Mercury Football Review: Taking stock of the playoff picture

With two weeks to go before the start of district playoffs, we take stock of where each team in the Mercury area stands in the race for the District 1 Class 4A, 5A, and 6A playoffs.

The favorites largely held serve in this weekend’s matchups, so we start with a look at the two ‘toss-up’ games – one from each PAC division – and what they mean to the playoff race.

Boyertown moved to .500 on the year (4-4, 2-2 PAC Liberty) and scored a signature division win, upending Owen J. Roberts (4-4, 1-3 PAC Liberty) 34-21 to celebrate their Homecoming. The Bears pounded their way to 301 rushing yards and controlled the contest from the outset, with Cole Yesavage, Jason Oakes, and Cade Sennott sharing the workload. Danny Cashman retained his top position among PAC receivers with seven catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns.

Despite the win, OJR remains ahead of Boyertown in the playoff power rankings – perilously perched at No. 16 among a 16-team field at Class 6A. The Bears, sitting in the No. 20 position, would benefit greatly if they can use this momentum to upend Perkiomen Valley this coming weekend and ensure they’ll face a 5A opponent on Crossover Week to maximize power points (teams are awarded points for who they beat, as well as who their opponents beat).

Over in the Frontier Division, Pottsgrove (4-4, 2-2 PAC Frontier) survived a late charge from Upper Merion (3-5, 1-3 PAC Frontier) to win 27-21 and remain alive in the Class 4A race. Bryce Caffrey caught three touchdown passes and contributed to the rushing, passing, and special teams in an outstanding all-around performance to shoulder the load for injury-riddled Pottsgrove.

PAC Crossover Week figures to have great significance for the Falcons if they can hold off Upper Perkiomen in Week 9 – the battle for the final two spots in a four-team District field comes down to Pottsgrove, Bishop Shanahan, and Springfield-Montco. Each team faces one big-school (6A) opponent the rest of the way, and a Pottsgrove win against a Liberty Division opponent could make all the difference.

As for Upper Merion, the Vikings currently sit No. 15 in a 16-team field at 5A and hope to improve that standing when they take on Pottstown Friday. Moving up in the standings is important, as undefeated Strath Haven and Upper Dublin sit atop 5A and figure to provide particularly difficult matchups for the No. 15 and No. 16 finishers.

Spring-Ford (5-3, 3-1 PAC Liberty) dominated Methacton (4-4, 2-2 PAC Liberty) 45-7 as the Rams got well after a rivalry loss to Perkiomen Valley. Mike Bendowski enjoyed a breakout game carrying the ball for the Rams, making the most of seven carries with 114 yards and two scores. The Rams’ defense forced three turnovers in building a 31-0 lead before Wes Conover got Methacton on the board with a kick-return touchdown before halftime.

If the Rams take care of business against Norristown Saturday, they’ll take on the second-place finisher from the Frontier Division (Pope John Paul II or Phoenixville) during Crossover Week. Currently sitting at No. 10 in the 16-team District 1 field, Spring-Ford appears solidly into the playoff field, but could potentially host a first-round game if they can finish with two more wins and get some help with losses from Downingtown East and CB West, just ahead of them in the standings.

Methacton’s first year at 5A is likely to yield their first District playoff berth in years, but this week’s matchup with Owen J. Roberts will have great bearing on the Warriors’ chances when the postseason begins. The Warriors currently sit at No. 12, but top-eight teams receive home games and finishing with two wins would put Methacton over .500 and firmly into contention.

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Perkiomen Valley (7-1, 4-0 PAC Liberty) sealed their second straight Liberty Division title when they topped Norristown, 32-13, behind Ryan Klimek’s 154 rushing yards and two scores. The Vikings sacked Norristown quarterbacks four times and picked off a pair of passes.

The Vikings face Boyertown this Friday in a game that, frankly, has much more bearing on the Bears’ playoffs future that it does Perk Valley’s. But that doesn’t make it meaningless for the defending PAC champs – far from it. While PV is solidly into the 6A playoffs, they’re neck-and-neck with the Ches-Mont’s Coatesville for the No. 4 position, for which the reward is hosting games in the first two rounds of playoffs.

Who will PV meet for the PAC title? We find out Friday night at Washington Field, where Pope John Paul II (8-0, 4-0 PAC Frontier) and Phoenixville (6-2, 4-0 PAC Frontier) will meet in a winner-take-all showdown after the Golden Panthers shut out Pottstown on Saturday, answering Phoenixville’s dominant victory over Upper Perkiomen Friday night.

Both teams are solidly into their respective playoff fields (PJP at 4A; Phoenixville 5A) but significant ramifications for seedings and home games remain over the next two weeks. Phoenixville stands at No. 7 in 5A, with hopes of hosting a playoff game for the first time in recent history, while the Golden Panthers figure to go down to the wire with Interboro of the Del-Val League for the No. 1 position at 4A, which would mean home-field advantage in both District playoff matchups.

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Of course, the all-important PAC Crossover Week will be each school’s final opportunity to accumulate playoff points, while also establishing bragging right between old rivals and for the division for the next year.

For the uninitiated, PAC Crossover pits a team from each six-team division against its standings counterpart. (1st place Liberty plays 1st place Frontier, 2nd place plays 2nd place, and so on.) All games are played at Frontier Division schools this year.

With one week to play, there’s plenty to be determined in the matchups:

1st Place (PAC Championship Game): Perkiomen Valley will visit the winner of Pope John Paul II and Phoenixville’s Friday night showdown.

2nd Place: Spring-Ford takes on the loser of PJP II and Phoenixville.

3rd Place: And now it gets complicated.

Pottsgrove will host the third-place game. Against whom? That’s more involved.

If Methacton can top Owen J. Roberts, they’ll be the third-place team from the Liberty.

If Owen J. Roberts wins, Boyertown can take third with a win over Perkiomen Valley.

But if OJR and Perkiomen Valley win, it creates a three-way tie between Methacton, OJR, and Boyertown for third place that can’t be settled by head-to-head results (each team is 1-1 in this round robin.) District power points can be used to settle the tie, but the league can also take into consideration the avoidance of rematches from earlier this season (Pottsgrove has already played Boyertown and Methacton, for example, while Owen J. Roberts met Upper Merion in week four.)

Don’t worry. We’ll sort it all out next week.

4th Place: This is Upper Merion’s spot with a win against Pottstown. They’ll host one of the three Liberty teams in the third-place logjam (Boyertown, Methacton, OJR).

5th Place: Upper Perkiomen can move to 4th with a win over Pottsgrove and a Pottstown win over Upper Merion. Otherwise, they’ll host this contest against Boyertown, OJR, or Methacton.

6th Place: A win against Upper Merion can move Pottstown to fifth; otherwise they will visit Norristown.