Week 3 Glance: Daniel Boone coach calls loss to Conestoga Valley, 0-2 start, “embarrassing”

Rob Flowers did not mince words when talking about Daniel Boone’s 0-2 start.

“If we do not play better and more physical and with more energy, we are not going to win a game this year,” the Blazers head coach said on the eve of Friday’s game at Muhlenberg.

Boone, with some veteran linemen and a returning quarterback, has been outscored 77-7; to say the effort to date has been disappointing is a vast understatement.

The Blazers were expected to contend in Section 3 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League but they haven’t shown the fire it’ll take to compete with the likes of Solanco, Garden Spot and Elizabethtown — each off to a 2-0 start — or Ephrata, considered a front-runner in the preseason.

The season-opening 35-0 loss to state-ranked Exeter can’t be considered a huge surprise, especially since the Blazers lost starting quarterback Dean Rotter to a shoulder injury early in the game.

Last week’s 42-7 loss to Conestoga Valley?

“That was a true letdown for us,” said Flowers. “It was actually embarrassing.”

A loss at Muhlenberg Friday would add to that feeling, especially considering that Boone has dominated the series of late, that the Muhls have struggled mightily in recent years and that it’s a homecoming for Flowers, the quarterback on Muhlenberg’s Inter-County League powerhouse teams of the late 1990’s.

Boone vs. Muhlenberg is one of two Berks vs. Berks match-ups in Week 3. At Twin Valley, the Raiders face Conrad Weiser a year after they stunned the Scouts in double-overtime.

At the top of the Week 3 card are a pair of Saturday games: Berks Catholic at Pope John Paul II and Wyomissing against Trinity at the A-Field.

The Saints are in peril of starting 0-3 for the first time in their 12-year history after losses to Loyalsock and Executive Education.

They face a Golden Panthers team that has started 2-0 a year after a 7-3 finish. One of their losses last season came at Berks Catholic, 47-40.

The Saints need a win to avoid going into next week’s “Backyard Brawl” and LL Section 4 opener against Wyomissing winless.

The Spartans, ranked No. 2 in the state in Class 3A, have opened the season with back-to-back shutouts. They haven’t started a season pitching three straight shutouts in 40 years.

Exeter (2-0), ranked No. 4 in the state in Class 5A, will get its final non-league tuneup against West York (0-2) before entering league play in Section 2 next week against long-time rival Gov. Mifflin.

The Mustangs, meanwhile, are trying to avoid their second 0-3 start in four years when they head to Boyertown. Mifflin is coming off a 48-14 loss at Carlisle. The Bears opened with a 61-0 win before giving up the first 37 points last week in a 37-21 loss at Exeter.

Wilson, which was hammered by Roman Catholic in its opener, picked up momentum with a critical 17-10 win at Central Dauphin last week. The Bulldogs bounced back after some Week 1 injuries and appear ready to roll into Section 1 play next week with a full head of steam.

Bulldogs coach Doug Dahms saw his team make significant strides from Week 1 to Week 2.

“Most of our improvement was mental,” he said. “We did a much better job in picking up the fronts that we had to block, blocking the right people, and attempting to execute defensively.

“Physically, I think we have a long way to go. We were blocking the right people but we weren’t doing a good job getting to the second level, we weren’t pushing the double-team back far enough. Execution.”

Flowers saw no such strides last week from Daniel Boone. The Blazers yielded 35 unanswered points to Conestoga Valley after an early 7-7 tie and allowed 358 total yards. They installed a new three-man defensive front under first-year defensive coordinator Ron Zeiber, the former Exeter, Boyertown and Hempfield head coach, but X’s and O’s, Flowers said, are not the issue.

“If you’re at the point of attack and you don’t attack, is it the (scheme on) defense or is it an individual thing?” he said. “Tackling is a choice and physicality is a choice.”

After a 5-3 season that saw the Blazers crack the District 3 playoff field last year Flowers thought his program had made a leap forward. Last week was a step back.

“Those days of getting beat 42-7 by people we should be playing with (should be) gone,” he said. “Everybody has to play better.”