Perkiomen Valley football overcomes losing starters to injury, graduation in PAC championship run
Perkiomen Valley wasn’t supposed to repeat as PAC champion.
Not after losing Ethan Kohler, the 2021 Mercury Player of the Year and one of the best quarterbacks in recent area history to graduation.
Not after replacing a number of starting linemen due to graduations and injury.
Not after losing most of their linebacking corps and secondary.
And not after starting quarterback Danny Koehler went out with an injury in Week 2, leaving the offense in the hands of sophomore Patrick MacDonald.
Yet on Saturday afternoon at Pope John Paul II, the Vikings found themselves in familiar territory – celebrating a PAC championship for the fifth time in seven years.
This one was a testament to the resilience and staying power of the program. Once an underdog, Perkiomen Valley has cemented its place among the premier programs in District 1 football, evident in its ability to skip the rebuilding stage every few years and simply reload.
In discussing his now back-to-back champions, two points stood out about coach Rob Heist’s comments – his effusive, detailed praise for so many players on his roster, underscoring the fact that every member of the Vikings helped earned this title, and the underlying theme of hard work and selflessness Heist and his staff preach consistently.
Starting with the offense, Heist shared a general philosophy before offering a breakdown by positions groups of the contributors both new, returning, and in some cases, unexpected.
“We want to be unpredictable,” Heist said. “That’s why no one player gets too many touches. We have a lot of good athletes, and we want to get them the ball in space.”
That’s why despite a first-team All-Area performance as a junior one year ago, senior Ryan Klimek finds himself splitting carries with others, chief amongst them junior Jake Stewart. Both players rushed for touchdowns on Saturday and have split carries all year.
“Jake was injured right before the start of last season,” Heist said, “or else he would have had a larger role. He’s dynamic and he’s hard to square up and get a hit on him.”
“Ryan’s pass-catching ability make him a natural fit in the slot, and we felt we could use Jake in our fullback or ‘F’ position.”
On the line, Yanni Tsitoukis and JC Dugery joined Tim Ledger as seniors in their first full years as starters, with junior Kyle Gallagher contributing alongside two sophomores in Cole Euker and center Richie Strano. The unit continues to strengthen with the return of senior captain Grant Euker from a knee injury.
“I’m proud of their improvement from the start of the season,” Heist said. “Yanni’s played center and guard, and right now Richie’s in that center position – he’s giving us every ounce of everything he’s got every down.”
At the helm, of course, was MacDonald who expected to play quarterback at the junior varsity level in 2022, but found himself under the bright lights after Koehler’s injury.
“We put Patrick out there against Roman Catholic, Spring-Ford … and every week his toughness and preparation surprises me,” Heist said. “He wants to do his part; does everything we ask of him. I really have high hopes for him in terms of physical development. I cannot wait to work with him for two more years.”
On the other side of the ball, the Vikings had some experience up front with Shane Nelson and Vance Junker as defensive linemen, but Cole Euker and Brad Curci were two-way contributors this year on the line, combining to replace the graduated Jake Jonassen, Vinnie Corropolese, and Noah Padworny.
But graduations took arguably their greatest toll on the Vikings at the linebacker spot. Bryan Helinski and Gage Young were first-team and second-team All-Area performers respectively a year ago, and their jobs fell to players with just a handful of varsity tackles between them.
But captain Drew Kenworthy, junior Sam Koehler, and sophomore Carter Euker gave the Vikings an equally formidable unit. Perkiomen Valley’s ‘stack’ system employs five linebacker types as a base package, so the role sees even greater emphasis.
“They’re downhill players,” Heist said. “Savvy, quick, slippery – and they run well. They make good reads and show good gap discipline.”
Heist called junior Robbie Sturges and senior Carson Pascoe the strength of the defense at their outside linebacker spots.
In the secondary, Stephen Ciaudelli became a safety, moving after two years at outside linebacker.
First-time starter Dimitri Toman and senior Rasheem Grayson joined Ciaudelli as leaders at the back end of the Vikings’ defense.
After focusing on some new contributors, Heist saved some of his most detailed praise for senior captain Michael Poruban, an All-Area wide receiver last season who played numerous roles this season and was the often-unsung hero of Perkiomen Valley’s second consecutive title run.
“Selfless – a pillar of what we teach at PV,” Heist said. “All he does is make big play after big play when we need him. Off the field, he’s president of his class and a terrific student.”
When Koehler went out with his injury, the Vikings’ offensive approach changed as Heist and his staff got MacDonald up to speed running the system. This meant lesser numbers for Poruban (although 31 catches for 508 yards still makes him one of the top receivers in the PAC), but Heist never heard one word about it.
“He does not complain,” Heist emphasized. “We shifted to a run-heavy approach, relied on our defense – he plays linebacker, safety, special teams. I would say he’s a ‘captain’s captain.’ The story of our season is not complete without him.”
Next year, it will be someone else’s turn to replace Poruban and 30 other seniors on the roster. Their identities won’t be known for months – but at Perkiomen Valley, the next class of contributors is always waiting in the wings.
Around the area
Questions arose over the weekend as to the historical record of Crossover Week between the Liberty and Frontier divisions. With six year of crossover games (no official crossover games in 2020), the record currently stands 27-9 in favor of the Liberty Division.
That includes this year’s clean sweep for the Liberty as they went 6-for-6 over the weekend. Aside from Perkiomen Valley’s title game victory, here are some highlights of how they got there:
Boyertown (5-5, 3-3 PAC) ran for an astounding 584 yards in a 62-31 victory over Upper Perkiomen. It’s the Bears’ second win over the Tribe in 2022.
Cole Yesavage made an authoritative move back atop the PAC rushing charts with a school record-setting 307-yard night, breaking the previous record set by Adam Hubley in 2000 (295 yards). A 38-yard completion to Gavin Chamberlain marked the only completion of the evening for the Bears.
Upper Perkiomen was no slouches in its own right in the running game, getting 137 yards and two scores from Zach Schwartz.
Spring-Ford’s dominance wasn’t in any singular aspect of the game, but the Rams made good on Chad Brubaker’s promise to treat the crossover game with its deserved respect in a 56-0 win over Phoenixville.
The Rams scored on every drive and had both a 100-yard rusher (Mosiah Rhodes, 102 yards) and a 100-yard receiver (Gage Swanger, 113 yards). It is the second consecutive shutout and third straight week without a defensive touchdown allowed for Spring-Ford, who hosts Ridley in next week’s District 1 Class 6A first round.
Phoenixville, the No. 10 seed in Class 5A, heads to Springfield-Delco to start the District playoffs.
Owen J. Roberts’ slugfest against Pottsgrove went the Wildcats’ direction in a 17-8 victory as the two teams met for the first time since 2015. Aside from the title game, this one had the highest stakes of the weekend, a ‘win-or-go-home’ situation for both squads.
Mason Miller, who transferred into Owen J. Roberts before the season and is thus is ineligible for the postseason, wrapped up his high-school career with a pick-six to seal the Wildcats’ victory in the final minute.
The Wildcats, the No. 15 seed in Class 6A, head to Perkiomen Valley this Friday for a rematch of a Week 5 tilt at Owen J. Roberts (won 20-13 by Perkiomen Valley).
Methacton rode a breakout game from Wes Conover to a 42-35 victory over Upper Merion. Conover carried 20 times for 181 yards and three scores, setting up Matty Shumaker’s 1-yard score with 45 seconds to play to move Methacton to .500 (5-5, 3-3 PAC) on the year.
Both teams’ seasons will continue in next week’s District 1 Class 5A playoffs – No. 15 Upper Merion travels to Strath Haven while No. 11 Methacton takes on Kennett.
Finally, Norristown scored its second win over Pottstown this year, a 20-0 decision at Grigg Memorial Field.
Dean Rotter had a heck of a dual-threat evening in Daniel Boone’s season-ending win 35-8 over Fleetwood. The junior had 335 total yards (181 rushing, 154 passing) and threw a pair of touchdowns to Robbie Burns and Ethan Kryman. It was the first league win in Lancaster-Lebanon 3 for Boone, which finishes the 2022 campaign at 2-8.
Next week’s schedule
(All times 7 p.m. Friday unless otherwise listed)
CLASS 6A
No. 15 Owen J. Roberts at No. 2 Perkiomen Valley
No. 9 Ridley at No. 8 Spring-Ford
CLASS 5A
No. 15 Upper Merion at No. 2 Strath Haven
No. 11 Methacton at No. 6 Kennett
No. 10 Phoenixville at No. 7 Springfield-Delco
CLASS 4A
No. 3 Springfield-Montco at No. 2 Pope John Paul II, 1 p.m. Saturday
EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Williamsport at Boyertown, 7 p.m. Saturday
