In The Huddle

By Dave Devlin

Stated in this column a week earlier, the Pottsgrove Falcons had emphatically worked themselves into the discussion about which team is the favorite to win the Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC-10) title with an explosive display of strength and skill.  

On Friday evening, head coach Rick Pennypacker’s troops added a couple more words for the players, coaches and fans of PAC-10 football to use while describing the characteristics of the Falcons. 

Rallying from a 12-point halftime deficit, Pottsgrove showed it has the determination and poise to challenge for a league title with an 18-12 victory over Boyertown.

A bit over aggressive on defense and sluggish on offense, the Falcons fell behind, but gathered themselves quickly in the second half. The defense bottled up Boyertown in the second half, holding their opponents to a mere 17 plays and on offense their quarterback matured right before the eyes of those that braved the elements. 

Junior quarterback Tory Hudgins started the second half of play with a 54-yard strike to Johnny Fowler, scored a touchdown on a very athletic 26 yard burst down the far sideline in the fourth quarter to pull his team even and then pulled of the highlight play of the young season for the winning points.

With less than two minutes to play Hudgins scrambled to his right looking to throw a quick pass. It appeared Hudgins was going to be dropped for a sack by the Boyertown defense, but somehow squirted free of a defenders grasp. He reversed his direction coming to the near sideline and looked as if he was running for a first down. But just a tick before getting to the line of scrimmage Hudgins spotted Fowler alone in the end zone and lofted the ball safely over a stunned defense into the hands of his teammate with 1:46 remaining to play.

As the weeks go by Pottsgrove continues to find more and more positives in the way it performs when the lights are turned on.  And as a result, those teams yet to face the Falcons have more and more to prepare for.

A VERY SPECIAL TEAMS EFFORT - With the weather conditions as bad as they were on Friday evening you didn’t have to be an award winning football analyst to realize the football wasn’t going to be thrown much.  

And when it came to kicking anything more than an extra-point … let’s just say head coaches were not looking at their kickers to be the difference between a win and a loss. 

Needing a good snap, hold and kick with a slick football and playing surface is formula enough for most coaches at the high school level to forget they even have a field goal kicker on the roster.

Apparently, Perkiomen Valley head coach Scott Reed wasn’t buying into that line of thinking when his team hosted Pottstown.

On three occasions Reed sent snapper Mike Reiner, holder Ryan D’Ambrosiot and kicker Kyle Chudoba onto the field. And on all three occasions that trio delivered in a thrilling 29-21 come from behind victory that kept the Vikings undefeated in league play.

The trio also added a pair of extra points and Chudoba pinning Pottstown at its own six-yard line with less than four minutes to play on the last of his four punts. 

Don’t under sell this effort Reed and Perkiomen Valley got from the special teams. Had any of those field goals failed, preventing the Vikings from putting points on the board, Pottstown could very well have steadied itself and held off their opponents charge. 

POINTS OF INTEREST – If you haven’t seen Methacton junior quarterback Brandon Bossard play this season; you want to make a point of doing so. 

On Saturday afternoon against Pope John Paul II Bossard continued to build his resume as one of the most dynamic players in the PAC-10. 

Bossard played a part in 289 of his teams 474 yards of total offense in a 31-21 win that evened the Warriors league mark at (1-1, 2-2 overall) and erased the lingering effects of a heartbreaking defeat to Phoenixville a week earlier. 

Bossard threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 111 yards on the ground. He also played on the defensive side of the ball at cornerback, defended four passes and made four tackles.

* Phoenixville quarterback Alec McQuiston is also making a name for himself and in the process making people around the league stand up and take a good look at his team. 

McQuiston ran for two touchdowns and 136 yards in the Phantoms 22-7 victory over Owen J. Roberts. 

The victory kept the Phantoms undefeated on the season at 4-0 (2-0 PAC-10). 

* Perkiomen Valley’s defensive performance against Pottstown was startling. The Trojans took a 21-0 lead getting touchdown runs of 21 and 50 yards and a 49-ysrd touchdown pass.  

From that point on the Vikings bottled up the explosive Trojans. For the game Pottstown was held to under 200 yards total offense and the Vikings forced three turnovers. 

ON TAP FOR WEEK 5 – The big battle in the PAC-10 will take place at Spring-Ford this week when the Rams host Pottsgrove. 

Both teams are undefeated and considered favorites to capture the league title. 

Spring-Ford (2-0 PAC-10, 3-1 overall) took down Upper Perkiomen 52-7 and Pottsgrove 3-0, 3-1) rallied to take down Boyertown.

In other action this Friday, Perkiomen Valley and Phoenixville will try to stay undefeated in league play. The Vikings (2-0, 3-1) host Boyertown (0-2, 2-2) and Phoenixville (2-0, 4-0) travels to Pottstown (1-1, 2-2). 

The Phoenixville/Pottstown is the WPAZ 1370 AM Game of the Week. Pre-game show starts at 6 p.m.

Pope John Paul II 90-2, 1-3) travels to Owen J. Roberts (0-2, 1-3) in a game that will see one of the two break into the win column in league play for the first time this season.

Friday’s games are all slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff.   

On Saturday Methacton hosts Upper Perkiomen (0-2, 1-3) at 1 p.m. 

Dave Devlin is the News/Sports & Information director at WPAZ 1370 AM. He can be reached at  HYPERLINK "mailto:ddevlin@wpazradio.com" ddevlin@wpazradio.com.