Game-changing drive, ‘attitude adjustment’ propel Raiders to first District 3 title
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
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By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
MYERSTOWN — Keep swing the axe, Twin Valley coach Brett Myers tells his players, and eventually the tree will fall.
“That’s the mentality we have,” said Raiders center Noah DiGiacomo. “In our heads, it’s just: Next play, keep driving down the field, and good things will happen.”
In a game filled with one thrilling play after another, it was that workmanlike, nose-to-the-grindstone attitude that carried Twin Valley to its first District 3 championship.
| Final | |
| Twin Valley | 41 |
| Susquehanna | 21 |
While Susquehanna Township was content throwing haymakers the whole night, the Raiders patiently worked the body, the body, the body.
They put together a relentless 16-play, 82-yard, 8 ½-minute drive that turned the tide late in the third quarter and sent them hurtling toward a 41-21 victory over the top-seeded Indians in the Class 4A championship Friday at Elco.
The game-changing drive was pure Twin Valley: 16 straight runs, with 1,000-yard backs Drew Engle and Lucas Myers pounding away behind their big, efficient offensive line.
Engle put on championship-caliber show, finishing with a career-high 281 yards and three touchdowns, a couple of them on some spectacular runs.
On the game’s decisive drive, there was none of that. The Raiders simply moved the chains, converted three straight short third-down plays, and then finally, on a fourth-and-3 from the 24, pulled out a play the Indians weren’t ready for.
Maverik Foster, the Raiders autumn-cool sophomore quarterback, faked a dive to Engle, then spun and headed around the left corner. He picked up a key sealing block from tight end Joey Buckley, then found a path of daylight down the sideline, his touchdown giving the Raiders their first two-score cushion of the night against the dangerous Indians (12-1).
“We were pounding them with everything, and it just started to pull all of them in,” Foster said of the ‘Hanna defense. “Drew carrying out his fake pulled everybody (inside). I just got around that edge, saw the lane, and just took off.”
It was just the second time this season the Raiders (13-0) used that play. The first one didn’t work. This one secured Twin Valley’s first district football championship and sent it to the PIAA semifinals to face District 7 champ Aliquippa (10-3), a 28-6 winner over Oil City.
Before Foster’s score, and the time-sapping possession that led up to it, it was a back-and-forth battle, one the Raiders had trouble getting a handle on.
Susquehanna Township quarterback Torin Evans proved too fast and too elusive for the Raiders to bring down. He kept zig-zagging around the pocket, dodging defenders and buying time for his receivers, just as he did last week when he beat Wyomissing with a touchdown pass as time expired.
The Raiders kept storming the pocket, coming after him, but that only opened up running lanes, and he burned them time after time. He ran out of the pocket for a 20-yard touchdown in the second quarter and finished the first half with 90 rushing yards – all on designed passing plays that broke down.
He was dangerous throwing the ball, too. He connected on a 40-yard heave that set up a second-quarter touchdown and gave his team its first lead when he fired a 67-yard scoring bomb to to Zi’Khere Leaks with 42 seconds left in the half.
The Raiders couldn’t stop him . . . until they did.
The second half was a different story. Maybe it took them a half to get used to his speed and moves, and that of his flashy receivers, but they did. After intermission the Raiders pitched a shutout. They held the Indians to 106 second-half yards – about a third of their first-half total.
Susquehanna finished with a season-low 21 points.
The Raiders finally started catching up to Evans, no play bigger than a sack by Lucas Myers, blitzing from his linebacker spot, after ‘Hanna had reached the Twin Valley 10.
“The coaches made a great call (there), and then the D-line opened up the gap beautifully,” Lucas Myers said. “I didn’t get touched and it just worked out.”
On third down defensive end Andrew Cabigas batted down an Evans pass. A fourth-down incompletion turned the ball over the Raiders.
The next time Evans touched the ball – some nine minutes later – it was the fourth quarter, his team was down two scores, and his season was quickly fading to black.
The Raiders did a lot of key things to secure their first district hardware – all those great runs by Engle; interceptions by Grant Moser and James Alexy; Ben Grundy’s grab and run for a 55-yard scoring pass that put his team ahead for good – but the most pivotal was that long drive. It provided points and kept the ball out of Evans’ dangerous hands.
PIAA scoreboard
| CLASS 4A | |||
| Twin Valley | 41 | Susquehanna Township | 21 |
| Aliquippa | 28 | Oil City | 6 |
| Southern Lehigh | 30 | Shamokin | 27 |
| Cardinal O’Hara | 28 | North Pocono | 6 |
“There’s an attitude adjustment when you run the ball and take eight, nine minutes off the clock,” Brett Myers said. “People start playing a little different.”
The Raiders held the ball for 17 minutes of the second half, the Indians just seven. They rushed for 182 yards, the Indians 33. They scored 21 points and didn’t allow any.
“We had the conversation at halftime that we just needed to keep playing hard-nosed football,” DiGiacomo said, “and everybody on the defense understood that, and that’s just what we did.”
Susquehanna Township had one last gasp in the final minutes as it moved to a first down at the 2. Twin Valley’s defense came alive again, getting a second-down sack by Foster, a safety, and a fourth-down sack from Ryan Rementer, a linebacker.
“We didn’t (blitz) a lot,” Brett Myers said, “because you can’t; that kid’s too good. But if you can catch him off-guard a little bit it’ll work out.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Twin Valley | 14 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 41 |
| Susquehanna Twp. | 7 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Susquehanna | Rivera, 61 run (Bailey kick) | 9:51 |
| 1 | Twin Valley | Engle, 2 run (Shaffer kick) | 7:06 |
| 1 | Twin Valley | Myers, 5 run (Shaffer kick) | 4:55 |
| 2 | Susquehanna | Evans, 20 run (Bailey kick) | 8:33 |
| 2 | Susquehanna | Leaks, 67 pass from Evans (Bailey kick) | 0:42 |
| 2 | Twin Valley | Engle, 52 run (kick failed) | 0:20 |
| 3 | Twin Valley | Grundy, 55 pass from Foster (Shaffer kick) | 10:08 |
| 4 | Twin Valley | Foster, 24 run (Shaffer kick) | 10:34 |
| 4 | Twin Valley | Engle, 32 run (Shaffer kick) | 6:22 |
Team statistics
| TWIN VALLEY | SUSQUEHANNA TWP. | |
| First downs | 19 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 55-383 | 32-206 |
| Passing yards | 74 | 185 |
| Total yards | 457 | 391 |
| Passes | 4-6-0 | 9-19-2 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 3-31.3 | 2-31.5 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-67 | 7-55 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Twin Valley: Engle 31-281, Myers 19-76, Foster 3-28, Team 2-(-2).
Susquehanna Township: Evans 16-118, Rivera 11-86, Littlejohn 4-3, Team 1-(-1).
PASSING
Twin Valley: Foster 4-6-0–74.
Susquehanna Township: Evans 9-19-2–185.
RECEIVING
Twin Valley: Grundy 4-74.
Susquehanna Township: Leaks 2-84, Littlejohn 2-29, Kent-Yother 2-25, Kern 2-7, Malette 1-40.
INTERCEPTIONS
Twin Valley: Moser, Alexy.
These photos and others from the game can be purchased from PhilMarPhoto.
