Anytime you play a 6A school in Southeastern Pennsylvania, you have to come out to a fast start, a confident start. We challenged our kids to do that this week, and they did.”
Coming off a tough 49-14 loss to Berks Catholic last week, Friday’s night’s performance — and Moccia’s, in particular — was a much needed change of pace for the Bears, which had surrendered more than 35 points in each of its last three games, and couldn’t seem to really get its offense going since a Week 1 win over Upper Perkiomen.
Although the Bears were able to capitalize on Moccia’s impressive showing on the ground, he was not the only star.
Quarterback Mason Marinello added 14 carries for 128 yards and a pair of scores, while junior running back Zachary Davis chipped in with 10 carries for 71 yards to highlight Boyertown’s 59-carry, 447-yard rushing performance.
And although Marinello only passed four times on the night — he connected on two of them for 40 yards — the Bears’ defense stepped up huge with four interceptions and two sacks in limiting the Warriors to just 194 yards of total offense, with most of those yards coming in the second half with the game virtually out of reach.
It was an overall team performance Miller was, obviously, thrilled about, but one he had also believed was due for team.
“When you look at our schedule, our non-league schedule is set up by design so that we are facing tough teams,” Miller said. “We could have put some cupcakes on there and maybe gotten a couple of other wins but it wouldn’t have prepared us for a good team like Methacton. Pottsgrove, Exeter, Upper Perk and Berks Catholic prepared us for, I think, where we are going to go now. This was a good step, but we still have a long way to go.”
Moccia got the ball rolling for Boyertown right out of gate — literally — carrying the ball on each of the Bears’ first five plays from scrimmage to start the game before capping off the eight-play, 55-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown run to put his team up, 6-0.
Boyertown’s defense got the ball right back on Methacton’s first offensive play, thanks to Marinello’s interception of Michael Merola’s pass attempt, and the Bears needed just four plays before Moccia again found the end zone on a 1-yard run to make it, 12-0, with just under five minutes to play in the quarter.
The Warriors were held to a three-and-out on their next drive, but appeared to finally catch a break when punter Marcus Meele broke free down the sideline on the fake before getting pulled down at the 5-yard line. A Methacton penalty though negated the run, and the Warriors were once again forced to punt.
Marinello widened the gap for the Bears to start the second quarter with a 51-yard touchdown run to make it 19-0, before the Warriors finally seemed to be gaining steam when they took their next possession 58 yards on 10 plays to the Boyertown 13-yard line, but Jake Kulesa’s 29-yard field goal attempt was no good, keeping it a 19-0 game.
Moccia made it 26-0 on the Bears’ ensuing drive with a 51-yard touchdown run of his own, and Boyertown was cruising.
Methacton finally put a sustaining drive together late in the third quarter when quarterback Dan Brandi connected with Larry Dickerson for a 16-yard touchdown pass to cap off a five-play, 28-yard drive to cut the deficit to 26-6, but that is a close a the Warriors would come to a comeback.
Marinello added an 18-yard scoring run to end the third quarter and Moccia added one more highlight to his reel with a 65-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“We made a couple of adjustments this week,” Miller said. “We saw some things that [the Warriors] were doing defensively, and the offensive staff . . . made huge adjustments for us.
Methacton running back Justin Carfrey led his team with 14 carries for 76 yards on the night, while Brandi finished with a 9-for-20 passing performance for 115 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions, and Dickerson hauled in four passes for 89 yards and his team’s lone score.
