Top-seeded Mustangs ready to shake off the rust, get back into it against Warwick
Bye weeks at this time of the season are looked at as a reward. Have a great regular season, earn a high seed for the district playoffs, get a free pass in the opening round.
For Gov. Mifflin the opening-round bye in the District 3 Class 5A Tournament last week was been more of a burden than a prize. The unbeaten Mustangs were idle for the third time in six weeks, and head coach Jeff Lang is concerned.
He fears the top-seeded Mustangs (8-0) may not be as sharp as they were at midseason when they meet eighth-seeded Warwick (7-4) Friday in the GoBigRecruiting.com Game of the Week at Mifflin Stadium.
“It’s a struggle,” Lang said. “I’m concerned about the rustiness of it. We’re trying to get after it in practice. Our last hard game was against Berks Catholic (in Week 10), and it was a rain game; it didn’t feel right, either. Our kids are hungry to play; they want to get out and hit somebody.”
Mifflin was idle in Week 6 after Reading High shut down its program due to COVID issues. Three weeks later the Mustangs’ game against Daniel Boone was scratched for the same reason.
“The first bye, OK,” said Lang. “We had kids banged up; had just gotten through some tough weeks, so we could use that week to recover. We were OK (with that). Then we got another one with Daniel Boone.”
When they’ve been on the field the Mustangs have been untouchable. They’ve got Berks’ top-rated offense and are averaging 49.5 points. They have mercy-ruled six of their eight opponents.
Warwick coach Bob Locker has watched plenty of the Mustangs’ first eight games and said they look like the top-ranked team in the state.
“We’ve had to work very hard to find some things that we think we can take advantage of,” Locker said this week on the Mike Drago Sports Podcast. “You look at their offensive talent. If you find a way to slow (Nick) Singleton down, the two fullbacks (Aiden Gallen) and (Trey Rock) will just punish you, and the two quarterbacks (Eden Johnson and Delsin McNeil) are just tremendous athletes.
“They have a lot of weapons, and those weapons line up behind an offensive line that just does a tremendous job.”
Singleton is the Berks Football League Section 1 Offensive Back of the Year; he’s rushed for a Berks-leading 1,502 yards and scored 32 touchdowns. That’s an average of four trips to the end zone per game — even more impressive when you figure he hasn’t played much in the fourth quarter this season, or hasn’t had more than 18 carries in a game.
Gallen took over at fullback when Rock tweaked his ankle against Berks Catholic and ended up with 213 yards and a pair of TDs. Singleton is averaging 12.4 yards per carry, Gallen 10.6 and Johnson 7.6.
“They’ve thrown the ball 17 times this whole year,” Locker said. “That says a lot about just how good they are running the football. They are a very, very well-balanced team and have some tremendous talent. If I was just observing them as a fan, it would be pretty fun to watch.”
The Warriors don’t have the same star-studded cast as they did a year ago when they featured five All-State players, including Wisconsin-bound lineman Nolan Rucci. They were set to face the Mustangs in a much-anticipated district championship of unbeaten teams. That didn’t come about because of a coronavirus outbreak at Warwick. Mifflin won its first district title by default.
Warwick was 2-3 this year at midseason after close losses to C.D. East, Penn Manor and Hempfield. Locker saw positive signs and was hopeful of a turnaround, and it came. The Warriors went 4-1 down the stretch, including a 35-28 win over Manheim Central, ruining the Barons’ perfect season. They finished in a three-way tie with Manheim and Cocalico for the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 title.
They have adequately replaced their All-State pass-catch combo of Joey McCracken and Caleb Schmitz with Jack Reed and Cooper Eckert. Reed, a junior who started three games last season when McCracken was recovering from an injury, has thrown for over 2,200 yards and 17 TDs. Eckert leads the Lancaster-Lebanon League with 67 receptions for 1,093 yards. Christian Royer has rushed for 1,179 yards.
“They beat Manheim Central, so they’re legit, and they’re playing some good football,” Lang said. “Their quarterback is very poised, throws darts, tucks the ball under and scrambles. We’ve gotta do what we do and keep playing the way we’ve been playing in order to beat this team.”
Up next: The Mifflin/Warwick winner advances to the district semifinals to play either No. 4 Spring Grove (9-1) or No. 5 Waynesboro (9-2).