Stout defense, turnovers lift Spring-Ford football 45-7 over Methacton

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ROYERSFORD >> Spring-Ford’s defense was loud last week. On Friday, it was booming.

Fueled by three timely turnovers and a pair of sacks, the Rams made the most of their opportunities. Behind 31 unanswered points in the first half, Spring-Ford took a 45-7 win over Methacton at Coach McNelly Stadium.

The win for the Rams (5-3, 3-1 PAC Liberty) comes on the heels of a 7-6 gut-wrenching loss to Perkiomen Valley in a battle for control of the Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty division.

“We definitely had a lot of motivation coming off that tough, hard-fought loss,” Spring-Ford quarterback Matt Zollers said. “We changed our game plan up, we wanted to throw early and often so we could just get points on the board and run the clock out with our backups, get them some reps.”

Zollers unleashed an aerial assault on the Warriors (4-4, 2-2 PAC Liberty). The 6-foot-4, 200-pound sophomore signal caller threw 16-for-30 with 176 passing yards and two touchdowns, connecting with seven different receivers on the night.

In the first half alone, he had over 120 passing yards and ran in on a 12-yard keeper for the first score of the game two minutes in.

“Our offensive line is definitely giving me a lot of time and our receivers are getting open and catching the ball,” Zollers said. “Once they catch the ball, they do all the work and they make opportunities for themselves.”

The initial touchdown from Zollers was set up on an interception by Belal Abdelrahman (three catches, 38 yards) to bring out Spring-Ford’s offense inside the red zone.

From there, Zollers threw a pair of 4-yard touchdown darts to Zach Zollers (three catches, 22 yards) and Ali Safa (two catches, 16 yards) in the second quarter to break open the game.

“It gave us a lot of motivation,” Zollers said on finishing in the end zone off turnovers. “It showed our offense is picking up and our defense, it’s been the same the whole year. It’s very good and it gets a lot of stops for us and sets us up for great opportunities.”

While Spring-Ford’s game plan was to stretch the field and air out the ball — and it most certainly did — there was no shortage of ground-and-pound. Junior running back Mike Bendowski chopped up 114 yards on just seven carries.

The vast bulk of Bendowski’s production came in a two-play, 91-yard drive capped off with a 2-yard punch-in to extend the Rams’ lead 14-0 in the first quarter.

Bendowski found the end zone once more midway through the third quarter with an 8-yard run to the outside to go up 38-7.

“Our goal tonight was actually to come in and try to throw the ball a little bit, work on some of our in-game timing,” Spring-Ford coach Chad Brubaker said. “We felt we wanted to throw the ball early and finish the game by running out the clock, running the ball late. But Mike had different plans I guess on that drive.”

Methacton wasn’t without a pair of bright spots with flashes of defense and special teams. The Warriors held the Rams to a 26-yard field goal from Ryan Fields late in the first quarter and Wesley Conover returned a kickoff for a touchdown as the buzzer blared for halftime, cutting it 31-7.

“We were hoping that coming out in the second half, we would get a stop on defense, play a little bit tougher, a little bit more physical,” Methacton coach Brian Kennedy said. “Our physicality wasn’t that bad, just some mental lapses.”

Perhaps the biggest lapse came early in the fourth quarter. The Warriors were putting together their cleanest drive of the night, but a bad snap along Spring-Ford’s 3-yard line pushed them back out to the 20.

Luke Hall then recovered a fumble and took it all the way back to close out the scoring with 9:30 left in the game.

It wasn’t an isolated incident, either. Stationed along the Rams’ 1-yard line during the first quarter, the Warriors coughed up the ball and Will Fish scooped it up to pull Spring-Ford out of an early jam.

“That hurt us. When you’re in the 5-yard line and come away with no points, that’s huge,” Kennedy said. “We could’ve gone down there and 7-7, that’s a different football game. Maybe they’re back on their heels a little bit, maybe it gives our kids a boost of confidence and momentum.

“We just never got momentum and in football, if you don’t have momentum, it’s one thing you really need.”

Against Perkiomen Valley, Zach Zollers, Franny Undercuffler and Luke Pajovich combined for 26 tackles and two sacks. Friday marked another strong defensive performance that generated turnovers and allowed no points from Methacton’s offense.

“They’ve been playing great all year. They came up with obviously timely turnovers tonight,” Brubaker said. “We did give up some drives, (Methacton) did move the ball but when it counted, we came up big.”

Spring-Ford 45, Methacton 7
Methacton 0 7 0 0 — 7
Spring-Ford 17 14 7 7 — 45
SCORING
First quarter
SF — M. Zollers 12 run (Fields kick), 10:09
SF — Bendowski 2 run (Fields kick), 3:16
SF — Fields 26 field goal, 2:09
Second quarter
SF — Z. Zollers 4 pass from M. Zollers (Fields kick), 5:52
SF — Safa 4 pass from M. Zollers (Fields kick), 0:08
M — Conover kick return touchdown (Ready kick), 0:00
Third quarter
SF — Bendowski 8 run (Fields kick), 4:10
Fourth quarter
SF — Hall fumble 89 return touchdown (Fields kick), 9:30
TEAM STATISTICS
M SF
First downs 12 10
Rushes-Yards 29-75 15-142
Passing yards 105 176
Total yards 180 318
Passes C-A-I 8-22-1 16-30-0
Fumbles Lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties-Yards 7-35 6-35
Punts 3 0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Methacton — Chapman 5-(minus-3); Grove 2-9; Weil-Kasper 6-21; Conover 5-34; Wolbers 5-5; Bove 3-6; Troutman 2-3.
Spring-Ford — M. Zollers 3-10, TD; Bendowski 7-114, 2 TD; Rhodes 3-20; Freed 2-(minus-2).
Passing
Methacton — Wolbers 8-21, 105 yards, INT; Ready 0-1, 0 yards.
Spring-Ford — M. Zollers 16-30, 176 yards, 2 TD.
Receiving
Methacton — Chapman 2-34; Lagana 1-13; Weil-Kasper 1-0; Wolbers 1-11; Cancro 2-31; Hill 1-10; Fallat 1-6.
Spring-Ford — Z. Zollers 3-22, TD; Scott 3-39; Bendowski 2-13; Kerchner 3-41; Abdelrahman 3-78; Safa 2-16, TD; Folino IV (1-7.
Interceptions: Spring-Ford 1 (Abdelrahman).
Sacks: Spring-Ford 2.5 (Undercuffler 1, Z. Zollers 1, Pajovich 0.5).

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Evan Wheaton

ewheaton

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