Norristown closes year with win, tops Pottstown 20-0

POTTSTOWN >> Finishing the season with a victory is a feat that can’t be downplayed.

Even if it’s not accompanied by a championship trophy. The opportunity to go into the offseason with a win under one’s belt, particularly for a team whose successes have been skimpy in number, carries a lot of weight.

That was the case for Pottstown and Norristown Friday. The Pioneer Athletic Conference clubs, playing a divisional crossover game at Superior Credit Union Stadium, wanted to achieve that good feeling for an offseason that starts this weekend.

The Eagles ended up finishing that way, scoring a 20-0 win over the Trojans. With no post-season in their plans, they have the first building block toward the 2023 season.

“Winning that last game is a great thing,” head coach Joe Milligan said after his club (3-7 overall) broke its post-game huddle for the last time this fall. “It can possibly be a driving force in the off-season.”

It represented a 3-2 run in games outside the PAC’s Liberty Division, where Norristown ended up oh-for-five. For his part, Milligan is also looking for his returning players to carry one key lesson to the next season.

“I hope they embrace how to take it more seriously, especially how it goes so fast, “ he said. “It seems like the other day we were in the weight room in January.”

It ended up an even more eventful night for Pottstown, which honored its fall-sport seniors and conducted a “Pink Out” game focusing on breast cancer awareness. It wasn’t able to complete the trifecta of a season-concluding win, though not for trying.

“It was a hard-fought game,” head coach Levert Hughes, completing his inaugural campaign in charge of the program, said afterward. “I hope the guys learn success is something you have to earn, that it’s not given to you.”

Norristown got its ultimate game-winning score on its first possession. Quarterback Brendan Farrell (7-for-16, 99 yards) hooked up with Marquis Holmes on a 19-yard scoring pass at the 6:09 mark of the first quarter, capping a nine-play drive which saw the duo combine for a 20-yard strike.

The Eagles went up 13-0 in the second quarter, Meyon Ferrell (8 carries, 76 yards) running 52 yards around his left end at 5:56. That spread lasted until 7:30 in the fourth when, on a Pottstown punt attempt at the Norristown 39, Elijah Washington executed what Milligan termed a “scoop and score,” collecting the muffed punt and scampering 61 yards for a touchdown.

“You can look at our roster, and everyone contributed,” Milligan said. “(Quadir) Drummond and (Rashon) Giddens coming in at quarterback, (Jamal) Griffin on offense and defense.”

Pottstown also found itself working multiple quarterbacks, albeit under different circumstances.

Starter Dillon Mayes was sidelined by a leg injury in the first quarter, with Rasheen Bostic taking over. Bostic later exited with an ankle injury, and freshman Anthony Suber finished up.

The Trojans’ signal-callers were a combined 5-for-14 for 24 yards. The team found itself unable to parlay any of its four ventures into Norristown territory into red-zone trips.

“The offense not having the keys hurt us,” Hughes said.

On the defensive side, Pottstown stopped the Eagles on two early-game red zone forays and forced them to turn the ball over on downs a third time. Bostic had a fumble recovery to his credit in the second quarter while senior lineman Josiah Wilson was named the team’s Adam Sabuacak Player of the Game for his play on both sides of the ball in his final scholastic outing.

“It was a pleasure coaching our seniors,” Hughes said.

At the other end of the age scale, Suber described his first high-school season as a “decent experience.”

“I think we did good as a team,” he said, “but we have a lot to work on. I enjoyed the practices; it was fun to work with everybody.

“We should be better as a whole.”