Boyertown bursts by Pottsgrove with second shutout of year, 33-0

You’d have a hard time finding someone who had more fun over a two-hour window than Cole Marinello did Friday evening.

Positive energy, joy, celebration, they were all exuding from the Boyertown senior center/defensive end and you couldn’t miss it.

Marinello couldn’t miss – he had a fumble recovery, three tackles for a loss and a sack – and neither could the rest of the Bears as they turned a one-score halftime lead into a rout in a 33-0 defeat of Pottsgrove Friday night at Memorial Stadium.

How much enjoyment was it to be a Bear Friday?

“It was electric. I had so much fun tonight,” said Marinello. “I had the best game of my life; it was so much fun being out there with my boys. I love every one of them.”

“It started slow but we picked it up coming out in the second half,” said junior quarterback Ryder Gehris. “And in the second half we started to really play Boyertown football. 

“It’s a new era around here. We’re not the same Bears that we’ve been the last five years. We’re a really good football team and we have fun while we’re doing it.”

Running back Cole Yesavage had a three-TD game, running for 95 yards and two TDs on the ground. Jason Oakes had two scores as well, a 16-yard pass from Gehris and a 33-yard run, both in the second half.

Defensively, Michael Palmiero had a pair of sacks and Nick Panarello added another as Boyertown had Pottsgrove quarterback Gabe Rinda (8-for-24, 121 yards)  under pressure all night. 

The Bears and Falcons each exited Friday with a 2-2 record, injury-ravaged Pottsgrove losing its last two outings.

The Bears recorded their second shutout of the season – they blanked Upper Perkiomen 61-0 in the opener. It was the first time Boyertown shut out Pottsgrove since 1984.

Boyertown out-gained Pottsgrove 370-123 in total yards.

“We just got beat by a team that was better than us in all three phases of the game,” said Pottsgrove head coach Bill Hawthorne. “It was a good old-fashioned butt-kicking.

“They won by attrition quite frankly. They were better conditioned than us and they played sound football, which we did not.”

Boyertown led 7-0 at halftime while only managing one scoring drive against the Falcons’ defense. The defenses largely controlled the first half with Boyertown forcing a turnover on downs inside its own 5 and again stopping the Falcons in the red zone at the 6:46 mark of the second quarter.

Boyertown parlayed that stopped into the first half’s only scoring drives and three straight big plays – a 28-yard pass from Gehris to Gavin Chamberlain, a 21-yard Yesavage run and 16-yard Anthony Famularo jet sweep – put the Bears in the red zone.

Four plays later Yesavage muscled his way from the 1 for the touchdown and 7-0 lead after Chase Sennott’s point-after try.

Early in the third quarter, the game swung entirely in Boyertown’s favor when Marinello recovered a fumble in the Pottsgrove half. That drive resulted in Gehris connecting with a wide-open Jason Oakes for a 16-yard TD pass on 4th down at the 8:56 mark of the third quarter.

Yesavage scored his second on a 13-yard run set up by a big completion to Gavin Chamberlain to close the third quarter up 20-0. 

Oakes’ 33-yard touchdown run and a Gehris-to-Yesavage swing pass for a 9-yard TD catch and run closed the Bears’ fourth quarter scoring.

The late stages were all about preserving the shutout, which the Bears managed on two scoring threats from Pottsgrove. Chamberlain batted down a Rinda 4th-down pass with 8:54 to play. On the game’s final play, Owen Dykie and Nick Billetta tackled Brandon McGinley on the 1-yard line.

“It’s big for us to build confidence,” said Gehris. “They’re a good football team with good players and they have guys that can make plays. To shut out a team like Pottsgrove, it should build confidence, not just for us but for kids that come up through this program in the future. 

“I think we should take a lot of confidence from this game because we took care of business the way we should.”

After splitting time with senior Anthony Panarello in the first three weeks, Gehris was in full time at quarterback Friday.

“It felt good to finally get my opportunity to show what I can do for four quarters,” Gehris said. “I kind of felt limited in the first three weeks (splitting time) but I love (Panarello), he’s one of my buddies. We hang out and I love the kid. But I’m happy I got my opportunity and happy I could help my team win.”

Gehris made a point to praise his linemen, Marinello, Michael Ricci, Gavin Williams, Matthew Cavalari and Kyler Reyes.

“I love my line. My linemen are awesome,” Gehris said. “They started slow but they picked it up and started hammering kids as the game went and started dropping them like flies. It was awesome to see our line dominate up front when the game went on.”

The Falcons have been snakebitten in the early going, losing multiple starters including No. 1 running back Amir Brunson who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in Week 1. 

The decimated depth chart is clear but it won’t be used as an excuse by Hawthorne.

“It’s no excuse for tonight,” he said. “You feel awful for those kids being they’re such good people. But tonight I give all the credit to Boyertown because they soundly beat us and did it the right way.

“Injuries are part of the game of football. It’s next-man up and that’s what we have to do. It’s the only thing we can do at this point.”

NOTES >> Pottsgrove’s leading rusher was Tre Cook (seven carries, 21 yards; 89 yards on kickoff returns) while Brandon McGinley (1 catch, 46 yards) and Demetrius Carter (1 catch, 34 yards) caught long receptions. … The Falcons’ Christian Tibbs had the game’s lone interception.