Danny Fleischood’s return to football has been a big net gain for Spartans
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Wyomissing 31, East Pennsboro 0
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
Danny Fleischood led Wyomissing’s basketball team in scoring last season as a sophomore; he figured that was his path.
He friends on the football team – Justice Hardy, Derek Macrina, Caleb Beane – had other ideas. They knew an athlete as gifted as Fleischood could help them win games and recruited him back to a sport he thought he had left behind.
Late last summer he began working out with the football team; Saturday he helped lift the Spartans past East Pennsboro, scoring a pair of touchdowns in a 31-0 victory in a District 3 Class 4A quarterfinal at Bob Wolfrum Field.
“That’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life, to come out for football,” said the 6-1, 187-pound junior. “They kept motivating me, trying to get me to play. I trusted them and it’s been great so far.”
Fleischood has spent most of this season in a backup role, at halfback and safety. When Hardy, a basketball teammate, couldn’t play Saturday because of an injury Fleischood covered for him, starting at both of Hardy’s spots at halfback and cornerback.
Fleischood broke off a 34-yard touchdown run just before halftime to put the second-seeded Spartans (9-2) up 14-0; he followed with a 4-yard TD run in the third quarter. He added a speed element Wyomissing was missing without Hardy, a track sprinter who leads the team in rushing, receiving, and with 15 touchdowns.
Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum felt during the preseason that Fleischood could help his team; it just took him time to regain his football form after not playing as 10th grader.
“You can see now he’s coming into his own with it,” Wolfrum said. “He’s doing some stuff naturally that he wasn’t doing earlier in the year.”
With Hardy unable to play after being injured in the regular season finale two weeks ago the Spartans needed to find some other offensive options, and they did.
Macrina ran for a career-high 109 yards on 11 carries. Chase Eisenhower and Tyler Niedrowski split fullback duties and combined for 150 yards on 23 carries.
Hardy is a dangerous weapon who can score in all three phases of the game. Even without him the Spartans found a way to move the ball. They didn’t throw a single pass but rushed for 353 yards and ran 54 plays to 34 by the Panthers.
A lot of that had to do with their offensive line, which moved people around up front and got out on the perimeter to spring big runs by Macrina and Fleischood.
“Our O-line was great at blocking today,” Fleischood said of an all-senior group that includes tackles Keaton Piacine and Beane, guards Max Tipton and Ayden Jimenez, and center Franciso Fabian.
“We said we had to physically beat ’em up front,” Wolfrum said. “We got ’em early running between the tackles, then they started pounding people (inside) and then we got outside. I think this our best game (of the season). We ran the ball very well and obviously we played good defense.”
The defense indeed was outstanding. East Pennsboro flanker Aaron Angelo ran 28 yards to the Wyomissing 29 on the first snap of the game. Wyomissing’s defense didn’t budge after that, covering up a deep pass toward the goal line on fourth down to force a turnover on downs.
The seventh-seeded Panthers (8-3) didn’t have a first down in the second half until the final play of the game when the Spartans’ linebackers and defensive backs were 20 and 30 yards off the line of scrimmage and Lucas Swidler ran for 16 yards. Before that the Panthers managed just 10 yards in the half; they finished with 110 total yards.
Wyomissing was the first team to shut out East Pennsboro this season.
“No. 12 (Angelo) is a heckuva an athlete,” said Macrina, a defensive back. “I think we did a great job getting guys out there in space with him and making plays. Once we shut down that screen game they didn’t have much else to go to.”
Wyomissing advances to play a semifinal at home next week against third-seeded West York, a 5-3 winner over sixth-seeded Eastern York in a defensive battle Friday night.
The Spartans are unbeaten in the postseason on their home field and overall have a 12-game district playoff winning streak, dating back to 2018.
Even though they had control of the game by early in the second half the Spartans had trouble breaking free in the first half. The defense got a key three-and-out with just over two minutes remaining in the half and forced East Pennsboro to punt from deep in its own territory.
Macrina returned the punt 9 yards to the 34. On the next play Fleischood took a Jet Sweep around the right side, picked up a key seal block from Tipton on the edge and was gone down the sideline.
“I’ve had a lot of runs this year where I got caught at the 1,” Fleischood said. “That one I knew for sure I was in.”
Basketball practice starts later this week. Fleischood, an all-division pick last season, won’t be able to make it to tryouts. He’ll be on the football field.
“I think I’ll be OK,” he said with a smile. “I’m pretty confident I’ll make the team.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| East Pennsboro | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wyomissing | 7 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 31 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Wyomissing | Eisenhower, 20 run (Maher kick) | 6:11 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Fleischood, 34 run (Maher kick) | 2:00 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | Fleischood, 4 run (Maher kick) | 10:29 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | Maher, 31 FG | 2:55 |
| 4 | Wyomissing | Delp, 18 run (Plaggenborg kick) | 0:21 |
Team statistics
| East Pennsboro | Wyomissing | |
| First downs | 7 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 25-83 | 54-353 |
| Passing yards | 27 | 0 |
| Total yards | 110 | 353 |
| Passes | 6-10-1 | 0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 4-24.0 | 1-36.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 2-10 | 3-25 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
East Pennsboro: Gossard 13-50, Angelo 9-33, Swider 1-16, Bruhn 1-1, Team 1-(-17).
Wyomissing: Macrina 11-109, Eisenhower 9-79, Niedrowski 14-71, Fleischood 6-61, D. Delp 2-22, Sierra 5-10, Lopez-Sanchez 1-2, Armistead 1-(-1), Lecher 1-(-4), White 3-(-5).
PASSING
East Pennsboro: Barlup 6-10-1–27.
RECEIVING
East Pennsboro: Angelo 2-16, Gossard 2-7, Keys 2-4.
INTERCEPTIONS
Wyomissing: Armistead.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Wyomissing: Maher 24.
