BOYERTOWN - Monroe Hampton came up with football's version of the Ironman on Friday night. He didn't swim, nor bike anywhere.

 

But did the Pottstown senior ever run ... and run, and run, and run.

 

Hampton carried 29 times for 306 yards and three touchdowns, caught four passes for 72 yards, recovered a fumble, came up with an interception, and was in on seven tackles... whew.

 

All that, along with quarterback Sage Reinhart's 264 yards and three touchdowns passing, was just enough for the Trojans to outlast Boyertown, 51-47, in one of the most exciting and record-breaking Pioneer Athletic Conference games since the league kicked off its first season back in 1986.

 

Pottstown, which moved the chains a team-record 28 times and had possession of the football for 25 snaps more than its hosts (73-48), finished with a PAC-10 record 653 yards of total offense. Six different backs ran for 389 yards and six different receivers caught Reinhart's 12 completions for the 264 yards.

 

Ironically, the Trojans (1-0, 2-1 overall) needed every one of those plays and yards to hold off the Bears (1-1, 1-2), who got 125 yards and three touchdowns from Eric Heller to account for most of the 274 yards on the ground, and three more touchdown passes from Griffin Pasik, who combined with Matt Moccia's one 53-yard bomb, threw for 220 yards through the air or a total of 494 yards of offense.

 

And even though the back-and-forth affair seemed to be finally decided when Hampton went 60 yards to make it 51-35 with 5:56 remaining, the Bears came right back with back-to-back scores, wrapped around an onside kick they recovered, to get within the final four-point differential with 3:56 left. But Pottstown's Bryant Wise recovered the next onside kick and Hampton, Reinhart and the Trojans ran out the clock.

 

'We're really excited about everything,' said Hampton, who had five touchdowns a week ago in the Trojans' non-league rout of Penn Wood.

 

'You just have to take care of the guy next to you and good things happen,' added teammate Mike Magyar, who had one of the Trojans' three fumble recoveries.

 

Pottstown's entire crew took care of one another, as all those numbers - and the win - indicate.

 

'I'm pleased,' said head coach Brett Myers, who looked more exhausted than most of his two-way starters. 'The kids stuck in it. There were so many times the momentum swung away from us, but the kids didn't let it get away and got it back.

 

'We have good kids, kids who are focused and disciplined. When we settle in defensively things will be a little different.'

 

The Trojans may have been a wee bit too generous, but Hampton sure made up for it.

 

'Most of the credit goes to my line,' Hampton said. 'They work hard in practice, work hard in the game. They make it easy for me.'

 

Even in games like Friday night, when both teams could've been running on fumes.

 

'We condition ourselves,' said Pottstown lineman Andrew Gazzillo. 'We want to play our best if we have three yards to go and pound the ball, or if we go for the big plays.'

 

The Trojans sure did have their share of big plays.

 

Reinhart found Dayon Mohler for a 33-yard touchdown to get his team even at 7-7, then sneaked in from the two for a 14-7 lead with 6:25 remaining in the first quarter. But all that was good for was a 14-14 deadlock - because Boyertown's Heller took the first handoff of the game 40 yards for a score, and Pasik found Nick Brough on a 64-yard bomb three plays after Reinhart's sneak to tie it.

 

The Trojans went in front again (21-14) on Hampton's 53-yard bolt, and saw an opportunity wasted when Hampton recovered the ensuing onside kick and Reinhart took the Trojans down to the 11-yard line before running out of down. All Boyertown did was turn it right away to tie it when Pasik found Moccia all alone in the middle of the field for a 75-yard touchdown toss.

 

Boyertown's defense, which got its share of big stops only to see Pottstown come back with big plays to negate them, went in front 28-21 with 1:50 left in the first half after Pasik flipped 12 yards to Heller. Pottstown wouldn't stop, though, taking its final possession of the first two quarters in close enough for Richy Masciarelli's 20-yard field goal.

 

It was 28-24 at the half ... but nowhere near over.

 

Not after Anthony Borzillo's sack and ensuing fumble was recovered by Magyar to set up Reinhart's 58-yard toss to Darrius Bookard that gave Pottstown a 31-28 lead. Not after Cody Richmond ran two yards to give the Bears a 35-31 lead. And not after Reinhart found Denzel Harvey for 31 yards and a 38-35 lead at the end of three quarters.

 

It actually took three different series before the scoreboard lights flickered again... this time on Hampton's 73-yard run around the right side that made it 44-35 with 7:41 left. And when he took it 60 more yards to create that 51-35 spread with 5:56 left, it appeared over...

 

Until Boyertown made it as interesting as it'd been all evening when Heller capped an explosive, five-play drive from three yards out with 4:53 left and, following Alex Baldassarre's recovery of the onside kick, Heller went in from 19 yards out to make it 51-47 with 3:56 left.

 

But that's how it ended... 'Pottstown is just very athletic, and we gave up too many big plays,' said Boyertown head coach Mark Scisly. 'You can't give up 51 points and expect to win a ballgame. You have to be realistic.

 

'Fundamentally we didn't tackle well at all. Hampton had a great game, but all their athletes came to play tonight.'

Scisly found it difficult to digest that his team scored 47 points and didn't win.

 

'We just have to play better,' he said. 'We have to play better defense. We just have to perform better.'

 

NOTES Pottstown also got a fumble recovery from Darrell Bookard. ... Boyertown's 274 yards on the ground was split up between Heller (125), Richmond (87) and Moccia (69). ... Masciarelli converted six of seven placements in addition to his field goal. Boyertown counterpart Jeff Wolf was five of six.