This column was originally published in the Nov. 12 edition of The Mercury.

ROYERSFORD — Chad Brubaker can be difficult to please at times. Then again, he’s no different than most (if not all) high school football coaches.

Chad Brubaker

He took over the Spring-Ford program two years ago and led the Rams to a turnaround 9-3 record, their most wins since 1999 — but was disappointed by not getting into the district playoffs. Last season, he led the Rams to a perfect 9-0 run through the Pioneer Athletic Conference for their first title and most wins since 1998 — but was disappointed by a very lopsided loss to Coatesville in the opening round of the district playoffs. This season, except for a Week Five setback to unbeaten PAC-10 champion Pottsgrove, he’s led the Rams to 10 more wins — and though obviously disappointed by not successfully defending the league title, he was elated last Friday evening after the Rams beat Garnet Valley for the milestone first postseason win in the opening round of the district playoffs.

But Brubaker still isn’t completely satisfied.

“We have been talking about dominating a team for four quarters, no matter the level of competition on the other side of the ball,” he said this past weekend as he began preparations for Friday night’s District 1-Class AAAA quarterfinal challenge at unbeaten Ridley.

“We have not played our best games against teams with inferior records to our own. Conversely, Garnet Valley was an excellent football team, and our level of play rose to the occasion.”

The Rams will have to up that level of play this week, of course.

“We don’t have to worry about a team being inferior any longer … everyone is good from here on out,” Brubaker added. “So we need to strive to get better each week.”

If there’s been one glaring difference in this team — especially when compared against last year’s team — it is that week-to-week improvement. This season, the Rams have played considerably better since the loss to Pottsgrove, and played at a very high level the past two weeks while generating 867 yards of offense and putting 85 points on the board in two impressive wins over Perkiomen Valley and Garnet Valley.

And while most would agree those noticeable strides could be attributed to the return of running back Jarred Jones, Brubaker thinks otherwise.

“Last year we only had two returning starters on defense, while this year we have six,” Brubaker explained. “When we get into tough situations we feel like our returning players feel more secure with their responsibilities. And that’s on both sides of the ball, too.”

That may have never been more evident than in the first minute of the second half last Friday night. The Rams had a 12-7 lead at the break, but saw it disappear quickly when Garnet Valley returning the second-half kickoff for a touchdown to go in front, 14-12.

Instead of breaking down, the Rams broke their guests with three unanswered scores.

“Coming out of the locker room (at halftime), we said there is going to be something that doesn’t go our way in the second half and that we need to stay focused and not panic,” Brubaker explained. “We didn’t think it would be the opening kickoff. But our kids followed through, in terms of their focus. We played four quarters, and that was nice to see.”

What pleased — yep, pleased — Brubaker and his staff the most was everyone contributing to the comeback.

Yousef Lundi, who got accustomed to being the workhorse back while Jones was sidelined with an injury — was solid at fullback. Quarterback Hank Coyne threw two of his three touchdowns, and even caught one on a creative call by Brubaker, in the third-quarter burst. Jack Haney came off the bench and, on his first touch of the entire season, pulled in a touchdown pass. And on defense, unsung Ben Schein was superb in the secondary; Alec Vagnozzi came off the bench to give Zameer McDowell and R.J. Sheldon a breather on kickoffs and forced a fumble; Jake Leahy recovered a fumble; and Connor Murphy also came off the bench to spell Travis Daywalt at safety.

“Our offensive line was really getting into people, and played their best game to this point,” Brubaker said. “But the nice thing was we got contributions from a lot of different people throughout the game (against Garnet Valley). Our seniors were very focused, and much more communicative with the underclassmen, to each other, and to our coaching staff.”

Because of it, Spring-Ford got that elusive first postseason win.

Just don’t think the Rams — or Brubaker, of course — are content with that alone.

“We hope we’re not content,” he said. “When you get into the playoffs anything can happen, as evidenced by No. 1 seed Downingtown East getting ousted (last week).

“We feel like there’s a great opportunity in this (district playoff) field, and we have a lot of football left to play. We want to keep playing to our potential and see where it takes us.”

That would please Brubaker to no end.

*

Win or lose this week, the Rams still have to host Phoenixville to wrap up their Pioneer Athletic Conference schedule. The game is scheduled for Thanksgiving morning, but could be moved up if the Rams get past Ridley. … Brubaker and Spring-Ford’s current total of 29 wins over three seasons equals the program’s best previous mark, achieved by head coach Marty Moore’s teams of 1992-94 that were a combined 29-3 with a school-record .906 winning percentage. Before that, head coach Ted Nypaver’s three teams from 1985-87 were a combined 28-4 (second-best .875 winning percentage). … Schein is the son of Steve Schein, the Rams’ longtime co-defensive coordinator who was the head coach at Upper Merion before joining Spring-Ford’s staff.