Fourth Quarter Momentum Leads Rams Past P.V.

The Rams defeated Perkiomen Valley at Coach McNelly Stadium on Friday night, 42-28. With the win, the Rams clinched home field in the first round of the district playoffs.

"We’re really excited about the home game," said head coach Chad Brubaker. "We don’t care who we play. It’s just going to be exciting here. I hope we get a huge crowd. Our student section was great tonight. They didn’t have shirts on in the cold weather. I hope they don’t get sick."

It wasn't the best of first halves for the Rams, as Brubaker admitted, but the boys in recent weeks have known how to get the job done in the fourth quarter.

"I felt like we had a good week of practice," Brubaker said. "I felt like we were focused in the beginning of the game. Our defense has been tremendous over the past few weeks and they gave up 21 points in the first half."

After an early interception, quarterback Hank Coyne came back and ended up throwing for over 200 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Rams to the victory.

"There’s a couple of times where he puts his head down in situations, but they were doing things – the corner was coming up and backing off and coming up – [he and Andrew] weren’t on the same page," Brubaker said. "That’s something we’re going to have to practice. He came back from it. That’s what we need him to do."

On the other side of the football, a quarterback with speed once again broke big plays on the Spring-Ford defense, this time in Perkiomen Valley sophomore Rasaan Stewart.

Stewart rushed for 108 yards on the Rams defense and ran one in for a touchdown. He passed for two more.

"Number 11 was pretty darn good," Brubaker said. "They had a pretty good gameplan. They were keeping us balanced. Our defensive line was starting to get in on the pass rush, and then they’d take off on a draw. We were just too high."

However, Danny Lawrence and Ryan Conway were the two big defensive stars in the game - aiding the Spring-Ford defense in an eventual defeat over the Vikings. Conway had an interception on defense, adding to his stellar offensive and special teams performances. Also in on sacks were Mason Romano, Ben Cutler and Ian Hare.

Overall, field position played a big role in the second half turn-around.

"We did a great job on kickoff team," said Brubaker. That’s a huge momentum thing. When you do well on kickoff and you make big plays and put teams inside the 25 in high school – that’s pretty good."

Spring-Ford goes on to face Pennridge at home next week [Friday at 7 p.m.]. District 1-AAAA seedings should be announced Sunday. The regular season ends with Phoenixville on Thanksgiving Day.

Spring-Ford Statistics

Coyne - 6/14, 201 yds, 4 TD, INT
4 rush, -3 yds

Jones - 16 rush, 96 yds, TD

Lundi - 9 rush, 32 yds, TD

Paige - 5 rush, 58 yds

Scanlan - 1 rec, 74 yds, TD
1 rush, 14 yds

Conway - 2 rec, 54 yds, TD
INT

Sheldon - 2 rec, 38 yds, TD

Branch - 1 rec, 2 yds

Yazujian - 1 rec, 37 yds, TD

Sacks: Cutler, Hare