Do-it-all Teets helps Spring-Ford cruise past Upper Perk, 55-0

ROYERSFORD >> Spring-Ford’s Nick Teets is becoming quite an all-around football player, as he showed Friday night in a 55-0 Pioneer Athletic Conference win over Upper Perkiomen at Coach McNelly Stadium.

The Ram senior recorded game-high totals of four catches and 115 receiving yards, ran for a touchdown and was part of the defense that held the Indians to just 26 total yards. Andrew Yoon rushed for 70 yards and a score for Spring-Ford (3-0 PAC and overall) and Cameron Goldsmith blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for six points and also ran for 42 yards and a TD.

Upper Perk (0-3, 0-3) hurt itself with a fumble and an interception late in the first half that helped the hosts build a 41-0 advantage at the intermission.

“I knew I was going to have to expand my horizons for this team,” said the 5-8,185-pound Teets, who has seen action as a quarterback, running back, receiver and safety so far this season.

“We’ve moved Nick all around,” said Spring-Ford coach Chad Brubaker.”Tonight, he didn’t play quarterback. He is a tremendous high school football player.”

Upper Perk tried to control the clock early in the game by taking its time between plays, but the Rams marched 39 yards on five plays in only two minutes on their first possession, with Yoon running into the end zone from 24 yards out.

Teets scored a on 1-yard run to cap a 6-play, 60-yard drive late in the opening quarter and that’s the way the score remained as the Indian defense forced a punt early in the second. But the Rams broke the game open with four touchdowns in a span of six minutes with the help of the Indian miscues.

First, quarterback Ryan Freed (8-for-12, 141 yards, 2 TD’s) hit Nick Cagliola with an 8-yard scoring pass and then the Indian turnovers began. Upper Perk tried to punt from its eight yard line, but Goldsmith blocked it and fell on the loose ball in the end zone.

A lost fumble resulted in a quick 3-play drive for the Rams, with a 1-yard TD run by Harry Adieyefeh making it 34-0. Then Naphtali Stine wrestled the ball away from an Upper Perk receiver for an interception and the Rams took the ball in from 26 yards out, the last one on a pass from Freed to Adieyefeh for the 41-0 lead with 1:19 to go until the intermission.

“We’ve been battling tough the first quarter, quarter and a half,” said UP coach Tom Hontz. “Once the turnovers happened, that started to snowball. I could see it on the guys’ faces that they started to lose it. That team is one of the best teams in the district. They’re tough on defense.”

“Our big thing is just to try to get better every week,” said Brubaker. “That’s so important in this type of environment. You practice, but there’s not that carrot. We had some lulls in the other games, but we were able to execute. It’s important for us to execute on both sides of the ball.”

Goldsmith carried the ball 42 yards on five carries and scored on a 12-yard run on the opening drive of the second half and Ryan Wilson completed the scoring with an 11-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

Five Rams scored a rushing touchdown as Spring-Ford ran for 220 yards and racked up 19 first downs and 361 total yards on the night while punting just once and not turning the  ball over.

“I definitely think we put a complete game together,” said Teets. “We still had some lulls, but we can’t disagree with the outcome.”

And while Spring-Ford is looking for a high seed in the District 6A playoffs and is currently in the fourth spot, the Indians are relieved to have gotten perennial PAC championship contenders Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford – two teams they would not have usually played – out of the way.

“We got through it,”said Hontz, whose squad will be playing five of the PAC’s large-school teams this year since the league’s other small schools did not decide to play football this season until after the schedule had been drawn up. “This is not something we wanted to do. We got stuck with the big school games. It’s a shame. In our division, I think we could have done well. I think we wanted to get out of here healthy, which we did for the most part.”