New coach not satisfied with just competing

            From the moment he officially took over as Upper Perkiomen's head football coach, Dan Heinrichs has had this past Friday night circled on his calendar.

            The date represented his first opportunity to physically see the rewards from the past seven months of work as the Indians hosted Boyertown in the season opener at Bill Keeny Stadium. The game also represented a chance to avenge a pair of lopsided losses to the Bears last season and usher in a new chapter to the Indians' football program.

Gavin Weiss, left, intercepts a pass in front of Boyertown running back Biagio DePolo during last season opener.

            Upper Perk managed to take a lead early in the third quarter, then rallied from a two-score deficit to tie it up later in the frame, but Boyertown added a decisive touchdown early in the fourth quarter and forced a fumble on the Indian's final drive to seal the Bears' 33-26 victory.

            Though an improvement, Heinrichs didn't take solace in any moral victory.

            "I feel the effort was good across the board," he said, "However I feel as though we made a lot of mental errors and penalties that took ourselves out of contention. We need to fix these things if we want to be successful and there is no reason we could not have won that game."

            Upper Perk had no answer for Boyertown running back Cole Yesavage. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior rushed for 294 yards on 27 carries and scored all five of Boyertown's touchdowns. The Bears finished with 412 total rushing yards.

            While the game represented Heinrichs' debut, it also marked the first full-game start for sophomore quarterback Logan O'Donnell. He finished 3 of 11 for 62 yards with a pick and helped out the ground game with 11 yards on five carries.

            "O'Donnell handled himself very well as a young sophomore quarterback," Heinrichs said. "He commanded the offense with poise, and he is going to be a great QB one day."

            Heinrichs also highlighted the play of Zach Schwartz, Brody Weiss and the offensive line. Schwartz led the Indians with 99 yards on 22 handles and a score and added a 78-yard kickoff return for a TD to give the Indians their only lead in the third quarter. He also notched four tackles at corner.

            Weiss provided a spark at running back with 10 carries for 55 yards and a pair of touchdowns and was busy on defense as he made four tackles and one for a loss at linebacker. 

            Boyertown opened the scoring on its first drive, using a 53-yard run by Yesavage to set up his first score one play later from five yards out. Upper Perk answered on its second offensive touch, thanks to a 17-play, eight-minute drive that featured a little bit of everyone.

            Weiss capped off the march on third-and-goal with a four-yard plunge off right tackle. The drive also featured a fourth-down conversion run from Kane Krier, an 11-yard completion to Aiden Void on third-and-seven and a 12-yard run on a counter from Schwartz.

            The Bears answered on their next drive and were looking to do the same later in the second quarter, but senior Gavin Weiss picked off one of Boyertown's five pass attempts in front of the Upper Perk sidelines.

            That boost set the stage for a 33-pass to Tucker Ruch to the Bears' 14. O'Donnell scampered for seven yards on the next play and Brody Weiss took a handoff up the middle for an eight-yard score to put the Tribe within one, 13-12, at halftime.

            Schwartz gave the Indians its only lead of the night on the ensuing second-half kickoff as he made one move toward the middle of the field, then cut back and raced 78 yards for a score along the home sidelines. But the Bears scored on both of their next offensive drives.

            Upper Perk responded by tying things up, 26-26, with 3:03 in the third quarter on a Schwartz five-yard score off left tackle. O'Donnell rushed for the two-point conversion on a bootleg.

            Upper Perk's defense held on three downs, but a personal foul helped fuel the Bears' go-ahead score, and Upper Perk's ensuing drive went 50 yards to Boyertown's 36-yard line before a fumble thwarted the march.

            Sophomore Ethan Scharneck led the defense with 10 tackles and a sack and blocked an extra point. Fellow sophomore Zane Saeger was involved in nine tackles from his spot at safety, as Jayden White tallied four and Jonathan Strohl had a tackle for a loss.

            Upper Perk will travel to Leesport tonight to take on Schuylkill Valley. Last year the team claimed one of its two wins against the Panthers in Red Hill, 31-14. The Panthers return all of its skill players from last season, along with 17 seniors and are in the discussion about the Lancaster Lebanon title hopefuls. Last week, Schuylkill Valley gave up 30 unanswered fourth-quarter points to fall to Twin Valley, 33-14.

            "Schuylkill Valley is not one-dimensional," Heinrichs said, "so we need to work on our pre-snap reads and keys to get us to the football. They have a spread offense with read option and we must be more disciplined on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively we need to set the tone of the game and control the clock."