Boyertown upends Spring-Ford

After a somewhat uneven Pioneer Athletic Conference regular season, the Boyertown boys soccer team decided it was time towash the slate clean.

“We had a rough start,” senior defender Erik Recke said of a campaign that saw the Bears hovering under and around the .500 mark. “Nowallwe’re saying is that the season starts over in the playoffs, and all it takes is a couple of wins.”

The defending league champion Bears continued their strong down-thestretch play Tuesday night at Owen J. Roberts, turning back Spring-Ford 2-1 in a Final Four semifinal.

Recke connected for the deciding goal off a restart in the 67th minute as Liberty Division third-place finisher Boyertown (13-6) advanced to Thursday’s championship game against Frontier Division champ Pottsgrove.

Boyertown displayed that by reeling off wins in its final four league games, including a had-to-have 3-1 victory over the Rams last week that avenged an earlier 1-0 loss.

It continued in the third meeting, with Conner Reiss ripping one home off a feed from Alex Kidwell in the game’s fifth minute to put the Bears up 1-0.

After being on its heels in the early going of Tuesday’s semi, Liberty champion Spring-Ford (12-5-2) slowly began to figure out the Bears.

Junior midfielder Ronnie Minges headed home a cross from Mike Hyduke for the equalizer 23 minutes before intermission, and the Rams appeared to be in business.

“We came out with a game plan to kind of attack themon the flanks and hold the ball more,” first-year Spring-Ford coach Brent Kissel said. “We just have to do a better job of finishing our chances in the run of play.”