5 Things 2 Watch in Week 1
2024 Berks football coverage
presented by UECU
Five Things To Watch in Week 1 of the Berks football season . . .
Clash of the titans
The biggest game of the week – and maybe of the season – comes Saturday when 14-time state champion Southern Columbia visits Wyomissing.
(Tim Macrina photo).
It’ll match two state-ranked teams – the Tigers are No. 1 in Class 2A, the Spartans No. 6 in 4A – and two of the greatest coaches in Pennsylvania football history, Jim Roth of Southern and Bob Wolfrum of Wyomissing.
Roth has won a record 499 games (in 41 seasons); his teams have ended the last seven seasons raising a PIAA championship trophy. No one else has ever been able to say that.
Wolfrum has won 362 games, second-most among active coaches in the state.
One of those 300-plus victories came at Roth’s expense, in 2021, when the Spartans went to Southern and ended the nation’s longest winning streak.
The Spartans have a streak of their own going: They have won 33 consecutive home games.
Both teams are young and untested – Southern has just one return starter on offense – and neither should be ranked quite as high as it is. That won’t stop this from being one of the most anticipated games in the state this weekend.
It’ll be a regular media circus at Wolfrum Field Saturday afternoon.
Muhls debut
The emotions will be churning when the Muhls make their trek from the high school up the macadam path that leads to their home stadium.
For the first time Muhlenberg players will be running onto an artificial turf field; you can bet they’ll be excited about that.
And they’ll be playing for one of their own, Rob Flowers, the quarterback when Muhlenberg was the No. 1 team in the old Inter-County League.
After coaching stints at Reading High and Daniel Boone, Flowers returns home – and with a big task at hand. The Muhls have fallen on hard times in recent years and Flowers is burning to bring back some of that past fire.
It won’t be easy, especially in Week 1 with Schuylkill Valley on the other side of the field. This well could be the best Panthers team . . . ever. Four years ago Bruce Harbach took over a program that had never won anything and said he saw the making of championship players.
Those freshman he greeted in 2021 are now seniors and poised to win not only the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 title but battle for a District 3 Class 3A championship as well.
Oh, and this: Friday marks the start of Muhlenberg’s 80th season. The Muhls were one of the few schools in Berks County with a football team when they debuted in 1945.
Saints transition
Dave Stahler, who played at Holy Name and has been the top assistant coach at Berks Catholic for the past decade, makes his debut as a head coach Friday when Twin Valley comes to Forino Sports Complex.
It’s a tough opening assignment for a rookie head coach: The Raiders are loaded. They’re the pick to win both Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League and District 3 Class 4A.
Stahler has a big job on hand, inheriting a team with only a handful of return starters and coming off back-to-back losing seasons.
He’s also replacing a legend, Rick Keeley, who stepped down in November after coaching more seasons (38) than anyone in Berks football history.
Keeley casts a big shadow, but not too big for Stahler to step out of. He’ll remain close to the traditions he was raised in but won’t be afraid to expand the playbook and mix in some new looks for the Saints.
Fast start for Bulldogs
Wilson opened 0-2 last season, the first time that had happened during Doug Dahms’ first 18 seasons as head coach.
Those early losses to state-ranked Roman Catholic and Central Dauphin (in OT) put the pressure on the Bulldogs, who haven’t had a .500 or losing season since 1965. They answered with a seven-game winning streak to finish on the plus side for the 48th straight season – a remarkable achievement, and the longest such streak in the state.
Weeks 2 and 3 loom as big challenges for the Bulldogs, making their opener Saturday against Cheltenham (at Upper Merion) critical.
In Week 2 they face Plymouth-Whitemarsh, which went 9-1 a year ago in the regular season and reached the District 1 Class 5A semifinals the year before. In Week 3 they play at Nazareth, which is ranked No. 6 in the state and features Virginia Tech quarterback recruit Peyton Falzone.
By the way, this is Wilson’s 80th season. It has experienced just 11 losing seasons and none since 1963.
Back in the saddle
This is not the way Mick Vecchio envisioned his retirement going but he’ll be the head coach Friday when Gov. Mifflin opens its season at home against Pleasant Valley.
Vecchio, who stepped down as Mifflin’s head coach in 2017, signed on to be the Offensive Coordinator for his former assistant coach, Nick Morrissey.
Morrissey has been suspended as head coach for the first two games, which means Vecchio will be running the show again, as he did for 26 seasons when he won 181 games and carved out a niche in the PA coach’s Hall of Fame.
The 73-year-old Vecchio won’t need to deliver a fire-and-brimstone locker room speech to get the Mustangs going. They’re likely still smarting from the way last season ended, when they lost at home to Pleasant Valley 28-19.
Mifflin built a 19-0 lead in that Eastern Conference Class 5A/6A championship game, only to see the Bears take the lead with four minutes to go, then tack on another TD a couple minutes later.
