Four Downs: Four big takes from Week 10
2024 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Four biggest takeaways from Week 10 of the 2024 high school football season.
1ST DOWN
There’s an old saying: Be careful what you wish for, it may come true.
Unbeaten Conrad Weiser was sitting at No. 6 in the District 3 Class 5A power ratings and needed a couple of teams ahead of it to lose Friday in order to snag one of the coveted opening-round byes.
The Scouts got their wish when No. 2 Shippensburg lost to No. 3 Mechanicsburg and No. 4 Bishop McDevitt lost at State College.
Those results, coupled with the Scouts’ 28-27 win over Unionville, pushed them up to No. 4. Now they’ll get a week off before hosting a quarterfinal.
The problem: McDevitt, a state powerhouse and the favorite all along to win the 5A title, slipped to No. 6 and is lined up to play Weiser, should it beat No. 11 Lower Dauphin in the opening round.
The Scouts will be a rare three-touchdown home underdog in districts when Kentucky recruit Stone Saunders, who threw five TDs at State College, and the Crusaders make their way to Robesonia.
2ND DOWN
Wilson stumbled just once in the regular season, 35-31 at Nazareth in Week 3, but that loss may have been a turning point that led to the Bulldogs’ record 30th Lancaster-Lebanon League championship.
The Bulldogs saw their late comeback bid at Nazareth fall short when Correll Akings fumbled inside the 5 in the final minute, but they grew a lot that night.
“That helped get us to where we are today,” senior H-back Brady Kline said after 34-16 win Friday at Manheim Township that nailed down the Section 1 champ. “After that game, we knew we had something special in West Lawn.”
The Bulldogs were torched by Virginia Tech quarterback recruit Peyton Falzone in the first half but came back strong in the second half. They showed they could move the ball themselves behind their plucky quarterback, Madyx Gruber. They showed they were a complete team, with few weaknesses.
They showed all of that again at Township, where they won every phase of the game against an unbeaten team that was ranked No. 5 in the state.
3RD DOWN
It’s been a remarkable year for first-year coaches in Berks football: Dave Stahler at Berks Catholic, Nick Morrissey at Gov. Mifflin, and Rob Flowers at Muhlenberg are all preparing right now for Week 11 games.
Stahler saw the Saints bounce back from a rough Week 6 loss to Schuylkill Valley to win their final four games and qualify for the District 3 Class 3A Tournament. They went into their final game outside the district bubble but moved up when No. 6 Big Spring lost at East Pennsboro.
Morrissey takes the Mustangs into districts for the first time in Class 6A, after they were bumped up for this season.
The most unexpected of all comes at Muhlenberg, which won just one game last season. Even a trip to the Eastern Conference playoffs seemed unlikely several months ago but Flowers breathed life into a long-dormant program. He’ll use this extra week as a springboard for a young team to take another big step forward next season.
4TH DOWN
Year Three of the expanded Lancaster-Lebanon League will go down as the most interesting yet.
There were championship games in three of the five sections on the final weekend of the season, and only one preseason favorite – Schuylkill Valley, in Section 5 – ended up being crowned a champ.
The biggest longshot to come through was Conrad Weiser, which was picked by just one Section 3 coach to finish in the upper half of the seven-team division. The Scouts came together quickly and took advantage when Manheim Central and Garden Spot had unexpected off years.
None of the other section champs were all that surprising, with Wilson topping Manheim Township in Section 1, Conestoga Valley edging Exeter in Section 2 and Lampeter-Strasburg beating Twin Valley and Wyomissing in the final two weeks to claim Section 4.
Berks teams won three of the five sections and probably should have been awarded a fourth: Exeter was denied a two-point conversion in the final seconds against Conestoga Valley although photo evidence shows Jayden Zandier crossed the goal line and the Eagles should have won 29-28.
(Joe Mays photo)
