Hurricane Ram - Spring-Ford Manhandles Upper Perkiomen

Spring-Ford football defeated Upper Perkiomen on Friday night, 52-7. Despite the rain, the Rams scored time and time again. Sophomore standout Jarred Jones scored all three of the first half touchdowns, with kicker tacking on a field goal, as well.

Jones has seen more and more touches as the season has progressed and, in part, that has been due to his maturity level on the field.

"As we started out the season, we knew his ability in the summertime at camp and stuff," said head coach Chad Brubaker, who has led his team to a 4-1 start. "He’s a really smart kid and he was picking things up. Varsity football is a different culture and expectation and we wanted to make sure he understood that before there was any perception of us handing the job to him. We brought him along slowly and made sure he was doing the things he needed to do off the field and understood what those expectations would be. That’s why it took us a little time – two, three games – to start to feature him more."

Senior Xavier Ingram, who got injured in the second scrimmage of the season came back with a vengeance in Friday night's game, scoring a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the second half.

"We still plan to utilize our other backs as well," Brubaker said. "Xavier got hurt in our second scrimmage and he’s just now coming back. Obviously you saw what he can do. Yusef [Lundi] has played well for us as well. We have change up backs that we can use and it’s a nice problem to have."

Lundi scored a touchdown in the second half. Other scores came from backup quarterback JJ Paige and junior Kyle Hoffner. Senior , seeing less touches at the halfback position, flourished on defense - a trend over the past two .

"What happened was, when Nick Ondo got hurt, it put us in a situation where we had guys that could play wide receiver," said Brubaker. "It kind of coincided with Jarred stepping up a little bit more. We just felt that Ryan would be able to help us more effectively at wide receiver. He goes in on goal line at quarterback and still have packages where he’s at running back. He has played really well, especially the last two weeks at safety."

A big part of the momentum in the lopsided victory over the Indians was pregame preparation and mindset, according to Brubaker.

"Before the game, there was a huge downpour and our coaching staff asked if we should cut short the pregame," he said. "I said no. It’s rain. It’s not cold rain, it’s warm. We’re going to have to play in it anyway. So, we went out and did the full pregame. Upper Perk didn’t do the same thing.

"They went in the gym and we kind of sold that to our kids a little bit before the game. They got excited about playing in the rain. Once they were soaked to the core, they made the most out of it. I told them I did not as a player like playing in the rain and it wasn’t my favorite thing, but last night was kind of fun. It wasn’t cold and that makes a difference in how you perceive the rain."

Overall, Brubaker is a little concerned about the way things are shaping up in the league, meaning implications for every game are huge for Spring-Ford.

"I can tell you this: Our goal is to win the league and make District I playoffs," he said. "Quite honestly, the three scenarios that are worst-case scenarios are kind of happening. One is we beat West Chester East, but they're not winning. We really knew how important the Daniel Boone game was for playoff implications and we were unable to beat them. The other thing is, Phoenixville is winning and when they win, we don't get any points for them, because the playoffs start before we play them. Any win they get, they're taking away playoff points for us, because anyone we play in the league is .500."

The Rams play a tough Pottsgrove squad next week. Aside from that, the boys haven't defeated the Falcons in 10 years. Regardless, Brubaker stands by a game-by-bame strategy.

"Every single game is the utmost importance to us," Brubaker said. "Pottsgrove isn't going to matter if we don't take care of Upper Perkiomen. And the other games aren't going to matter much if we don't beat Pottsgrove. So, certainly our kids are very excited to try to end that streak. It's one of those each week here, for us, for what our goals are, each week is a must-win situation because those three scenarios have happened."