The North ended a five-year losing streak with its 40-7 rout of the South in Thursday night’s Montgomery County All-Star Football Classic. To view game photos, please visit the Photo Gallery.
FRANCONIA TWP - Apparently one of the key points of focus during the North team’s practice sessions for the Montgomery County All-Star Football Classic was a five-game losing streak.
“Absolutely, that was going through our minds in practice all week,” said North Penn’s Mike Berstecher. “That was our motivator pretty much. We kept saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to win this one.’ This is pride right here.
“That was the first thing we talked about.”
The message got through loud and clear.
This North team was focused on starting a new streak, and Berstecher led the way, throwing three touchdowns passes as the North rolled to a 40-7, mercy-rule victory.
The North made a statement right from the start, taking the opening kickoff and marching 82 yards on nine plays to take a 7-0 lead on a 38-yard pass play from Berstecher to Wissahickon’s Gordan Bentley.
“We ran that play during practices all week,” Bentley said. “We knew that play would hit on the first series of the game. (Coach Dick Beck) called it and I ran the route, the quarterback put it right on the dot and from there it was a touchdown.
“It was a good play.”
The North had plenty more good plays left and kept piling up the points.
North Penn kicker Brandon Mandes booted a 29-yard field goal late in the first quarter, then Souderton’s Anthony Williams made it 17-0 with a one-yard run midway through the second quarter.
The North then put the game away in the final two minutes of the first half.
Berstecher, who was named the North’s MVP, turned a Dan Murphy (Wissahickon) interception into a 21-yard touchdown pass to North Penn’s Steve Gozur (three catches, 45 yards).
“I was just trying to make a run,” Gozur said, “but I got a couple of great blocks and ended up in the end zone.”
After the South offense quickly went three-and-out, the North took over at the South 45-yard line with 39 seconds left. Berstecher, who completed 9 of 14 passes for 165 yards and three scores, immediately connected with Williams for a 45-yard touchdown to make it 31-0 at the halftime.
“We were betting on everything,” said Williams. “‘This is going to be a touchdown because their linebackers aren’t there.’ And we went and ran the play and I was wide open, the quarterback made a great throw.”
The North then put the mercy-rule clock in motion in the first four minutes of the third quarter. North Penn’s Khalil Littlejohn blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety, then on the ensuing possession, Wissahickon quarterback Randy Frankenfield connected with North Penn’s Kyle Mayfield for a 10-yard touchdown pass to make it 40-0.
“We knew we had a good team,” Bentley said. “We just went out and executed and got the job done.”
“You know what I was pleased with,” North coach Dick Beck (North Penn) said, “I thought on offense we didn’t have a lot of all-star mistakes. We did a good job, that was nice.”
Mayfield led the North with 54 yards rushing on four carries, while Hatboro-Horsham’s Travis Young added 52 yards on five carries.
Frankenfield chipped in with 65 yards on 4 of 6 passing, while adding another 32 yards rushing.
The South averted a shutout as Plymouth Whitemarsh quarterback Pete Giorgio engineered a 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive culminating with a 5-yard toss to his Plymouth Whitemarsh tight end Erik Tucker with 36 seconds left in the third quarter.
PW’s Terry Brown led the South on the ground with 24 yards on four carries, while Giorgio hit 3 of 7 passes for 54 yards. Tucker, who was named the South’s MVP, had two catches for 31 yards.
Beck was pleased with his stars.
“I think I’m most proud of the way our kids acted,” he said. “They really played hard. They were excited to play. There wasn’t a lot of that taunting that went around, there wasn’t any yelling at the referees. We just played the game, and it was really nice.”
And the North stopped the dreaded losing streak.
“It’s just something you take pride in,” said Williams, who gained 47 yards on eight carries and caught two passes for 54 more. “Everything you want to do you want to win and we said today that we wanted to win and that’s what we did. I was confident in my team, we just executed.”
South 0 0 0 7—7
North 10 21 9 0—40
Scoring
N—Bentley 38 pass from Berstecher (Mandes kick)
N—Mandes 29 FG
N—Williams 1 run (Mandes kick)
N—Gozur pass from Berstecher (Mandes kick)
N—Williams 45 pass from Berstecher (Mandes kick)
N—Safety, blocked punt out of end zone
N—Mayfield 10 pass from Frankenfield (Mandes kick)
S—Tucker 5 pass from Giorgio (Dwyer kick)
South North
First downs 10 18
Yards rushing 63 194
Yards passing 61 225
Total offense 124 419
Passing 14-4-2 20-13-0
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-1
Penalties 4-35 4-50
Punts 4-24.5 0-0.0
RUSHING
South—Brown 4-24; Kelly 7-20; Giorgio 10-10; Collins 5-9.
North—Mayfield 4-54; Young 5-52; Williams 8-47, TD; Frankenfield 6-32; Berstecher 4-8; Gozur 1-3; Sabo 1-(-2).
PASSING
South—Giorgio 7-3-0—54, TD; Collins 7-1-2—7.
North—Berstecher 14-9-0—160, 3TD; Frankenfield 6-4-0—65, TD
RECEIVING
South—Tucker 2-31, TD; Brown 1-22; Stewart 1-7.
North—Gozur 3-45, TD; Wenger 3-43; Williams 2-54, TD; Mayfield 2-23, TD; Bentley 1-38, TD; Taylor 1-13; McGrath 1-9.
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