PHOENIXVILLE — As a senior in the high school football postseason for the final time, Trey Lear wasted no time in showing District 1-5A how he plans for this ride to end.
The Phoenixville wideout returned the opening kickoff for an 83-yard touchdown to give the Phantoms an instant 7-0 lead in their first round playoff contest against league rival Upper Perkiomen, then later scored both a receiving and rushing touchdown in a 31-7 victory on Friday night.
Lear and the No. 3 Phantoms are back in the second round of districts for the second straight year, only this time they’ll stay at home, hosting No. 6 Upper Dublin next Friday.
“It means everything,” said Lear, who also plays defensive back for the Phantoms. “I’ve never had a three touchdown game before and I’ve only had two touchdowns once. I do it for my guys. I can’t be where I’m at without them.”
The performance was especially vindicating for Lear, who tried grinding through a hip injury last season but admitted he was not anywhere near his best self. But he was on Friday night, fielding Brody Lash’s shallow kick at the 17-yard line and racing untouched up the middle of the field before bending his route to finish along a raucous Phoenixville (9-1) sideline cheering him the whole way. Just 11 seconds into the game, it made No. 14 Upper Perkiomen’s already difficult assignment even more arduous.
“Before the game one of my coaches came up to me and asked me how badly I wanted it, and I told him that I wanted it bad,” Lear said. “I came out here with the mindset that we have to win. I trusted my blockers and had all my faith in them, and they got it done. I wanted to get one.”
As it turns out, he’d get more than one, but that wouldn’t come until later. The Phantoms forced the Indians (6-5) to punt on their first drive and then piled on some more, driving 60 yards in six plays before ending up in the end zone again, this time via a 3-yard Deacon Williams (25 carries, 107 yards, TD) rushing score. Not even halfway through the first quarter, Phoenixville already boasted a two-touchdown lead.
But Upper Perk didn’t roll over, and the Indians were aided by a costly Phantoms miscue late in the second quarter when a fourth down snap at midfield was too high for punter Michael Venezia to handle. The ball hit the turf, and while Venezia recovered the loose pigskin, the play lost 18 yards and set Upper Perk up at the Phoenixville 32.
Five plays later, Brody Weiss (14 carries, 72 yards, TD) reached the end zone from three yards out with 10:37 to play in the first half, cutting Phoenixville’s lead in half. Phantoms QB Talon Romance (8-for-11, 97 yards, TD, INT) was picked off by Aiden Void on the team’s next possession, and while Upper Perk didn’t turn the interception into any points, the game remained close. A Ryan Jacobson 25-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter put Phoenixville up 17-7 at halftime, a solid but wholly unsafe lead in a playoff game.
“We definitely battled in the first half,” Upper Perkiomen head coach Dan Heinrichs said. “The kickoff return at the beginning of the game, that’s a dagger, but we rebounded. If they don’t score that touchdown, I’d love to have seen where we were at the half.”
Upper Perk received the second half kickoff but went three-and-out, and Phoenixville upped its lead to 24-7 on its first possession, needing eight plays to traverse 61 yards, culminating in Lear’s 5-yard touchdown catch from Romance. The senior QB threw a high-arcing rainbow that Lear went up and grabbed in the corner of the end zone in the best catch made by either team all night.
Another three-and-out for Upper Perk was disappointing, but Nate Schramm recovered a Tre Wheeler fumble that on the surface appeared to give life to the Indians, who took over at the Phantoms’ 43. However, UP had three straight plays for losses — an 8-yard loss on a Zach Schwartz run, a five-yard penalty and a sack of QB Logan O’Donnell by Andrew Kirk that lost another five.
Once Upper Perk turned the ball over on downs, Phoenixville needed just one play to ice the game, a 57-yard run by Lear up the seam for his third touchdown of the contest.
“He’s an outstanding player, one of the best guys we have on offense,” Williams said of Lear. “Starting off the game with a kick return was huge in jumpstarting us, then he had that great touchdown catch and you can also put him in the backfield because he can run. He’s very versatile. I’m proud of him and the work he’s put in, which has paid off when you see him making plays in the playoffs like that.”
As for Upper Perk, the result was disappointing but the overall message from Heinrichs to his team afterward was one of tremendous pride and progress. The Indians’ six wins were five more than a year ago, and this represented the first winning season and playoff berth for the program in some time.
“We took a lot of strides on and off the field,” said Heinrichs, who just completed his second year in charge of the program. “If we keep going in the direction we can and should go in, I can’t even dream of where this football team can be next year. It starts tomorrow with our offseason, and if these guys really buy in next year then the sky’s the limit.
“We hope to earn the right to get back here and have a game like this next year at home. We’ll keep improving and becoming a better program. I’m extremely proud of where we’re at. We grew as a program and family, but we’re not even close to being done.”
Aside from a couple of turnovers, Phoenixville played about as good of a game as one could have hoped for. Next week will likely be a more difficult challenge, but the Phantoms believe they can play much better too. It wasn’t Williams’ best game, but he still eclipsed 100 yards rushing, and the PAC’s leading rusher reached the end zone yet again. Romance was his usual efficient self behind a stout offensive line, and with Lear and fellow senior Kevin Kingsbury on the outside, this team is not short on playmakers.
The defensive unit remained stout as well. A week after shutting out an offensively-potent OJR squad, the Phantoms limited Upper Perk to just 104 total yards of offense.
Phoenixville, which has never won a district title, is now three wins away. With a senior-heavy roster that has played together for roughly a decade, the Phantoms might never have a better opportunity than this to make history.
“It’s all in front of us,” Williams said. “We’re taking it seriously in our last go-round. We’re all bought in, everybody is chipping in and we’re all on the same playing field. All of our hearts are kind of beating as one as we each do our part to win football games. That’s what it takes.”
As for Lear, he may never have a better game than he did Friday night, but that’s just fine with him so long as the Phantoms win three more games.
“We’re very excited,” he said. “It’s going to be nice to come out here for a second home game and try to do it for our town. We’re hungry dogs – we’re starving for the win, so we’ll come out here Monday, watch film, get our minds right and get ready to get to work.”
Phoenixville 31, Upper Perkiomen 7
UP 0 7 0 0 – 7
PHX 14 3 14 0 – 31
Scoring Plays
PHX: Lear 83 kickoff return (Jacobson kick)
PHX: Williams 3 run (Jacobson kick)
UP: Weiss 3 run (Lash kick)
PHX: Jacobson 25 FG
PHX: Lear 5 pass from Romance (Jacobson kick)
PHX: Lear 57 run (Jacobson kick)
Team Stats
UP PHX
First Downs 6 17
Rushing Yards 82 213
Passing Yards 22 97
Total Yards 104 310
Passes C-A-I 2-11-0 8-11-1
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards 8-75 7-78
Punts-Avg. 6-32.8 0-0
Individual Stats
Rushing
UP: Weiss 14-72, TD; Schwartz 12-23; Krier 1-0; O’Donnell 3-(-13)
PHX: Williams 25-107, TD; Lear 2-58, TD; Wheeler 3-24; Howard 6-19; Romance 4-10; Kingsbury 1-(-5)
Passing
UP: O’Donnell 2-11-22
PHX: Romance 8-11-97, TD/INT
Receiving
UP: Krier 2-22
PHX: Kingsbury 3-59; Lear 3-22, TD; Mull 1-11; Williams 1-5
Interceptions: UP- Void
Sacks: UP- Scharneck; PHX- Wheeler, Kirk, English
Fumble Recoveries: UP- Schramm
