ALLENTOWN - The Boyertown Bears will be the first to tell you that there are things they need to work on.

But it was hard not to be happy after a season-opening, 52-8 non-league football win over William Allen Friday night at J. Birney Crum Stadium.

The winners ran for over 500 yards - including 228 by Jared Von Dohren, 120 by Max Marcus, and 71 by Jon Neiman - and Griffin Pasik stepped into the quarterback position and played well along with four other starting sophomores. Those positive points obviously more than made up for a bunch of Bear penalties and a few slip-ups on pass defense, one of which allowed the Canaries to briefly tie the score late in the first quarter.

 

"I think we played well as a team," said Bear head coach Mark Scisly. "We overcame some adversity early. I think we did a much better job of handling bad situations."

 

"We didn't put our heads down," added Von Dohren, who scored on runs of 62, 25 and 67 yards and averaged 32.6 yards on his seven carries. "We just picked up where we left off."

 

Boyertown, which had outscored Allen by a combined 90-21 in two previous wins, lost the ball on downs at the Canary 21 on its first possession and then had to block an Allen field goal attempt from 29 yards out to keep the game scoreless after a roughing-the-kicker penalty had kept the hosts' first drive alive.

 

Then the Bears struck quickly when Marcus ran for seven yards, Neiman carried for seven more, and Von Dohren burst 62 yards into the end zone with 4:03 remaining in the opening quarter.

 

Allen recovered a Boyertown fumble and tied it on a 19-yard pass from Will Ward to Taylor Hendricks with 38 seconds left in the quarter. But the Bears needed just two plays to regain the lead when Marcus ran for seven yards and then scampered for 73 for a score and added a two-point conversion run for a 16-8 advantage with seven seconds left in the quarter.

 

A two-yard TD run by Neiman, 25 and 67-yard scoring carries by Von Dohren, and a one-yard sneak over the goal line by Pasik with nine seconds left made it 45-8 at the half. Neiman's 26-yard run in the third quarter completed the scoring as the 35-point mercy rule clock ran the entire second half.

 

Boyertown ran the ball 46 times for 509 yards while the Bear defense held the Canaries to 108 passing yards and negative 28 on the ground and recorded five sacks.

 

"Our line blocked their butts off," said senior Von Dohren. "Neiman and Marcus ran the ball well and Griffin stepped in and did a great job. We started out slow, but our second, third, and fourth string played tough when they got in. I'm happy we got the season off on the right track."

 

"We stopped the run," said senior lineman Pete Slabonik, who was in on two early sacks and also kicked two extra points in as many tries. "We need to get better on the pass, get the linemen going, get the backs to have their man."

 

With the potent running game, the Bears threw the ball just five times, with Pasik completing a 17-yarder to Marcus.

 

"I think our offense did a good job, especially since they were blitzing about every play," said Scisly. "I think Griffin ran the offense with confidence, did a good job of executing the no-huddle. He's going to get better each week. We had five sophomores start tonight.

 

"It's a good win, but we've got a lot of things to work on. We've got to work on our fundamentals."

On the negative side, the Bears racked up nine penalties for a total of 97 yards and Ward completed seven passes for 108 yards, including a 45-yarder to Hendricks.