Perk Valley turns takeaways into touchdowns in win over Norristown
WEST NORRITON >> The Perk Valley offense couldn’t get much going during the first half of Friday night’s Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division game against Norristown at the Norristown Area High School Athletic Complex.
The Vikings first three drives ended with two punts and a turnover on downs.
Late in the first half, the Perk Valley defense jumped on a fumbled snap inside the Norristown 15-yard line. Two plays later, senior running back Jacob Sturm was in the end zone celebrating a three-yard touchdown run to give the Vikings the lead.
Perk Valley forced four turnovers in the game, three of which turned into touchdowns in a 28-0 win over the Eagles.
“When our defense makes those huge plays like that,” Sturm said, “it just gets the momentum on the whole team going. If they keep turning over the ball, doing their job, we’ll keep punching it in the end zone.”
“That’s huge to get points off turnovers,” PV head coach Rob Heist said. “I thought our defense played outstanding the entire night. (Norristown) has athletes all the way across the field – kids who can scoot, kids who can catch and run – and I thought our defense played outstanding tonight.”
On the first possession of the second half, defensive lineman Jakob Sterling read a screen pass, dropped into coverage and grabbed an interception to set the PV offense up around midfield. Seven plays later, quarterback Ethan Kohler connected with Michael Dougherty for a 17-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-7 to double the lead to 14-0.
The Eagles crossed midfield again on their following drive. This time it was Dougherty who stepped up and grabbed an interception for PV. The Vikings drove down inside Norristown’s 10-yard line to end the third quarter and made it 21-0 on the first play of the fourth when Kohler connected with Jonathan Moccia for a seven-yard score.
“We have to control the ball,” Norristown head coach Joe Milligan said. “That’s been our M.O. We’re probably close to 20-25 turnovers on the year and we’re basically at the halfway point. We have to learn to control the ball.
“If we keep the ball, they can’t score. That’s what it comes down to. We have to do better at ball control. Can’t have stupid mistakes that cost us, like penalties. We have to go through our reads and make sure to stay on our blocks.”
Perk Valley’s final touchdown came after forcing a punt. Moccia ran right up the middle for a 45-yard score to make it 28-0.
The Vikings scored on all three of their second-half possessions before kneeling the ball the final time they had the ball.
“We all just got out of our heads and started doing our job moving the ball up the field,” Sturm said. “Executing.”
“We didn’t really make any (halftime) adjustments,” Heist said, “we just talked about fine-tuning a couple things that we saw. I thought Norristown had a really great defensive gameplan coming out. We struggled in the first half and then I thought we executed a lot better in the second half and that’s how we expect to execute moving forward.”
Kohler finished the game 8-for-14 for 109 yard, two touchdowns and one interception – coming on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half.
Sturm rushed for 91 yards and Moccia added 84.
Thomas Bellmon led Norristown on offense. He completed 11-of-25 passes for 143 yards and rushed for a team-high 36 yards.
Isiah Tucker had seven catches for 64 yards.
“We felt like our skill was better than their’s,” Milligan said. “We went downfield the first couple plays right past them. A few penalties here and there cost us. If we get that (a long completion to Travis Cummings called back for offensive pass interference) that changes everything. That hurts us.”
