Boyertown had given some good football teams a battle for a half or more this season, only to falter in the end. But Friday night, the Bears put together two long drives in the final two minutes to upend Owen J. Roberts 24-21.

 

The first went 84 yards to tie the Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division contest with 1:17 to go. The second, a textbook 65-yard drive engineered by quarterback Ayden Mathias, set up a 25-yard field goal by Declan Coyle with three seconds left for a stunning Homecoming win at Memorial Stadium.

 

Jamie Moccia rushed for 117 yards and scored on a 65-yard run and a 52-yard pass play for the Bears (2-1, 2-5). Hunter Scherfel ran for 80 yards and two touchdowns for the Wildcats (1-2, 5-2).

 

"In building the program step-by-step, this is another step along the way," said Boyertown first-year coach T.J. Miller. "We've been here before. The other times, it didn't work out in the end. The heart of this team I can't say enough about the players and their dedication to the program."

 

Roberts took a 21-14 advantage on a 42-yard run by Scherfel with 6:07 left in the third quarter. The Wildcats defense, which had allowed only 9.2 points a game coming in, forced the Bears to punt twice and Jake Puderbach recovered a fumble at the OJR 33 with 3:34 to go.

 

But Boyertown got the ball back on its 16 with 1:45 left and scored four plays later on the long pass from Mathias to Moccia. Then the Bears took over on their 28 with 47 seconds remaining.

 

Mathias passed to Jerry Kapp for 9 and 11 yards and to Kevin O'Connor for 13 more. He then scrambled for 12 and a personal foul moved the ball to the Roberts 13.

 

Coyle came in on a fourth-and-6 and booted the field goal. Kapp intercepted a long pass on the final play.

 

"I had the confidence," said Coyle, a sophomore. "If I missed it, I wouldn't have been bummed because the score would have been tied. All the hard work I put in this summer, it's just crazy what's occurring. I can't believe what's going on right now."

 

Boyertown had opened the scoring on a 91-yard drive late in the first quarter, with Nick Moccia scoring from the 5. Roberts tied it on a 20-yard pass from Dawson Stuart to Sean Praweckyj and the Bears regained the lead on the long run by Jamie Moccia just 36 seconds later.

 

The Wildcats were forced to punt four times after taking their 21-14 lead.

 

"That's what we wanted to see the defense flying to the ball," said Miller. "That's a very good Owen J. Roberts team over there."

 

"Up 21-14, I thought we had the game pretty much in hand," said Roberts coach Rich Kolka. "They did a really good job getting the ball to Kapp. We had an opportunity to make some plays. We didn't tackle real well tonight. Sometimes the offense has to win some games. We've been relying on our defense."

 

Contact Dennis Weller: 610-371-5061 or dweller@readingeagle.com.