Raiders never could catch relentless Southern Lehigh once they fell behind
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
MECHANICSBURG — Twin Valley trailed by a couple points at halftime Thursday, but that wasn’t a big deal.
The Raiders were moving the ball well against Southern Lehigh and were seconds away from taking the lead into intermission. Twin Valley coach Brett Myers wasn’t overly concerned looking at a four-point deficit halfway through the PIAA Class 4A championship game.
| Final | |
| S. Lehigh | 43 |
| Twin Valley | 21 |
“We’ve been down a lot at halftime, and our kids have responded,” he said. “We felt, we’ve just gotta keep moving and . . . based on history, the ball’s gonna bounce our way eventually. In the end, that didn’t happen.”
Sean Steckert and his Southern Lehigh teammates didn’t allow it to happen. They put the hammer down quickly in the second half, coming up with a pair of quick scores and forcing a turnover to pull safety ahead in what became a 43-21 victory at Cumberland Valley’s Chapman Field.
After yielding big chunks of yardage in the first half the Spartans (15-1) tightened up the second half, then let Steckert loose.
He went off for 301 yards on 37 carries, the most yards ever in a Class 4A championship game; he found the end zone four times.
The Raiders (14-1), bidding to become just the second Berks County team to win a state football championship, couldn’t keep up.
Twin Valley had the top-ranked defense in the Lancaster-Lebanon League but never found a way to slow down Steckert or Southern, which scored on its first six possessions in building a 36-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.
“It’s so amazing, knowing that they can’t stop our offense,” said Steckert, who finished the season with 3,312 yards and 45 touchdowns. “We’ve got so many different weapons.”
(PhilMarPhoto)
The Raiders, leading 14-10, thought they’d own the lead at halftime when they slowed down the Spartans’ late push. Joey Buckley and Greyson Miller teamed up to stop Steckert for a yard on a third-and-2 from the Twin Valley 28. On fourth down Steckert hit the middle of the line, then alertly bounced outside and got free, his 27-yard run sending the Raiders into a 17-14 hole they would never recover from.
“The touchdown right before half, that was huge,” said Southern coach Phil Sams of the TD with 17 seconds left in the second quarter.
Just as important, Sams said, was getting the ball to start the third quarter.
“To know going into the half we were getting that ball . . . I mean, you can’t stop us,” Steckert said.
The Raiders didn’t.
Sensing Twin Valley would key on Steckert, Sams called three straight passes and his son, junior quarterback Colton, clicked on each, the last a 40-yard touchdown to Otto Young. Just before the snap Colton Sams sensed a blitz coming from his right side and motioned Steckert over to block it, which he did, allowing the quarterback to get off the pass.
The Raiders were down just 10 points, and with lots of time left, but the tide turned decisively moments later when quarterback Maverik Foster, who hadn’t thrown an interception in his first 14 1/2 games, saw his sideline pass slip off the fingers of tailback Drew Engle and into the hands of Southern Lehigh’s Adam Fritts at the Raiders’ 31.
Steckert scored a couple minutes later and just like that the Raiders were facing their largest deficit of the season.
It seemed to swing momentum in Southern Lehigh’s favor for good.
“I don’t know about that,” Myers said. “One play doesn’t start an avalanche . . . momentum – I don’t believe that.”
Foster, who led the Lancaster-Lebanon League in passing efficiency this season, was picked off twice more in the fourth quarter as the Raiders tried vainly to make a comeback.
“We knew that if we forced them to throw we could make them make mistakes,” said Steckert, who was outstanding from his linebacker spot as well, “and that’s what we did.
“They have two amazing running backs,” he said of Twin Valley’s Drew Engle and Lucas Myers, each of whom scored a touchdown. “All props to them. And (they have) a good offensive line. We’ve just got bigger, bad-der boys, and when we forced them to pass that’s what’s gonna happen.”
Engle broke off a 39-yard run on his first carry, setting up the Raiders’ first score. He finished with 175 yards on 22 carries to push his season total to 2,095 yards and his final career figure to 4,212.
“He’s a hard runner,” Phil Sams said. “He’s a big, strong kid. It was scary at first: They came right out and punched us in the mouth, and then we stopped them. Our defense tightened down, and we started wrapping him up a little.”
Southern Lehigh took its first lead at 10-7 when Declan Walsh converted a 24-yard field to cap a 14-play drive that took the ball to the Twin Valley 8 before Colton Sams’ third-down pass into the end zone hit the turf.
The Raiders stunned the Spartans with a quick strike on the ensuing series, Foster finding Dominic Summers on a short post pattern that the wide receiver took 64 yards for a 14-10 lead with 2:25 left in the half.
“It was perfect,” Brett Myers said of the play. “Maverik made a great read, great timing, put the ball where it needed to be to a fast kid.”
That was one of the few breakdowns the Spartans had all night. They played clean football, with few penalties and only one late turnover, well after the issue had been decided.
The Raiders, who played error-free football for the ninth time last week in turning back Aliquippa 28-24, turned the ball over a season-high three times.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Twin Valley | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 21 |
| Southern Lehigh | 7 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 43 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Twin Valley | Myers, 20 run (Shaffer kick) | 10:01 |
| 1 | Southern Lehigh | Steckert, 11 run (Walsh kick) | 7:07 |
| 2 | Southern Lehigh | Walsh, 24 FG | 3:17 |
| 2 | Twin Valley | D. Summers, 64 pass from M. Foster (Shaffer kick) | 2:25 |
| 2 | Southern Lehigh | Steckert, 26 run (Walsh kick) | 0:17 |
| 3 | Southern Lehigh | Young, 40 pass from Sams (Walsh kick) | 9:49 |
| 3 | Southern Lehigh | Steckert, 6 run (kick failed) | 6:10 |
| 3 | Twin Valley | Engle, 4 run (Shaffer kick) | 2:44 |
| 4 | Southern Lehigh | Young, 30 pass from Sams (run failed) | 10:21 |
| 4 | Southern Lehigh | Steckert, 2 run (Walsh kick) | 2:06 |
Team statistics
| TWIN VALLEY | S. LEHIGH | |
| First downs | 17 | 23 |
| Rushes-yards | 35-235 | 40-301 |
| Passing yards | 90 | 145 |
| Total yards | 325 | 446 |
| Passes | 4-10-3 | 13-18-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 1-36.0 | 0-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-59 | 5-50 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Twin Valley: Engle 22-175, Myers 11-52, M. Foster 1-9, Grundy 1-(-1).
Southern Lehigh: Steckert 37-301, Sams 1-2, Team 2-(-2).
PASSING
Twin Valley: M. Foster 4-10-3–90.
Southern Lehigh: Sams 13-18-1–145.
RECEIVING
Twin Valley: Summers 1-64, Shanahan 1-16, Reilly 1-8, Grundy 1-2.
Southern Lehigh: Kawczenski 6-48, Young 3-79, Roman 2-18, Jacobs 2-0.
INTERCEPTIONS
Southern Lehigh: Fritts 2, Pavis.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Twin Valley: Shaffer 21.
These photos and others can be purchased from PhilMarPhoto.
