Raiders believe every week is a Super Bowl, and now they’re playing in one
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This was a game like no other Brett Myers – who took his Middletown teams to three state championship games – had ever coached.
It sure as heck was like nothing Twin Valley football had experienced.
The Raiders, bidding for a spot in the PIAA championship game, didn’t record a first down in the second half Friday against Aliquippa.
They finished with 103 total yards – about one-fourth their average.
They finished with negative passing yards – after leading the 37-team Lancaster-Lebanon League in passing efficiency.
They were outgained three-to-one; in the second half Aliquippa totaled 234 yards, Twin Valley 8.
And yet the Raiders will be on the field this afternoon, preparing to face Southern Lehigh in Thursday night’s PIAA Class 4A championship at Cumberland Valley’s Chapman Field.
How?
They survived, mentally as much as physically.
In brutal conditions – a wind chill in the 20’s, with a steady 13 mph wind – their defense was on the field for most of the final six minutes of the game, protecting a slim four-point lead.
Yale-bound quarterback Marques Council Jr., passing into the teeth of that fierce wind, moved his team to the Twin Valley 11 with just under two minutes left.
The Raiders were in the crosshairs.
A few minutes later, after a holding penalty and a sack, the game came down to one play: Fourth-and-24 from the 25. Everyone in the stadium knew the strong-armed Council Jr. would be flinging the ball into the end zone. Most watching were as nervous as a mouse in a roomful of cats.
A perfect season was on the line. One misstep and it all could have come apart.
Lucas Myers, a junior linebacker, was so frozen with fear at the thought of a blown coverage or missed tackle he could barely make it out of the huddle, right?
“Nope,” he smiled “(it was) just like every other play.”
But this wasn’t just like any other play. The Raiders had most of their opponents buried by halftime this season. Their first-string defense was barely on the field in the fourth quarter. When it was, it usually was playing with a three- or four-touchdown cushion.
It had never been backed to the wall, forced to make a game-saving play against a really good team. They hadn’t been tested like this.
“Everybody was treating it like every other play,” Lucas Myers insisted. “We knew what we had to do.”
Josh Lay, one of three Aliquippa receivers split wide to the right, broke open on a post pattern at the 10-yard line. Council Jr. saw a window. He fired.
Drew Engle slid over from his safety spot to meet the receiver. Safety Keenan Munn drifted back, followed the flight of the ball, got in front of it and knocked it to the ground with 27 seconds left.
Season saved: Twin Valley 28, Aliquippa 24.
Munn knew exactly what he was supposed to do and cooly executed the plan because he’s been there so many times before. Every Wednesday the Twin Valley coaches designate a portion of practice to just these type of game-ending situations: dropping back into coverage, batting away a potential game-winning pass.
Munn and his teammates didn’t react like a deer in the headlights. They didn’t get caught looking at the big picture. They focused on executing the play in front of them.
PIAA Class 4A Tournament bracket
“That’s our mindset,” linebacker Ryan Rementer said, “just take it one play at a time. That’s what we were doing the entire game, and it worked out pretty well.”
That’s what the Raiders have done all season.
Aliquippa’s superb front wall shut down Twin Valley’s running game like no other. Drew Engle, the Raiders’ all-time rushing leader, ran for 16 yards on his first touch, then didn’t get free the rest of the night.
Twin Valley had the ball four times in the second half: It went three-and-out on the first three and was stopped on downs on the last.
It didn’t win Friday with its usual blizzard of points. The Raiders had to find a different path. They did it with a pair of interceptions, by Rementer and Munn. By Munn flipping the ball back to Engle on a kickoff, with Engle taking it back 80 yards to set up a TD.
They did it by blocking a pair of PATs. Rementer got his hands on the first, in the first quarter after the Quips answered the game-opening score. That forced the Quips to go for two after their next two TDs, each of which were stopped.
Greyson Miller blocked the final PAT try, in the final minute of the third quarter, preventing Aliquippa from pulling within three points.
Aliquippa coach Mike Warfield likes to say that as you advance in the state playoffs the margins get closer. Each team scored four touchdowns Friday. The difference came down to those often overlooked, taken-for-granted PATs.
“That hurt us,” Warfield said.
The Raiders persevered because of their mental focus. It sounds like a cliché to say “Just focus on the next play” but that’s what the Raiders do. It’s how they think. It’s what they believe.
“It’s not just a Friday night thing,” Brett Myers said. “We talk about it all week. We try to live by it. You can’t worry about the past, you can’t worry about the future, just take care of right now.
“I remember as kid (playing at Middletown) Coach (Dennis) Iezzi telling us that if you’re looking at the scoreboard you’re not worried about the next play; you’re not worried about playing well. When we were growing up every game was the biggest game of our lives.”
Whether they’re playing a winless team at midseason, Wyomissing in a late-season battle of state-ranked teams, or practicing during a bye week before the playoffs the Raiders have the same mindset: Execute the next play.
“We tell our kids every week is the Super Bowl,” Brett Myers said, “and they do a great job of understanding that. That’s why they’re successful.”
