Perkiomen Valley slugs past Spring-Ford, gains top spot in PAC Liberty

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• by  Rob Senior

• October 8, 2022

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GRATERFORD >> As Perkiomen Valley honored some 38 seniors — football players, team managers, and cheerleaders — before Friday’s game, the public address announcer read each senior’s “favorite moment” of their PV athletic career. 

At least one Viking is already looking for a redo. 

“That was the first thing one of our coaches said to me — new favorite moment!” said running back Brad Curci, whose 36-yard catch-and-run in the late third quarter stood up as Perkiomen Valley outslugged Spring-Ford, 7-6, in the latest installment of the two schools’ classic rivalry.

“Two great teams — a couple of great defenses,” added Cole Euker, a sophomore two-way tackle for PV. “It felt all along that it would come down to defense.”

And it did, as Euker’s final big play of the evening was a tackle on Spring-Ford quarterback Matt Zollers on a would-be go-ahead two-point conversion with 46 seconds to play. 

 

The deciding play came after the Rams’ first two-point attempt was whistled dead for an offsides penalty on the Vikings, moving the ball halfway to the goal line for Spring-Ford.

“I wasn’t sure how that [penalty] would affect it,” said Euker.

The plan, however, stayed simple. 

“Wasn’t much to say,” said Euker. “Just continue doing what we’ve been doing all night.”

And that was coming up with big plays at the right times. Euker joined with Carson Pascoe and Vance Junker up front to stop SF in the backfield repeatedly, putting Spring-Ford behind the sticks or stopping previously promising drives in their tracks. 

Spring-Ford’s Jake Reigh’s booming 65-yard punt pinned PV at their own 10-yard line midway through the third quarter of a scoreless contest. Yet the Vikings embarked undaunted on an eight-play, 90-yard drive that featured running back Jake Stewart (19 carries, 79 yards) before Curci made his first touch of the evening count, taking a middle screen 36 yards untouched for a 7-0 PV lead.

“Screen plays are the best,” said Curci, “because the line comes through, and all you see is green in front of you.

“I had a lot of blocking in front of me. My first thought (after scoring) was ‘let’s get the PAT’ but then I see everyone coming at me, and in the stands, going wild.”

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Indeed it was a sellout crowd, as usual, at Thomas J. Keenan Stadium after a reshuffling of the schedule led to Perkiomen Valley hosting the matchup for the second straight year. But the best was yet to come. 

The Vikings survived a lost fumble, but the defensive struggle continued as the Rams forced a punt before their two-minute offense began to move the ball as efficiently as they had all evening. Matt Zollers (19-33, 179 yards, TD) found three different receivers, going 6-for-7 on the drive before a coverage bust found Belal Abdelrahman wide open inside the five-yard line for a score that brought the Rams within 7-6 with less than a minute to play and set up the deciding conversion.

“Before the drive even started,” said Spring-Ford coach Chad Brubaker when asked when he decided to go for a two-point conversion and the win. “We hadn’t really moved the ball all night, our whole coaching staff was in agreement [on going for two]. 

“I would make the same call again.”

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Spring-Ford outgained PV 277-175 but were undone by repeated snap issues and other mistakes.

“Too many penalties,” Brubaker summarized. “[PV] is awfully quick on defense. That’s hard to simulate in practice and it gave us some problems.”

It wasn’t an offensive spectacle, a back-and-forth shootout befitting two of the strongest offensive units in the area. Instead, it was a somewhat disjointed game at times, one fraught with self-inflicted errors and a pair of stout defenses dictating the flow of the contest. 

But one thing didn’t change — an edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting finish. Four of the last five games in the ‘Battle of the Horns’ came down to a single score. Coming down to a single point, a single play, a single yard, in fact, was a new twist.

Early on, the theme was those missed opportunities, and it started immediately when Ryan Klimek took the opening kickoff 57 yards to the SF 34 for the Vikings. But a poor snap pushed PV back into its own territory before a punt.

That punt, however, gave the Vikings their best field position in the early going after a Spring-Ford fumble. The Rams defense stood tall, however, as Zach Zollers made the first of several big plays in the opening half by defensive linemen when he stopped PV’s Owen Peterlin on a variation of the famed “Philly Special.”

From there, the defenses remained in control throughout the half, as Spring-Ford’s Mike Bendowski recovered a fumble to end the Vikings’ best threat, while Vance Junker scored a QB sack on Zollers at the PV 30 to thwart the Rams.

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After the teams exchanged punts to start the second half, it became apparent the first score would be paramount to determining the outcome.

And it was — just not as big as the two-point play that followed the second score.

Cole Euker has two brothers on the team — Carter and Grant — and a brother Gavin who graduated in 2019. As of now, he’s the only member of the family who’s undefeated against the Vikings’ archrivals.

“Of course, that’s special,” he said. “It’s always the game you want to win.”

The win gave Perk Valley (6-1, 3-0 PAC Liberty) sole possession of first place in the division, as well as the all-time lead in the series by the slimmest of margins, 20-19.

Perkiomen Valley can cement a second straight PAC Liberty title with a win next week against Norristown.

Spring-Ford (4-3, 2-1 PAC Liberty) looks to bounce back when they host Methacton.

Aside from his passing numbers, Matt Zollers added 25 yards rushing, a number diminished by his need to jump on a couple errant snaps. He saved the day on at least one occasion, corralling a bad snap and buying himself time to throw the ball away for an incompletion rather than losing significant yardage.

The visceral reactions to the last-second loss on the Rams’ sideline and even in the student section showed just how much the rivalry means to both sides.

“It hurts,” Brubaker said succinctly. 

The pain of what could’ve been for the Rams was balanced by the joy and unofficial ‘greatest moment’ of Brad Curci’s football career — a fitting portrait of the latest chapter of the area’s best rivalry.