BOYERTOWN — There were many times when the Boyertown and Pope John Paul II offenses seemed unstoppable in Friday night’s Pioneer Athletic Conference contest at Memorial Stadium. That was until they did a pretty good job of stopping themselves … the Bears with penalties, the Golden Panthers with turnovers.

But eventually the game was decided by the Boyertown defense, which came up with the big stops when necessary in a 28-21 win.

Nick Brough intercepted two passes for the Bears (2-6, 2-7) overall and returned one for a touchdown; Justin Siejk picked off a pass; and Gray Garber was a force on defense throughout the night with two sacks and several other tackles for losses. Chris Veisbergs caught seven passes for 94 yards for PJP (0-8, 0-9), which gained 200 yards through the air.

“Nick Brough … that interception was awesome,” Garber said concerning the pickoff and 41-yard return into the end zone that gave the Bears a 21-14 lead late in the third quarter. “Justin Siejk … his interception was big. All around defensively, we played pretty good.”

“Our defense has been improving each week,” said Boyertown coach Mark Scisly. “I’m proud of the way they played tonight. They deserve this. That defensive touchdown was huge.”

Boyertown — which got 135 yards rushing from Cody Richmond, 113 from Matt Moccia, 71 from Eric Heller, and a touchdown from each — steamrolled its way down the field on the first possession of the game, driving 78 yards on 12 plays, with Heller running in from the 10.

That began a back-and-forth night, as the two sides alternated touchdowns. Finally, Boyertown took a 28-21 lead on a 10-yard scoring run by Richmond with 9:38 remaining, and the defense took over from there.

PJP came back to advance to the 50 yard line, but Garber — who also kicked four extra-points — sacked Panther quarterback Matt Mesaros for a loss of 11 yards. The visitors eventually moved down to the Bear 18 on a 22-yard run by Alex Valeri (54 yards rushing, 2 receptions, 2 touchdowns). But Garber dropped Veisbergs for a three-yard loss and Brough intercepted his second pass of the night at the nine to end the threat.

PJP got the ball back for another try when Veisbergs recovered a fumble with 2:50 to go. But the Boyertown pass defense came through as it forced four straight incompletions, one on a big third-down break-up by Dalton Hughes. Then the Bears picked up a pair of first downs — one on a third-and-one sneak by quarterback Griffin Pasik and the other on a 10-yard burst up the middle by Moccia — to run out the clock.

Pope John Paul gained 381 total yards, but the Bear defense forced the Panthers into just 16-of-37 passing. Boyertown racked up 323 yards on the ground on 58 attempts and 418 total yards, but hurt itself with nine penalties for 70 yards.

“The penalties were really frustrating,” said Scisly. “Too many dumb penalties. We have to shore them up. We’ve got more work to do to get ready for Owen J. (Roberts) next week.”

But despite the blemishes, the Bear coach was happy with the determination of his players.

“They persevered through a bad stretch,” he added. “It means a lot for our seniors on Senior Night.”

“We still fight hard every game,” added Garber, the only senior starter on defense. “We have six seniors. We’re doing what we can with what we have.”

NOTES

The Bears had just the one turnover. … Some of Garber’s tackles looked more like takedowns on the wrestling mat than football plays. … “I’m not really a big hitter,” he said. “I feel I can rip kids down like wrestling.” … Golden Panther coach Mike Santillo couldn’t find much to say after another week of inconsistency by his team. … “Tonight was a full summary of our season,” he said. “It’s a shame.” … Nick Diprinzio led the visitors with 74 yards rushing on 11 carries.