Season preview: Berks Catholic Saints
2024 Berks football coverage
presented by UECU
Classification: Class 3A.
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5.
Schedule: Click here.
Last season: 3-4 Section 4, 5-6 overall
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2021
Head coach: Dave Stahler, first season.
Key losses: All-League G and DT Owen Reber, second-team all-league T Joey Polinsky, all-league LB Connor Pennington, QB Will Hess, RB Michael Bradley, LB Luke Impellizzeri, LB Devin Garcia, DB Max Mace.
(Chris Knight/LNP photo)
Top offensive players: QB Zach Suski, RB/KR Bryce Gumby, RB Nathaniel Rose, RB Aidan Curley, RB/KR Owen Schalk, RB Xavier Gerald, WR Devyn Sutton, WR Scott Duffy, WR Gavin Welker, WR/KR Giovanni DiSabatino, TE Jackson Kozik, TE Jake Linderman, G Eric Bennethum, G Palmer Reber, G Ricky Tinoco, T Ashton Sheets.
Top defensive players: E Eric Bennethum, E Jackson Kozik, T Palmer Reber, T Damoni Daglis, T Nick DeFazio, LB Johnny Sauppee, LB Nathaniel Rose, LB Devyn Sutton, LB Owen Schalk, LB Aidan Curley,
S Scott Duffy, S Grant Partsch, CB Bryce Gumby, CB Xavier Gerald, DB Gavin Welker, P Devyn Sutton.
Did you know? After opening with 11 straight winning seasons the Saints are coming off consecutive losing seasons.
For the record: Rick Keeley retired following last season with 280 victories, fourth-most in District 3 history. His teams at Holy Name and Berks Catholic won 11 league championships and five district championships and he was named Coach of the Year 10 times. His 38 seasons as a head coach set a Berks record.
On schedule: The Saints face only two teams they played last season, Executive Education and Hamburg, each of which they beat. They face three programs for the first time: Bethlehem Catholic, Pequea Valley and Annville-Cleona.
Quotable: “That’s just not BC football. Our expectations are high. It was not what we expected. We have players that are hungry; they want to prove (that we’re better than that).” – Senior back Bryce Gumby, on a 4-6 regular season.
Outlook: No question this is a transition year at Berks Catholic: There’s a new head coach, a switch to a new section, and some new wrinkles in the Wing-T, the only offense the Saints have ever run.
Gone are four all-league picks, leaving the Saints with a much younger, less experienced team, especially on the front line.
“We don’t have a lot of senior linemen,” said first-year coach Dave Stahler, a longtime assistant to former head coach Rick Keeley. “That’s a position where experience really matters.”
Stahler is taking a back-to-basics approach. His No. 1 priority in the offseason was improving technique on the essentials: blocking and tackling.
“Fundament football,” he said asked where the Saints need to improve most from a year ago.
The Saints’ best O-linemen are a junior and a sophomore, Palmer Reber and Eric Bennethum, respectively. The QB, Zach Suski, is basically brand new, too.
If the guys up front can do their job BC has weapons who can find the end zone, starting with RB Bryce Gumby. He averaged better than 9 yards per carry in a part-time role as a junior; now he’ll get a full slice.
“He’s really shifty, runs behind his pads really well,” Stahler said. “Has good vision. Catches the ball well. He’s our most explosive guy. We ask him to block down, run routes like a receiver; we ask a lot of our (halfbacks) and Bryce can do all of those things. We’re excited to give him some space to work with.”
Nathaniel Rose, Owen Schalk, and Xavier Gerald, a transfer from Wilson, add speed to the backfield; none of them got a touch last season.
“If we’re on the same page there’s gonna be a lot of breakout runs,” Palmer promised.
Suski was forced into a game at QB last season because of an injury and performed well in a win over Donegal. He’s had a productive offseason and gives the Saints an opportunity to put the ball up more than they did a year ago, when they averaged fewer than nine passes per game.
Stahler wants to throw more than in the past; Saints QBs will work out of the Shotgun more to expedite that.
Suski will have capable targets in the passing game. Sophomore TE Jackson Kozik is expected to be a key piece of the offense, as a blocker and pass-catcher. Stahler has consistently said one of the strengths of the team is the depth at receiver, where he’s counting on Scott Duffy, Devyn Sutton, and transfer Gavin Welker, who played at Daniel Boone.
The Saints offered a preview of their penchant for passing and their overall athleticism in May when they won the Quarterback Challenge at the Berks County Combine, with Suski throwing to Duffy and Gumby. Devyn Sutton, Kozik, Rose, and Duffy scored in other events at the Combine, as well.
The Saints aren’t what they once were, a powerhouse capable of dropping 50 on a given team, but the move to Section 5 should prove beneficial in the long run and make them a contender for a title most seasons.
At the wire: If the pieces fall into place the Saints could battle Section 5 leaders Schuylkill Valley and Lancaster Catholic and make a bid for a return to the district playoffs.