Defense keys Spring-Ford to 33-3 win over Unionville

UNIONVILLE >> A Spring-Ford defense that was consistently stingy last year appears committed for a strong encore.

The Ram D, with many returnees from a unit that allowed just 10.6 points per outing in 2015, suffocated Unionville start to finish in the season opener Friday night. They helped blow the game open by forcing three third-quarter turnovers, which led to 13 points and spurred Spring-Ford to a 33-3 victory.

First-time varsity starting quarterback TJ Pergine made some big plays and Stone Scarcelle, a major impact guy on both sides of the ball, did damage to the Indians on offense and defense with a 40-yard touchdown reception and 38-yard interception return for a score.

“Our defense did a great job,” said Spring-Ford coach Chad Brubaker. “We kind of had first-game jitters with a new starting quarterback. They did a great job of holding them off until we could break a couple of plays.”

Unionville didn’t record a first down until the second quarter. Spring-Ford was finding it tough sledding as well in the early going and the Indians had a 3-0 lead with 8:18 left in the first half.

It was then that Pergine, a junior, got in a varsity groove. He found the fleet Scarcelle for a 49-yard play, setting up Selwyn Simpson’s 15-yard TD run for a 7-3 Spring-Ford lead.

Spring-Ford’s defense then established the game’s turning point, denying the Indians the end zone after they had gotten a big pass play and advanced to the Ram 2-yard line. Linebackers Tanner Romano and Ryan Yanulevich along with a host of others pushed the Indians back. Two consecutive losses turned the ball back over to the Rams.

Pergine, Scarcelle and senior wideout Quinn McKenna took the Rams right back down the field. Pergine hit McKenna for 34 yards down the left sideline, and on the next play found Scarcelle for the 40-yard score 1:20 before halftime. Pergine showed a knack for buying time in the pocket and delivering the ball deep.

“T.J. hung in there,” Brubaker said. “He’s a tough kid. The good thing that came out of it was they gave him some pressure and he hung in there.”

“It was his first start so we had to kind of get him on his feet, get him in the varsity flow,” Scarcelle said of Pergine. “We told him, ‘All the seniors are with you. Be comfortable.’ He stuck in there, did a great job. He’s a gamer.”

Spring-Ford seized the momentum quickly in the third. Scarcelle read the play perfectly and picked off an Alex Gorgone pass in the flat for an easy TD runback. Now it was 21-3.

“All week we’ve been practicing against the routes they’re running,” Scarcelle said. “I just read my keys.”

On Unionville’s next possession, Romano recovered a fumble. That and an interception by Dan Cassidy later in the quarter, on a deep ball near the goal line, led to field goals by Erick Rodriguez.

“Turnovers really helped us out in this game,” Yanulevich said. “A lot of played together last year and the new guys stepped up. We had a great game on defense.”

“We owe it all to the coaches and all the preparation we do,” Romano said.

The Indians lost a bunch of skill-position players from an 8-3 club and might take some time to find their way offensively. Unionville junior running back Jack Adams had some nice second-half runs but the Indians never could crack the Ram D for a sustained stretches.

“We were killing ourselves. We’ve got to cut down on mental errors,” Adams said. “We were right in it for a while. We’ve just got to get better on offense. Our defense is pretty solid right now.”

The Indians’ D did do a good job thwarting the Spring-Ford running game. Spring-Ford had a 59-yard TD run by Selwyn Simpson in the first quarter called back for a hold, and the Rams couldn’t find much room between the tackles most of the night.

“We’re really disappointed we couldn’t run the ball,” Brubaker said. “But give credit to their defense, especially their linebackers. They were coming off the edge and the middle and we weren’t picking that up. We’ve got to look at the film and correct that.”