FAIRVIEW VILLAGE - One may have thought Paul Lepre's football glass was no less than three-quarters full, but Methacton's third-year coach thought it was one-quarter empty.

 

After watching his Warriors play what arguably may have been their best 36 consecutive minutes of the entire football season, he was forced to watch an all too familiar 12 minutes of inconsistent football.

 

Fortunately for Lepre and the Warriors, their 17-0 lead after three quarters - which was still a comfortable 17-point spread (24-7) with only 3:43 remaining - was just enough to withstand Boyertown's furious comeback attempt and lead to a 24-20 Pioneer Athletic Conference win Saturday, ending a very frustrating two-game skid.

 

'I'm upset with our inability to finish,' Lepre snapped. 'But on the other side, I have to give our kids credit because after Boyertown scored we went down and scored again. But (the finish) certainly takes away from the win.'

 

Quarterback Brandon Bossard's leg and arms carried the Warriors through most of the matinee. Two passes covering 22 and 26 yards set up Jose Holland's 22-yard field goal at the 6;13 mark of the second quarter, and another pass covering 31 yards to Kyle Lowery ended up in the end zone with 29 seconds left in the first half that ended at 10-0.

 

Bossard, 13 of 28 for a season-high 234 yards, wasted no time making it 17-0 by hitting Dillon Alderfer from 22 yards away to finish off the hosts' first possession of the second half.

 

Ironically, it appeared as though the Warriors were well on their way to creating a bigger spread after Bossard ran for 26 yards and threw for another 32 to Dillen White for a first-and-goal on the final play of the fourth quarter. But two snaps later, Boyertown's Brock Johnson intercepted Bossard on his own two-yard line...

 

Then 16 plays, 98 yards and 3:50 later, the Bears got on the board when Griffin Pasik sneaked in from the one.

 

Fortunately for the Warriors, as Lepre alluded to, they came right back behind a couple of long Mike Cassidy runs and Bossard's 16-yard pass to Cooper Given to set up Cassidy's eight-yard burst, and reset the lead back to 17 points with what turned out to be a seemingly endless 3:43 remaining.

 

Seemingly endless because of how the Bears responded.

 

First, they drove 80 yards in 12 plays, with Pasik's 26-yard toss to Matt Moccia finalizing that possession to make it 24-14 with 1:09 left , Then, after recovering recovered the ensuing onsides kick, they drove 50 yards in six plays, with Pasik's 20-yard toss to Nick Brough making it 24-20 with three seconds left.

 

That was just enough time for Methacton to settle the issue, and too much time for Boyertown to think if only it played the first three quarters like that frantic fourth quarter.

 

'We weren't running anything different, just our basics,' Bears head coach Mark Scisly said. 'We just started executing, that's all.

 

'Offensively we've been working on our blocking assignments, working on them and working on them. But we just didn't execute in the first half. Finally, (late in the) second half we did. It was disappointing the way we played in the first half. It just seemed we always had a breakdown here and there.'

 

Methacton's defensive front, featuring nose guard Nick Torcini, tackle Ernie Buono and rotating ends Tom Collis, Andrew Desana and Chris He, had a lot to do with breaking down and shutting down the Boyertown offense. At the half, they limited their guests to just 90 yards.

 

By game's end, though, running backs Cody Richmond (108 yards), Matt Moccia (54) and Eric Heller (25) did their sharing lugging the ball and Pasik (10 of 22 for 130 yards) did his share throwing it for a respectable 312 in the end.