Dominic Caruso never comes up short for Twin Valley

A pro football scout once looked at 5-foot, 11-inch Nick Buoniconti and noted on his report that the Notre Dame linebacker would run through a brick wall for his team.

“But the hole he leaves will be will be a small one,” the scout wrote.

Dominic Caruso gets it. He’d run through molten lava on his way to the end zone if he thought it would help the Twin Valley Raiders, but that still wouldn’t be good enough for many college football coaches.

He’s 5-foot-6 and there’s no getting around that fact.

“(I wish they could) look through that and see me as a player, and a student, not just some 5-6 running back,” the Twin Valley running back and safety says.

Football is a game of inches; if you come up short big-time college programs just aren’t going to see you.

Doesn’t matter how many records you break, how big your heart is, how much more you want it than the next guy.

“As much as I’d love the bigger schools to look at me, I don’t think they will because of my size,” said Caruso after pulling off his pads and sweat-soaked No. 2 jersey after a morning workout with the Raiders. “That’s been my biggest obstacle, but it hasn’t stopped me from playing. It all comes down to how much you love the game.”

If anything the knock on his size has been a driving force for Caruso, who is already the Raiders’ all-time leading rusher and scorer before he plays a single game in his senior season.

“There’s that little bit of chip on his shoulder,” said Raiders coach Kris Olsen. “If he was 5-9, 5-10, he’d be getting Division I looks. He wants to work as hard as he can, do as much as he can, and say: ‘This is what I’m doing with what I’ve been given.’ He has that inner drive that a lot of kids don’t have.”

It’s not as if college coaches don’t love what Caruso brings to the table as a runner, receiver, hard-hitting defensive back — and as a student. He carries a 4.0 grade-point average.

He has offers from Alvernia, Ursinus and Rochester Institute of Technology, each of which plays at the Division III level.

Caruso’s speed is good for this level — he runs a 4.7 40 — but it’s not blinding. It’s his balance, strength and vision — the way he sees cutback lanes and exploits them — that make him so dangerous in the open field with a football cradled under his arm.

(He utilized those same skills to earn All-Berks honors in lacrosse as a long-stick midfielder.)

Caruso and the Raiders got to play just six times last season because of several COVID cancellations. He made the most of them, rushing for 929 yards and scoring eight TDs. That’s an average of more than 150 yards per game.

He ended the season with a flourish, going for 358 yards on 30 carries in a 28-24 win over Fleetwood. That matched the single-game program record, set by Dan Ziegler in 2014.

With the Raiders trying to run down the clock he broke off a 50-yard run on third-and-11 to clinch it.

Two weeks earlier he had become the program’s all-time leading rusher; he finished the season with 2,741 career yards and a program-record 27 career TDs.

He also owns Raiders records for most rushing touchdowns, most rushing attempts in a season, and most rushing attempts in a career. If the Raiders have a rushing or scoring record, Caruso either owns it or is closing in on it.

The only problem Olsen has with Caruso is trying to keep him off the field. When the first-year coach tries to get younger backs some reps in practice Caruso scoffs.

“He gets mad if he’s not getting every rep during practice,” Olsen said. “That’s the kind of kid he is.”

Caruso says he gets his competitive fire from his Sicilian-born mother, Doreen, a soccer player as a youth.

“She doesn’t like to lose,” he said.

Neither does he. He works hard throughout the year, in season and out, to give the Raiders their best chance.

“He wants to be the best,” says teammate Ryan Corros, a senior tackle who has been playing with Caruso since their midget days. “No matter what position — offense, defense, special teams — he’s running hard. He wants to beat the guy across from him.”

The Raiders will be young and need to replace three-fifths of their offensive line but it’s not a stretch to think Caruso can produce a 1,300-yard season and end up as just the sixth 4,000-yard back in Berks history. That would be no small achievement.

“I never would’ve thought I’d be where I’m at now, with all these records,” said Caruso, asked what his expectations were when he got his first start for the Raiders, as a freshman in the season-opener.

He admits getting dissed in the recruiting game has been upsetting but it has never slowed him down.

“That’s been my biggest struggle,” he said. “I just look past it and keep grinding. You’ve gotta go out there and show out on a Friday night. I just want to be the best player I can, on and off the field.”