ROYERSFORD - When Spring-Ford found itself in a scoreless tie through the first 12 minutes of Friday night's game with Boyertown, there was noticeable concern on the Rams' sideline.

 

'That made it five straight quarters without scoring a touchdown,' Spring-Ford head coach Chad Brubaker said, painfully recalling last week's shutout setback to undefeated Pottsgrove. 'We weren't in panic mode, but it was very frustrating.'

 

It only took 28 seconds of the second quarter for the Rams to find the end zone - and that frustration - and they'd find it three more times before the break en route to a 42-7 win over the visiting Bears.

 

Quarterback Hank Coyne, unquestionably as flustered and frustrated as anyone with last week's loss, ignited and then fueled the Rams' offense by completing 9 of 15 passes for 201 yards and four touchdowns - shattering the school record for career touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior spread it around to six different receivers. Tight end R.J. Sheldon took both of his receptions (35 and 24 yards) in for scores, while Yousef Lundi - who ran for one - and Ben Schein caught the other six-point tosses.

 

Coyne was sacked once, but wasn't hurried or even touched for most of the evening thanks to a solid effort up front by the offensive line. And it was that line that helped unsung Tate Carter run up 109 yards and account for the Rams' remaining score.

 

'It's hard to stay up when you're not playing well,' Brubaker said. 'We just have to get our playmakers involved early, and (Coyne) is obviously part of that. After the first quarter, I thought we did a good job with that.'

 

Coyne flipped nine yards to Lundi to get the Rams (3-1, 5-1 overall) on the board at the 11:32 mark of the second quarter. Just over four minutes later, Lundi - who didn't take a single handoff in the second half - went up the middle from four yards out to make it 13-0.

 

Then, when it appeared Boyertown (1-4, 1-5) may get back in it after Gray Garber's 52-yard kickoff return, the Spring-Ford defense turned it right back to its offense. A first-down run resulted in a three-yard loss, Robby Varner came up with the first of his two sacks of Boyertown quarterback Griffin Pasik, and a swing pass went for a minus-two yards.

 

After the ensuing punt, Coyne was back at it and found Sheldon all alone for the 35-yard strike that made it 21-0 - his 46th career touchdown pass, or one more than the Ram record set back in 1973 by Lance Viola.

The Bears stumbled once again, and Coyne took the Rams in more time, connecting with Schein on a seven-yarder just 33 seconds prior to halftime.

 

'I was definitely hanging on to the loss to Pottsgrove, but I knew I had to keep my focus, keep it together,' Coyne explained. 'And that's what we had to do as a team, too. We had to move on.

 

'I wasn't too worried (by the slow start). We just had to keep with it, keep doing what we knew we could do offensively. We just had to execute.'

 

They did ... after that first quarter, and after an abbreviated possession to kick off the third quarter.

 

But they were right back at it afterward. When Varner sacked Pasik on fourth down at the Spring-Ford 39-yard line, it took the hosts six snaps to make it 35-0 - on Coyne's 24-yard strike to Sheldon - and get the running clock going. Carter then took care of the next possession, running 26 yards and one yard - the latter good for the Rams' final points of the night.

 

'We didn't click last week, didn't have that right mentality last week,' Coyne said. 'But we had a great week of practice this week. We were very focused, and we played a lot better.'

Boyertown head coach Mark Scisly saw some improvement, too ... just not enough in dropping their fourth straight.

'We've definitely showed improvement the last two weeks,' Scisly said. 'That's two first quarters (holding Perkiomen Valley scoreless for the first 12 minutes last week) that we've done a good job.

'But offensively we have to find that magic we had our first three games when we scored 120 points. We are playing five sophomores, a lot of juniors and just a handful of seniors, but we're getting better. We just have to be more consistent.'

The Bears avoided the shutout when they put together 72-yard, 13-play drive that Eric Heller capped on a three-yard touchdown run with 1:07 remaining.

'We've been through a tough stretch, playing Pottsgrove, Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford,' Scisly said. 'We moved the ball better. We had some chances, but we didn't convert those opportunities.'

NOTES Boyertown was held to just 50 yards in the first half. ... Cody Richmond, who returned to the lineup after missing last week with an injury, carried 14 times for 80 yards to lead the Bears' offense, which finished with 178 overall. ... There were no turnovers in the game. ... Boyertown's sack was by Mike Murphy, while Andy Lovre-Smith had the Rams' other sack.