Blake Turner had already put together a mighty fine performance when the ball came his way late in the fourth quarter.
In front of his home crowd, on his Senior Night, in the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship game, the Spring-Ford defensive back/wide receiver already had a punt return touchdown, receiving touchdown, and interception to his credit.
What was one more big play?
Turner picked off a pass on his own 2-yard line with 1:29 left to protect a 14-10 Spring-Ford win over Upper Perkiomen and deliver the Rams their first PAC title since 2020.
“It’s amazing.” Turner said. “What else can I ask for? Senior Night, being with my childhood friends growing up. I don’t know. I’m just out of words.”
Turner’s special night started in the first quarter. He returned a punt 66 yards to the house with 8:01 left in the first quarter to spot Spring-Ford (6-4) a 7-0 lead before it even touched the ball. On the ensuing possession, he halted an Upper Perk (7-3) drive with an interception at his team’s own 10-yard line.
The Indians more than doubled the Rams’ yardage (94-41) in the first half, but had just Matthew Wood’s 30-yard field goal at the 8:37 mark in the second to show for it. Upper Perk blocked a Rams attempt from more than 50 yards in the final two minutes of the half to keep the score 7-3 at halftime. The Indians outgained Spring-Ford, 273-147 in the game as the Rams had a hard time putting together drives throughout.
“I thought our defense was stout all night,” Upper Perk coach Dan Heinrichs said. “Special teams are special for a reason. … That early punt return never stopped haunting us.
Turner had a pair of interceptions on the defensive end and a receiving touchdown in last week’s win over Owen J. Roberts as well to secure a Liberty Division title and title game spot. He added a receiving score to his big night Friday when he hauled in a 17-yard touchdown from Kaden Pickersgill with 6:29 left in the third to put the Rams ahead 14-3.
Upper Perk answered the bell right away, however, as Brody Weiss broke off a 28-yard run that got the Indians down tight before he punched in a two-yard score to make it 14-10 with 2:29 left in the third. Weiss ran 13 times for 61 yards and a score.
A 58-yard pass from Sabo to Nate Schramm got the Indians deep into Spring-Ford territory on their next drive early in the fourth. A 4th-and-5 turned into a 4th-and-10 after a penalty, and Spring-Ford’s Aidan Lennon picked off a pass at his own 1-yard line to stop the scoring drive with 9:29 to play. Dylan Garay made several plays on the Rams’ defensive line.
“We put them (the defense) in some tough spots all night, and they did nothing but respond,” Spring-Ford first-year coach Mike Palmer said. “Even when adversity hit, they continued to make plays when they had to. We’ve been battle-tested, especially in those out-of-conference games, and I think that showed tonight.”
Spring-Ford punter Ryan Reavy, who had five punts for an average of 46.2 yards, including a long of 60 yards, helped the Rams win the field position battle for most of the game even with the offense slowed by the Upper Perk defense. Running back Brayden Hinkle slugged his way to 118 yards on 25 carries to lead the Spring-Ford offense.
The Rams started on the 50-yard line with about four and a half to play, looking to run out clock. After forcing the Indians to burn three timeouts, they were stopped on 4th-and-3 with Upper Perk’s Zane Saeger the first first to come up and make contact with Hinkle.
After Upper Perk took over at its own 31-yard line with two and a half to play, a 26-yard catch from Saeger got the Indians down to the Spring-Ford 37 with 1:59 to go. Two plays later Turner’s interception prevented the go-ahead score. Rams quarterback Kaden Pickersgill was able to kneel out the final seconds.
“I saw the same formation two times before that, maybe three times,” Turner said. “I saw them try to get that receiver isolated. I knew pre-snap I saw him look over and from there it was barbecue chicken.”
Upper Perk went 5-0 in the PAC Frontier Division this season to capture their first division title and reach their first league championship game since the PAC went to a two-division format in 2016. The Indians shared a piece of the league title with Lansdale Catholic in 1997, coming up just short of capturing the PAC championship for the first time in nearly three decades.
They will continue on in the District 1-5A playoffs next week.
“It was big for our program,” Heinrichs said. “We didn’t see ourselves as underdogs. I know a lot of people probably did, but we didn’t see it that way. We deserve to be here. They were the better team tonight, but we deserve to be here, and we just need to learn from this and get better and keep growing our program.
“But it’s certainly a big game for our school. I told them all week, and told them tonight, ‘Don’t’ be happy to be here. Be hungry to win.’ We were hungry. We just didn’t finish tonight.”
The Rams certainly didn’t look like the favorites coming into PAC play after starting their season 0-4 with losses to Souderton (31-7), Easton (36-3), Downingtown East (21-17) an Downingtown West (30-0).
Palmer said the mindset after the loss to Downingtown West was to focus one stacking days one at a time, beginning with practice that Monday after. Now, the Rams head into the District 1-6A playoffs next week on a six-game win streak with a league title in hand, looking to make a run.
“Going 0-4, all odds against, we knew we just had to bounce back, believe in the guy to your left and right, believe in the coaches, believe in that game plan, and make it happen,” Turner said.
“It don’t stop now,” he added.
Upper Perkiomen 0 3 7 0-10
Spring-Ford 7 0 7 0-14
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
SF: Blake Turner 66 punt return (Ryan Reavy kick) 8:01
Second Quarter
UP: Matthew Wood 30 field goal 8:37
Third Quarter
SF: Blake Turner 17 pass from Kaden Pickersgill (Ryan Reavy kick) 6:29
UP: Brady Weiss 2 run (Matthew Wood kick) 2:29
Fourth Quarter
None.
Team Statistics
…………………….UP………………SF
1st downs………..12…………………10
rush-yds……….37-118……….29-109
comp-att-int….9-21-3…………..5-12-0
pass yds……….155………………38
total yds…………273……………….147
fumb-lost……..0-0………………0-0
pen-yds…………3-25…………..3-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing:
Upper Perk: Brody Weiss 13-61, TD; Zach Adam 15-34; Grayson Sabo 5-17; Aaron Maiden 2-8; Kane Krier 2-(-2).
Spring-Ford: Brayden Hinkle 25-118; Cole Broderick 1-4; Kaden Pickersgill 4-(-13).
Passing:
Upper Perkiomen: Grayson Sabo 9-21, 155 yards, 3 INT.
Spring-Ford: Kaden Pickersgill 5-12, 38 yards, TD.
Receiving:
Upper Perkiomen: Nathan Schramm 1-58; Zane Saeger 3-38; Tucker Ruch 1-27; Aaron Maiden 2-22; Zach Adam 2-10.
Spring-Ford: Blake Turner 1-17, TD; Shane Cornelison 3-12; Rowan Harmon 1-9.
Interceptions: Spring-Ford: Blake Turner 2, Aidan Lennon.
Sacks: Upper Perk: Ethan Scharneck.