Boyertown's big gains keep Pottstown out of win column

by By Dennis Weller

Posted on October 17, 2009

BOYERTOWN — When all was said and done, Boyertown's Pioneer Athletic Conference football win over Pottstown Friday night certainly didn't seem like a 28-pointer. The Trojans ran off 24 more plays than the Bears, racked up five more first downs, and wound up with only 50 fewer total yards.

But Boyertown took advantage of big plays — three of them for more than 50 yards — and knocked off the Trojans by a 35-7 score at Memorial Stadium.

The Bears (3-2 PAC-10, 4-3 overall) averaged nearly 11 yards on their 31 running plays, with Ryan Schwager piling up 131 yards on 11 carries. Malik Brinkley rushed for 157 yards for the Trojans (0-5, 0-7).

"We knew our team was faster," said Schwager. "We just wanted to get outside and run up the field."

That's what Schwager did late in the first half when he burst up the right sideline for 60 yards. Then Dylan Pasik passed 25 yards to Logan Herb on the next play for a touchdown that gave the Bears their first lead of the night at 14-7 with 48 seconds left in the first half.

Boyertown broke the game open quickly after the halftime homecoming ceremonies. The Bears took the opening kickoff and drove for a touchdown in just over a minute, with Schwager running in from 17 yards out.

The Bears scored again the next time they had the ball on a broken play when Pasik took the snap, juggled the ball in the backfield, and then scampered 74 yards into the end zone.

An 11-yard scoring run by Jon Neiman — his second touchdown of the night — made it 35-7 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.

"Our kids played hard," said Trojan coach Brett Myers. "It's 14-7 at halftime. Again, there's a third-and-forever and they bust it and they take it for 74 yards. That can't happen. We're going to continue to work hard."

"Pottstown is a good team," said Bears coach Mark Scisly, whose team amassed 330 yards on the ground and 70 through the air. "Brett Myers does a good job. Their kids came to play."

That was certainly evident right from the start as the Trojans scored on their first possession of the night on a 30-yard pass from Jeff Endy to Tony Miller.

But Tim Miller returned the ensuing kickoff to the Pottstown 35 for the Bears, and the hosts quickly tied the score on a 4-yard run by Neiman with 7:14 still remaining in the opening quarter.

The Trojans had a chance to regain the lead late in the half when they lined up for a 22-yard field goal attempt, but a fumbled snap from center forced an incomplete pass attempt, and the Bears took the ball 85 yards the other way on just two plays to take the upper hand for good.

Schwager thought a more relaxed attitude during the week helped the Bears.

"We had a fun week of practice," he said. "We just had a lot of fun and learned a lot this week."

"Every time we got into a big game, we were putting a lot of pressure on the guys," said Scisly. "We said it's homecoming, it's exciting, let's go out and play good football."

NOTES

The Trojans did well on the ground as well with 301 yards on 56 carries. ... Neither team committed a turnover despite the steady light rain throughout the contest, but the weather did limit the passing attempts to just a combined 19 by both teams compared to 87 runs. ... "We tried to be as balanced as we could with the weather conditions," said Scisly. ... Herb broke off a 54-yard run and Brinkley a 52-yarder.

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