LOWER GWYNEDD - The Boyertown football team had given up over 40 points per game while losing its first two outings and Lansdale Catholic had scored about the same amount in two lop-sided wins.

 

But statistics can sometimes just be thrown out the window, and that was certainly the case when the two teams met in a Pioneer Athletic Conference contest Saturday night at Wissahickon High School.

 

The underdog Bears held the Crusaders to just seven points in the first half and trailed by only six midway through the third quarter. But LC ran off a couple of long kickoff returns and resurrected its running game in the second half for a 28-13 win.

 

David Crognale completed 17 of 37 pass attempts for 168 yards for the Bears, including scoring tosses to Wes Mitchell and Eric Repko. On the other hand, the Boyertown defense held Shane Pinzka to 13 of 28 accuracy and picked off four passes - two by Brian Rakowski, and one each by Crognale and Ty Showers.

 

'It's tough,' Bear coach Ron Zeiber said concerning the loss. 'We faced a quality opponent that has been pretty much scoring lots and lots of points. I couldn't be more proud of our defense in the first half.'

 

LC (2-0, 3-0 overall) scored midway through the second quarter on a six-yard touchdown pass from Pinzka to Mickey Kahrs, but that was the only thing the Crusaders had to show for their 209 yards of offense. Meanwhile, top running back John Howell left with an injury and did not return and wound up with only 14 yards on four carries for the night.

 

The hosts doubled their lead when Jim Kelly returned the second half kickoff 92 yards.

 

But Boyertown (0-1, 0-3 overall) - which totaled only 23 yards worth of offense before the break - came right back with a score of its own. Crognale finished up the 70-yard march by hitting Mitchell in stride in the end zone from 28 yards out to bring the Bears to within 13-7.

 

LC returned the ensuing kickoff to the 45 and drove in from there, finishing with a five-yard scoring run by Ryan Tiederman.

 

The Bears answered with another long drive as Crognale found Ryan Schwager for 32 yards and followed that with a 13-yard toss into the end zone to Repko,who did a nice job of staying inbounds while pulling in the throw.

 

Once again, though, the Crusaders had excellent field position after the kickoff and marched 48 yards to expand the lead to 28-13 with 10 minutes to go in the contest.

 

'Offensively, we started moving the ball in the second half, making the adjustments,' said Zeiber. 'Crognale did a good job with the adjustments. That kickoff in the second half broke our backs, but we didn't quit.

'We've got a lot to be proud of. The record hurts us, but we've played top-quality opponents and we've gotten better.'