TOWAMENCIN — Matthew Pownall dashed through a seam on the right side of the line and raced down the field to give the North Penn football team a quick start in its District 1-6A playoff opener Friday night.

 

“Definitely the blocks up front, everybody locked up well and saw the secondary,” Pownall said. “And once I got to secondary it was pretty open.”

 

Four snaps into the Knights’ first-round matchup with Boyertown, Pownall put the host No. 2 seed up 7-0 lead, breaking away on a 3rd-and-2 for a 68-yard touchdown run at 9:44 in the first quarter.

 

“It’s awesome,” Pownall said. “It just shows just all the hard work that’s been put in from the offseason to just in season.”

 

North Penn’s lead with 21-0 by the end of the quarter and by halftime increased the margin to 35-0. Pownall and Rylei Gray both rushed for over 100 yards and two touchdowns as the Knights reached the quarterfinals with a 42-14 victory over the No. 15 Bears at Crawford Stadium.

 

“We’re just trying to get better each and every single week,” Pownall said. “We just get hot and take it into the playoffs and good first round of playoffs, we’re just going to take it and

roll with it into second round.”

 

Pownall and Gray combined for 267 yards, 243 of those coming in the first half as North Penn (9-2) scored touchdowns on its first five drives. Pownall finished with 165 yards on 14 carries, his last a TD run from six yards in the fourth. Gray carried 11 times for 103 yards,finding the end zone on runs of 21 and 40 yards in the second quarter.

 

“Props to the o-line, been playing their butts off all year,” Pownall said. “And I know Rylei’sa heck of an athlete. When I need a break he comes in and he’s just as good, if anythingbetter.”While other top 6A seeds were getting a Halloween scare — No. 1 Pennridge rallyingto edge No. 16 Plymouth Whitemarsh 22-21 while No. 3 Downingtown West, the defending district champion, was upset by No. 14 Owen J. Roberts 10-7 — North Penn cruised to its

sixth straight win. The Knights advanced to the quarters for the second straight season and

fourth time in the past five years.

 

The Knights host No. 7 Souderton, a 23-6 winner over No. 10 Ridley in the teams’ first game since the 2021 season opener the Knights won 42-27. North Penn and Souderton last met in the district playoffs in 2008, the Knights earning a 35-7 victory in the Class 4A first round.

 

“That’ll be awesome,” said Pownall of facing Souderton. “I think it’ll be pretty packed, great environment. That’ll be a great game, can’t wait for that. Couple buddies on the team throughout playing football when I was younger so that’ll be good to play against them.”

 

Michael Boorse and quarterback Tilman Henley had touchdown runs in the running-clock second half for Boyertown, making its first district appearance since 2010. The Bears end their year with a 6-5 record, their first winning campaign since going 7-4 in 2013.

 

“We have things going a little bit the right way,” said Boyertown coach Jami Sands, who took over the program in 2024. “I’m happy for the seniors and the work they put in. It’s not a mistake they had the season they did. They really worked their tails off. If you take the last two games of last season into account, they were, what, 8-5 at a program that we were having a hard time. So, got to get our numbers up, get our strength going and we’ll keep getting better.”

 

Boorse paced Boyertown with 95 yards on 19 carries while Henley had 90 yards on 10 carries.

 

The Bears picked up a first down on its first drive but a pair of five-yard penalties put Boyertown in a 1st-and-20 at its 24 and the Bears punted on a 4th-and-4.

 

North Penn proceeded to go up 14-0 on a five-play, 82-yard drive. Pownall took a screen pass from quarterback Matt Bucksar 45 yards down to the Bears 26 on the next play Wil Rittenhouse hauled in a 26-yard TD pass from Bucksar at 2:31 in the first quarter.

 

Boyertown’s next series began its own 12. The Bears lost three yards then fumbled the following play, Gray scooping it up to give North Penn the ball at the four.

 

AidenAshley plowed over the goal line from a yard out on 2nd-and-Goal at 1:03 in the first quarter and the Knights’ lead was 21-0.

 

“When you’re up against a good football team, the margin of error is small,” Sands said.

 

“And give them credit, that pressure kind of made us make mistakes. So, tip the cap to them, that’s something we have to get better at. But the more experience we have in these types of situations, the better off we’re going to be in the lone run. Guys won’t be so mentally tight.”

 

North Penn made it 28-0 with another 82-yard drive, this series taking six plays as Gray reached the end zone on a 20-yard run at 9:43 in the second quarter.

 

Gray then collected his second TD run on the Knights’ next series, cutting right then sprinting away to score from 41 yards out with 6:59 left in the half.

 

“The tailbacks were hitting the hole hard,” Sands said. “And they were breaking two, three arm tackles and that’s all it takes. When you got a well-coached football team, you’re only going to get one or two guys to where the ball carrier’s going.

 

“And you got to give them credit, they came after us. We tried to make it tough on ‘em but we gambled on some calls and they caught us a couple times. But they’re a good footballteam, that’s what good football teams do.”

 

Boyertown ended the shutout with a 12-play, 78-yard touchdown run on the opening series of the second half.

 

Henley picked up a pair of first down with third-down runs — gaining 19 on a 3rd-and-10 from Bears’ 28 then ran for 10 on 3rd-and-5 and the NP 35. Boyertown fumbled on 2nd-and8 at the Knights’ 12 but recovered the ball at the two. Boorse then scored on a run the nextsnap at 2:28 in the third.

 

North Penn went up 42-7 at 5:07 in the fourth as Pownall capped a 13-play, 56-yard drive

with a five-yard TD run on 3rd-and-Goal.

 

Henley added the Bears’ second touchdown with his 40-yard run with 1:51 remaining.