Spartans kept waiting for big play that never happened

HERSHEY — Jack Miller knew his Wyomissing team needed some kind of spark, some kind of special play, to get it over the hump against Central Valley. He thought Tommy Grabowski had come up with it.

The senior linebacker made an incredible play when he leaped to intercept a pass at the goal line, snaring the ball with one hand as the Warriors threatened to break a scoreless tie late in the third quarter.

“I thought he was going to return it the whole way,” Miller said with a smile, “but he didn’t. That was a heckuva play.”

Grabowski weaved his way 20 yards through the Warriors but like everyone else who ran with the ball for Wyomissing he was stopped. That was the theme of the day in a frustrating 7-0 loss in the PIAA Class 3A championship at Hersherypark Stadium.

The Spartans could get nothing to work against the Warriors’ championship defense. They were shut out for the first time since 2017 and stopped cold for the first time in years.

University of Pittsburgh recruit Sean FitzSimmons fronted a stonewall defense line that put the clamps on Wyomissing’s potent Wing-T. The All-State tackle blew up several pass plays by bolting into the backfield before Ben Zechman could deliver a pass.

A Wyomissing team that had been averaging nearly 45 points a game finished with just seven first downs and 115 total yards. It punted five times in nine possessions. Two other possessions ended on fourth down. Two others by the end of a half.

The Spartans penetrated the red zone once all day and that was set up by a long kickoff return by Drew Eisenhower, who set them up with a first down at the Central Valley 28. Even then they couldn’t put points on the board.

“We needed a big play somewhere there, because we really couldn’t move the ball on offense,” said Miller, who plays Lance guard. “That No. 50 (Fitzsimmons), he’s a helluva player.

“We really needed to make something happen on special teams. We couldn’t. We’ve been so good at blocking punts all year; we couldn’t get ‘em there. We were good at kick return all year, we couldn’t get one back. We just had to make a big play, and we just couldn’t.”

Central Valley coach Mark Lyons has been telling everyone for weeks that this is the best defensive front six that he’s ever coached and no one was about to disagree after seeing what they did Saturday.

FitzSimmons, defensive end Jackson Tonya and linebacker Jack Bible manhandled the Spartans up front. They disrupted plays before they could develop, closed off the edges to take away the sweeps and, on the few times Wyomissing tried to pass, pressured Zechman, forcing him to throw the ball away several times.

“I knew our strength was our defensive front, and their strength was their running game,” Lyons said. “I thought it was going to be a great matchup between both of those but at the end of the day we shut out a Wyomissing team that hadn’t been shut out since 2017. We hold them to 115 total yards. The numbers are astounding what our defensive guys did (this season).”

The Spartans were averaging 323 rushing yards per game. They got just 102 Saturday and 21 in the second half.

“It’s just tough that we couldn’t even make a showing on offense,” said Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum. “We could do nothing. As a play-caller, it’s very hard, very frustrating to try to call an offense (against a defensive front like that). We pretty much went through everything we could do and we couldn’t get (anything), and as the game went on it got worse.”

Grabowski was held to 55 yards on 15 carries. He ran for 13 yards on Wyomissing’s first play. On their next 34 runs the Spartans managed only one other play that went for as long as 10 yards.

The Spartans scored 671 points this season, more than any team in Berks football history. Saturday, incredibly, they couldn’t add to that total.

“The way we played all year, I really didn’t (think anyone could stop us like that),” said Wyomissing center Julia DiMaio. “We drove on pretty much every team we played this year. We couldn’t get in the end zone today, but we were trying our best.”