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Rain, Boyertown can’t stop Perkiomen Valley
GRATERFORD >> The rain and the muck made its best attempt at slowing down Perkiomen Valley’s offense.
Stopping it, however? Well that’s near impossible.
Perkiomen Valley trudged through the slippery confines of Thomas J. Keenan Stadium and stayed undefeated with a 30-0 victory over Boyertown Friday night on the Vikings’ Senior Night.
The win is Perkiomen Valley’s sixth straight over Boyertown, and the second straight shutout over its Liberty opponent. The outcome was never really in doubt despite the Vikings’ (2-0 PAC, 6-0 overall) first three possessions resulting in punts. PV held a 14-0 lead at the half before limiting the Bears to 33 yards of total offense in the final 24 minutes.
Senior quarterback Stephen Sturm finished with 233 yards
passing and three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). It’s his fifth game with more than 230 yards passing and his second consecutive without an interception.
David Williams finished with a team-high 41 yards rushing that included a 6-yard touchdown run that made it 23-0 PV with 3:28 remaining in the third. The senior tailback also hauled in four passes for 69 yards while Brendan Schimpf finished with 36 yards receiving on four receptions, his 13-yard touchdown catch making it 14-0 late in the second quarter. Sean Owens finished with 71 yards receiving on two receptions. Owens’ 53-yard touchdown reception midway through the fourth capped off the Vikings’ scoring.
“Coach just told the backs to run downhill and hold onto the ball,” Williams said. “We just needed to get as many yards as we could get.”
The Vikings, limited to 37 yards on 15 plays in the first three drives, finished with 363 yards of total offense. Not a bad day on a rain-soaked field that resembled a quagmire after the first quarter.
“We knew it was going to be a tough time,” Perkiomen Valley senior offensive lineman Vaughn Stolzer said. “Like coach said, we were playing in a swamp. We came out and it took us a little bit to get our feet down and get ready. But once we got comfortable that’s when we started running the football right down the field.
“Our main focus was on vertical push, making sure we got our hands on someone and stomping our feet out,” Temple commit and PV offensive lineman Chris Jimenez said. “We tried to stay cool, calm and collected up front and communicate well. That’s a big part of our offense, talking about who we need to get to at the right time. Just talking it out the first couple of series is what helped us out.”
Boyertown (1-1 PAC, 2-4 overall) was without starting quarterback Jerry Kapp, who was held out due to injury. Sophomore Ayden Mathias started in his place with solid results, finishing with 116 yards on the ground on 14 carries, his longest tote a 70-yard keeper up the middle late in the second quarter.
“Ayden, for a sophomore stepping in there not having a lot of reps, I thought he did a good job,” Boyertown head coach George Parkinson said. “He held it together, he was very poised. Unfortunately he just didn’t have the reps enough to be crisp and with a wet ball that was difficult. I was proud of him hanging in there, running the team. He did a good job in Kapp’s absence.”
Penalties and turnovers did in the Bears, which lost out on an opportunity to win two straight for the first time since Week 5-6 last season. Mathias was intercepted twice in the loss while the offense couldn’t stay disciplined on third and short, four false start penalties doing enough to thwart drives.
“If only we could just get over the penalties that hurt us, that kill drives,” Parkinson said. “Those are the things that we need to work on in a big way. It seems to haunt us every game. Until we fix that, we’re not going to be where we need to be and turn this season around. I talked to the team about that, they understand that. I said that we have to make a commitment about that and we’ll see what happens when we come out next week.” STAT THIS >> Schimpf had 20 yards rushing on eight carries, same as Sturm . ... Kicker Garrett Patla had three touchbacks . ... Matt Ford-Bey and Joe Zeminski had one interception each. The Vikings fumbled four times but didn’t lose one.