Boyertown clings to 41-36 victory over Upper Perkiomen

He watched the last pass from Upper Perkiomen quarterback Zeke Hallman sail out of the end zone as the clock struck zero.

Hunter Vogels, fresh off a dominant effort on the ground couldn’t help but manage a smile.

He had witnessed Upper Perkiomen claw back from a 41-21 deficit with five minutes remaining, holding possession with 40 seconds left, down 41-36. However, he and the Bears secondary did their part in the prevent defense, denying Upper Perkiomen’s last ditch effort at a victory en route to a 41-36 victory at Memorial Stadium Friday night.

“I was yelling at the secondary just to calm down, breathe and do your job,” Vogels said. “Don’t worry about messing up, just do it. It felt pretty good when I saw the pass go out of the end zone. I took a last look at the clock and had a smile on my face.”

For Vogels, there was plenty to smile about.

Recovering from an injury that kept him out in the Bears’ Week 1 loss to Exeter, the 5-9, 160-pound back rushed for a game-high 124 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries as Boyertown accumulated 251 yards on the ground.

Garnett finds Jerry Kapp for a touchdown on fourth and 14. Boyertown leads 34-14. 11:53 4Q pic.twitter.com/5tGKjg4C9D

— Sam Stewart (@Samuel_Stewart7) September 12, 2015

Quarterback Lawrence Garnett, seemingly making Week 2 his coming out party, ran for 71 yards with two scores on 15 carries. He finished the night 9-of-12 passing with 111 yards and a score as he battled back from a downer of a Week 1 effort, where he threw for only 22 yards and completed 17 percent of his passes.

“Lawrence got mentally focused,” Boyertown head coach George Parkinson said. “He came to me tonight and said ‘Coach, I just wanted to let you know that you don’t have to worry about me tonight. You’re going to see a different Lawrence.’ That’s exactly what happened.”

The senior signal-caller proved him right, on the ground, in the air, and in his reads as he ran the option play to near perfection throughout the contest. He was able to read a crashing defensive end before pitching to Vogels for the team’s second score of the game before keeping it himself for a 33-yard score later in the third that made it 21-7.

“We knew that the pitch was going to be there,” Garnett said. “After that, they started going to the pitch so I had a lot of openings.”

“I tip my hat to them,” Upper Perkiomen head coach Tom Hontz said. “Watching them in film in the previous games and scrimmages, they were sloppy but tonight they were a well-oiled machine. We didn’t think the quarterback liked to pitch much and he pitched a lot. We put the hits on him but he hit those pitches and made them count.”

With the Bears’ offense running fluid throughout, it took Upper Perkiomen some time to get it rolling.

Turns out, it was just a bit too late.

Zeke Hallman overcame a 3-for-12, 28-yard effort in the first half, tossing for 159 second-half yards as the Indians scored on four of its six second-half possessions.

Trailing 41-21 after a Garnett nine-yard keeper with 5:48 remaining, Hallman led Upper Perkiomen on two consecutive eight play drives, culminating in a 19-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Keyser before Tyler Whary punched in a 2-yard run two minutes later to make it 41-36.

After a successful onside kick try, Hallman led Upper Perkiomen to the Boyertown 36 with 10 seconds left, but two straight passes sailed out of the back of the end zone to preserve the win for Boyertown.

“We started getting the passing game going a little bit more,” Hontz said of his team’s offensive success in the second half. “We couldn’t get much going on inside, they’ve got some big boys in there and it was tough for us. We were able to get the edge a few times and honestly, his (Hallman’s) roll-out game and that sort of stuff helped us out.

“I wish we could have came out on the other side but at least we made it a ball game and fought hard the whole time. We almost reversed it, last year they got us in the fourth quarter and this year it was almost us. It is what it is.”

He watched the last pass from Upper Perkiomen quarterback Zeke Hallman sail out of the end zone as the clock struck zero.

Hunter Vogels, fresh off a dominant effort on the ground couldn’t help but manage a smile.

He had witnessed Upper Perkiomen claw back from a 41-21 deficit with five minutes remaining, holding possession with 40 seconds left, down 41-36. However, he and the Bears secondary did their part in the prevent defense, denying Upper Perkiomen’s last ditch effort at a victory en route to a 41-36 victory at Memorial Stadium Friday night.

“I was yelling at the secondary just to calm down, breathe and do your job,” Vogels said. “Don’t worry about messing up, just do it. It felt pretty good when I saw the pass go out of the end zone. I took a last look at the clock and had a smile on my face.”

For Vogels, there was plenty to smile about.

Recovering from an injury that kept him out in the Bears’ Week 1 loss to Exeter, the 5-9, 160-pound back rushed for a game-high 124 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries as Boyertown accumulated 251 yards on the ground.

Quarterback Lawrence Garnett, seemingly making Week 2 his coming out party, ran for 71 yards with two scores on 15 carries. He finished the night 9-of-12 passing with 111 yards and a score as he battled back from an ugly Week 1 effort, where he threw for only 22 yards and completed 17 percent of his passes.

“Lawrence got mentally focused,” Boyertown head coach George Parkinson said. “He came to me tonight and said ‘Coach, I just wanted to let you know that you don’t have to worry about me tonight. You’re going to see a different Lawrence.’ That’s exactly what happened.”

The senior signal-caller proved him right, on the ground, in the air, and in his reads as he ran the option play to near perfection throughout the contest. He was able to read a crashing defensive end before pitching to Vogels for the team’s second score of the game before keeping it himself for a 33-yard score later in the third that made it 21-7.

“We knew that the pitch was going to be there,” Garnett said. “After that, they started going to the pitch so I had a lot of openings.”

“I tip my hat to them,” Upper Perkiomen head coach Tom Hontz said. “Watching them in film in the previous games and scrimmages, they were sloppy but tonight they were a well-oiled machine. We didn’t think the quarterback liked to pitch much and he pitched a lot. We put the hits on him but he hit those pitches and made them count.”

With the Bears’ offense running fluid throughout, it took Upper Perkiomen some time to get it rolling.

Turns out, it was just a bit too late.

Zeke Hallman overcame a 3-for-12, 28-yard effort in the first half, tossing for 159 second-half yards as the Indians scored on four of its six second-half possessions, two of those stemming from Austin Bittenbender receptions (two receptions, 57 yards).

Trailing 41-21 after a Garnett nine-yard keeper with 5:48 remaining, Hallman led Upper Perkiomen on two consecutive eight play drives, culminating in a 19-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Keyser before Tyler Whary punched in a 2-yard run two minutes later to make it 41-36.

After a successful onside kick try, Hallman led Upper Perkiomen to the Boyertown 36 with 10 seconds left, but two straight passes sailed out of the back of the end zone to preserve the win for Boyertown.

“We started getting the passing game going a little bit more,” Hontz said of his team’s offensive success in the second half. “We couldn’t get much going on inside, they’ve got some big boys in there and it was tough for us. We were able to get the edge a few times and honestly, his (Hallman’s) roll-out game and that sort of stuff helped us out.

“I wish we could have came out on the other side but at least we made it a ball game and fought hard the whole time. We almost reversed it, last year they got us in the fourth quarter and this year it was almost us. It is what it is.”

NOTES >> Michael Felix finished with 86 yards rushing on 16 carries. Hallman added 43 yards on the ground with a rushing touchdown. … Chris Berry led the game with five receptions for 65 yards. … Sarafina Valenti, fresh off the girl’s soccer victory against Perkiomen Valley, hit 5-of-6 PATs in the win.
Michael Felix finished with 86 yards rushing on 16 carries. Hallman added 43 yards on the ground with a rushing touchdown. … Chris Berry led the game with five receptions for 65 yards. … Sarafina Valenti, fresh off the girl’s soccer victory against Perkiomen Valley, hit 5-of-6 PATs in the win.