Nick Moccia ran for 175 yards and four touchdowns and younger brother Jamison Moccia ran for 85 yards and two scores for the Bears (5-6), who gained 469 yards.

 

Marcus Thomas added 91 yards on the ground for the winners and Jerry Kapp caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ayden Mathias and intercepted two passes to add to his one-season team record.

 

Defensively, the Bears blanked the Cardinals (4-7) in the second half while allowing only 38 total yards and one first down. It was an overall determined effort by the Bears, who fell behind on the first play and trailed three times during a 20-20 first half.

 

"That's exactly what it was," said Boyertown first-year coach T.J. Miller. "We wanted a postseason. We wanted to end the year with a championship, and these guys did it."

 

"It all came down to the bond and the chemistry these guys had," Nick Moccia said after the Bears' first postseason home game and first win after District 1 losses in 2006 and 2010. "We're blue collar workers here. We didn't give up. We stuck to it and made history here."

 

PME, which got 196 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries by Praize Andrews, scored on the first play from scrimmage on a 52-yard pass from Dylan Rinker to Triston Hillman.

 

But the Bears tied it on an 80-yard run by Nick Moccia. Then Andrews ran 38 yards for a score and Kapp caught the TD pass from Mathias for a 14-13 edge. A 21-yard scoring run by Andrews and a 38-yarder by Jamison Moccia produced the 20-20 halftime tie.

 

The Bears took the lead with a 74-yard drive right after the break, Kapp intercepted a pass and Thomas broke off a 77-yard run to set up another score. Then Kapp picked off his 11th of the season and the Bears drove 28 yards for a 41-20 advantage.

 

Kapp didn't think his team could have drawn up a better ending to the season.

 

"You really couldn't," he said. "Just to share this moment with my team and coaches is surreal. We're glad we brought the culture of football back to Boyertown."

 

"In the locker room, our captain, Jerry, got us together and gave us some positive words," said Nick Moccia, who finished the scoring with a 37-yard. "We knew we had to step up. We knew this was the first playoff game in years. We had to seize the moment."

 

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