Saints ‘take care of business’ against depleted Crusaders
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Gross — MikeDragoSports.com senior correspondent
This was supposed to be a showdown, a game for which Berks Catholic coach Dave Stahler thought his guys would be “foaming at the mouth.’’
| Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 35 |
| Lancaster Catholic | 6 |
As often happens in football, injuries intervened and took some of the edge off; Lancaster Catholic showed up short of weaponry, and Berks Catholic had a full and varied arsenal.
The Saints took full advantage and rolled past the battered Crusaders 35-6 in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 game Friday at Forino Sports Complex.
“Too many mental mistakes, too many penalties, but I think we came out early and took care of business,’’ Stahler said after his club improved to 3-2 overall, 2-0 in Section 5.
These teams have been expected to contend in Section 5. To add juice, Lancaster Catholic beat Berks 30-28 last year, a game in which the Saints were driving late and lost a fumble near the goal line.
To drain away some juice, Lancaster Catholic came in beat-up and patching things together. The Crusaders have now lost three straight and fallen to 0-2 in the section.
“We’ve got 35 (players) on the roster right now,’’ coach Chris Maiorino said. “It’s tough when a guy goes down and you look around and you’re not seeing a lot of experience. But the guys are playing hard. They’re fighting.’’
Lancaster Catholic’s JJ Boas, the league leader is passing efficiency through two games, was injured in a Week 3 loss to Elco and sustained a season-ending neck injury in last week’s hard-to-believe 43-0 loss to Columbia.
The backup quarterback, Rowan DeMarco, is also out with an injury. Chris Maiorino and his staff were dancing as fast as they could Friday. They tried Colton Hegener, normally a wide receiver, at QB and occasionally mixed in Wildcat looks with direct snaps to running back Brandon Way, All-State a year ago and a Villanova recruit.
They couldn’t get rolling against the physical Saints. Way cruised 95 yards with a second-half kickoff for his team’s only touchdown but from scrimmage he had eight negative runs and managed 33 net yards in 18 tries.
Hegener, learning a reworked offense on the fly, fought like crazy.
“He’s doing everything,’’ Maiorino said. “He’s not coming off the field; (he’s), returning kicks, returning punts. We need all of it. We’re going through growing pains with him right now.’’
The Saints, by contrast, have a system, and a variety of skill-position weapons nicely suited to their Wing-T offense.
They used eight ballcarriers Friday. Owen Schalk, listed as a flanker on the roster but a physical power runner on the field, rumbled for 130 yards in just nine carries, including a 51-yard run.
“Owen loves contact,’’ Stahler understated.
Coy Koller ripped off a 69-yarder to close the scoring and finished with 109 yards on just seven carries.
Berks Catholic also got a very solid night at the controls from quarterback John Sauppee, who completed 7-of-10 passes for 87 yards and had two rushing TDs.
“It is fun to coach them,’’ Stahler said. “They all need to be unselfish, and they all need to block and fake and run hard, and they’re doing a great job of it.’’
The smudge on the masterpiece was penalties, 11 of them for 100 yards.
“First night it’s been a problem,’’ Stahler said. “We had issues with mouth pieces, and with knees not covered and all that really important kind of stuff.’’
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Lancaster Catholic | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Berks Catholic | 14 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 35 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Berks Catholic | Schalk, 9 run (Reali kick) | 9:32 |
| 1 | Berks Catholic | Saupee, 1 run (Reali kick | 6:54 |
| 2 | Berks Catholic | Saupee, 5 run (Reali kick) | 3:51 |
| 3 | Lancaster Catholic | Way, 95 kickoff return (kick failed) | 11:46 |
| 3 | Berks Catholic | Gerald, 6 run (Reali kick) | 6:21 |
| 4 | Berks Catholic | Koller, 69 run (Reali kick) | 6:11 |
Team statistics
| LANC. CATHOLIC | BERKS CATHOLIC | |
| First downs | 9 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 35-119 | 37-332 |
| Passing yards | 34 | 92 |
| Total yards | 153 | 424 |
| Passes | 4-7-0 | 7-10-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-1 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 4-25.8 | 2-24.5 |
| Penalties-yards | 5-35 | 11-100 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Lancaster Catholic: Torres 2-32, Hegener 11-34, Baumler 4-22, Way 18-31.
Berks Catholic: Schalk 9-130, Koller 6-109, Gerald 8-73, Camera 7-20, Curley 5-6, Sauppee 2-(-6).
PASSING
Lancaster Catholic: Hegener 4-7-0–34.
Berks Catholic: Sauppee 7-10-0–92.
RECEIVING
Lancaster Catholic: Johnson 2-20, Wolpert 2-14.
Berks Catholic: DeFazio 2-30, Schalk 3-55, Camara 1-7, Gonzalez 1-0.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Berks Catholic: Reali 43, 38.
