Sturm, Perk Valley pick apart Boyertown

GRATERFORD >> Protected all night, Perkiomen Valley quarterback Stephen Sturm did what he does best.

Pick apart a defense.

The junior quarterback threw for 310 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for an additional score in a game that was never in doubt, a 51-0 victory over Boyertown Friday night at Thomas J. Keenan Stadium.

The win is the Vikings’ 16th straight victory in PAC-10 play, a streak that dates back to the 2013 season that started after a 23-12 loss to Pottsgrove in Week 9.

The Vikings have their line to thank first and foremost for this victory, as the offensive line consisting of John Tittle, Jahir Holmes, Anthony Rohrbach, Chris Jimenez and Vaughn Stolzer had arguably its best game this season, allowing Sturm countless time in the pocket all night.

“I was happy with the O-line and the job they did,” Perkiomen Valley head coach Scott Reed said. “It all starts up there and I thought they did a nice job this week. I’m really proud of them and the job Jason Basile has done with them. He’s a very patient coach.

“They were all brand new except one (Tittle). They’ve been learning under fire and as far as tonight, they did an excellent job. We were able to move the job and protect Stephen for a long time.”

The Vikings dominated the stat sheet in Friday night’s win, amassing 529 total yards of offense to Boyertown’s 71, 24 first downs to Boyertown’s four, all while scoring on eight of their 10 possessions.

“We have so many weapons, you can’t double-cover one of us and be successful,” junior wide receiver Justin Jaworski said.
Sturm threw for 236 of his 310 yards in the first half alone, throwing both touchdown passes late in the second quarter that came on the heels of his first interception of the season.

“I couldn’t really dwell on that (the interception) for long,” Sturm said. “I had to move on and keep my head. I’m the leader of the offense. If my attitude is good the whole team is good. If I’m down then the whole team is down. I had to keep myself mentally upbeat.”

“I regrouped myself, I just took what they gave me. They were playing so off. I knew we had to get a couple big plays so in the Cover 4 I had to pick and choose when I wanted to go deep.”

The result of his bounce-back effort was a commanding 30-0 lead at the half before the running game got itself moving in the second half to put the game well out of reach.

Junior running back David Williams eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the second time this season, running for 112 yards and a touchdown while Jaworski consistently found soft spots in the Cover 4 Zone, hauling in a season-best 12 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns.

“The line just held their blocking and I found the hole and just went,” Williams said. “I went hard each time. I didn’t know the next time I was going to get the ball so I tried to make the most of it.”

“It was all gameplan,” Jaworski said. “We noticed they ran that 4-3 with two safeties deep so we ran a lot of floods, a lot of middle floods, a lot of 10-yard outs. It was all game plan.”

The defense did its part as well.

Ryan McCourt and Rafiq Clark-Walker registered sacks as the Vikings held the Bears to their second-lowest offensive totals of the season (Boyertown registered 34 yards of total offense in a Week 1 loss to Exeter), and forced the Bears into seven three-and-outs.

Senior quarterback Lawrence Garnett, fresh off a 168-yard performance through the air in last week’s win over Methacton, was limited to 21 yards on 3-of-12 passing. A week after accounting for 177 yards and three touchdowns on the run, the Vikings limited the dual-threat quarterback to just 18 yards on the ground.

Caught tail end of @pv_student_sect roller coaster pic.twitter.com/7ix90FYMiQ

— Sam Stewart (@Samuel_Stewart7) October 17, 2015

“It really seemed like nothing we did got going,” Boyertown head coach George Parkinson said. “Our option, our speed sweep, our dives, nothing really got anywhere. They’re a very fast team, very aggressive defensively and very fast to the ball.”

The Bears trailed 17-0 midway through the second when Sturm threw his ill-fated interception on a busted screen play that set the team up on the opposite side of the 50. However, after a 10-play, 23-yard drive landed them at the PV 21, the Vikings held, forcing Garnett to throw incompletions on third and fourth down to turn away the Bears’ best scoring opportunity.

From there, the rout was on.

Sturm found Jaworski for a 19-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive before running a perfectly-executed two-minute drill to net another score. Sturm scrambled around before finding Aaron Morton (two receptions for 71 yards) for a 44-yard strike before splitting the coverage on a perfectly-placed 23-yard touchdown throw to Jaworski two plays later to make it 30-0.

PV celebrating to their alma mater. pic.twitter.com/k3jVhInUKQ

— Sam Stewart (@Samuel_Stewart7) October 17, 2015

After fumbling on the Boyertown 5 to open the third quarter, the Vikings scored on the next three possessions, Williams with a hard-nosed 37-yard touchdown run, Ronnie Arch a one-yard plunge and Rasheed May capping off the scoring with a 6-yard run to make it 51-0 late in the fourth.

NOTES >> Sean Owens finished the game with two receptions for 70 yards. … Arch finished with two touchdowns and 26 yards rushing while Morton capped off his day with a 35-yard run that ended with him leveling a Boyertown defender along the sideline. … Jerry Kapp led Boyertown with two receptions for 21 yards.