’22 Season Preview: Twin Valley Raiders
Classification: Class 4A
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 3
Schedule: Click here
Last season: 3-2 Berks 2, 6-5 overall
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2021
Head coach: Brett Myers, first season (72-22 in eight seasons at Middletown; 22-48 in six seasons at Pottstown)
Key losses: All-League WR/DB/KR Trey Freeman, all-league G/LB Ryan Corros, all-league RB/DB Dominic Caruso, all-league DL Aidan Kozan.
| LL3 | Projected finish |
| 1 | Ephrata |
| 2 | Daniel Boone |
| 3 | Twin Valley |
| 4 | Elizabethtown |
| 5 | Garden Spot |
| 6 | Fleetwood |
| 7 | Solanco |
Top offensive players: QB Evan Myers, FB Nick Harris, RB Evan Johnson, RB Jordan Rose, RB Jaydon Goebel, RB Brad Taggart, TE Everett Olsen, WR Ben Spiri, C Mason Ketner, G Paul McClune, T Noah Rome, T Aris Drake.
Top defensive players: E Kyle Kline, E Ben Savage, E Ben Kipp, second-team all-league LB Ean Winchester, LB Nick Harris, LB Kelley Styer, LB Jacob Bachman, S Ethan Ameisen, S Spencer Essick, S Julian Mendez, CB Evan Johnson, CB Brad Taggart, CB Willy Coull.
Did you know? The Raiders have had 11 head coaches in 27 seasons; no one has coached longer than five seasons. Only Kris Olsen, who went 6-5 in his only season in 2021, left with a record above .500.
For the record: WR Trey Freeman set nine program receiving records and finished with 2,250 career receiving yards, a Berks record.
Quotable: “At Twin Valley, we’re not known as a huge football school but I think that’s all changing. In the future I think it’s going to be a lot different. You can see there’s different types of guys here now. We have an amazing new coach. The whole culture’s changing.” — Senior C Masen Ketner, on following up the program’s first trip to the District 3 Tournament.
Outlook: Brett Myers wasn’t officially named Raiders head coach until three weeks before the start of preseason camp. That would be a major problem for most programs but shouldn’t hold the Raiders back too much. Myers was close to the program, his son Evan was the starting quarterback last season and he’s been through this before: He wasn’t officially hired until July 5 at his last stop at Middletown. He took over a team that went 2-8 and finished 6-4 his first season. By his fourth season the Blue Raiders were 14-1 and district champs.
Whether Twin Valley has such a high ceiling remains to be seen but hopes are high after landing an experienced coach who’s won three district titles and took Middletown to a PIAA championship game three straight seasons.
Myers inherits a young team — there were just eight juniors on last year’s roster — but not one without experience. Ten starters return, among them quarterback Evan Myers who had an impressive freshman debut. He started all 11 games and threw for nearly 1,500 yards and 10 TDs.
No team in Section 3 lost an offensive duo as productive as RB Dominic Caruso and WR Trey Freeman, each a four-year starter who took turns rewriting the Raiders’ record book. They combined for 24 of Twin Valley’s 40 touchdowns last season, 82 percent of its receptions and 65 percent of it yards from scrimmage.
Even at that there are experienced play-makers returning in FB Nick Harris, who averaged 5.1 yards per carry last season, and Evan Johnson, who flashed breakout potential last season when he averaged 12.7 yards per carry.
They’ll have a big offensive line to run behind: T Noah Rome, T Aris Drake, G Paul McClune and C Masen Ketner all are 255 pounds or more. Myers knows the guys up front will be the key.
“If you block the other team usually you’re pretty productive,” he said. “No matter how much coaches like to get complicated (with plays), it’s really about blocking and tackling. It’s that simple.”
After seeing the Raiders give up more than 200 yards rushing per game last year and an average of 26.0 points Myers said improving the defense is priority No. 1. Four starters return on that side of the ball, including Ian Winchester, a 230-pounder moving from LB to DT.
“That’s the quickest transition to winning a couple extra games,” said Myers said of defense. “If you out-tackle the other team you’re usually pretty productive. That’s the goal (right now): play great defense. That was the goal (when I got to Middletown). If we don’t give up any points we can’t lose.”
The Blue Raiders didn’t lose much. They went an astounding 41-4 over a three-year stretch from 2016-18. Expecting something similar at Twin Valley is a bit much, but within time the program should become an annual contender in Section 3.
At the wire: Darkhorse pick to challenge Ephrata and Daniel Boone for the Section 3 lead.
