Four Downs: 4 big takes from Week 7
Four biggest takeaways from Week 7 of the 2022 high school football season:
1ST DOWN
Kutztown and Schuylkill Valley are proof that the move to the Lancaster-Lebanon Lebanon League is working for Berks football.
The Cougars won their second game Friday, and have a chance to win a couple more this season. They have won more than two games in a season just once in the last 13 years. Six times during that span they went winless.
The Panthers are on a five-game winning streak, share first place in Section 5 and have more to get excited about Friday’s game at Hamburg than the fact that it’s for Frost Bowl honors.
Most of the attention about the new-look Lancaster-Lebanon League has been focused on Section 2, which has thrown together top-notch programs such as Manheim Central, Exeter and Gov. Mifflin, or Section 4, which figures to be battle royale most seasons.
Actually, the teams that will benefit most from this jointure are the smallest schools, such as Kutztown, Hamburg and Schuylkill Valley, which have struggled at times to put competitive teams on the field.
2ND DOWN
As Wyomissing was piling up a huge first-half lead on the way to a mercy rule win over Cocalico Saturday someone along the Spartans sideline — not a player or coach, and, no, not James Franklin — seemed puzzled.
“I thought this new league was gonna be tougher?”
Section 4, with proven programs such as Berks Catholic, Lampeter-Strasburg, Conrad Weiser and Cocalico should be — most years — very competitive.
This is not most years.
The Spartans, once again, are loaded. They’re winning their league games by an average of 31 points, a figure that easily could be higher.
After two straight trips to a state championship game, and the graduation of a dozen or more All-State players, you’d think the program would take at least a tiny step back.
Nope.
Hard as it is to believe this team appears to be every bit as good as the last two and certainly capable of breaking through to claim a PIAA championship — 10 years after its first.
3RD DOWN
Troy Godinet and his Reading High staff are not only winning games, they’re doing it the right way.
Friday, when the Red Knights’ best player took a late-hit/out-of-bounds cheap shot against McCaskey, a fight broke out.
The respective coaching staffs and security personnel got things under control, several players were ejected and the game resumed.
Afterward, Godinet and his McCaskey counterpart, Ben Thompson, pulled the two teams together at midfield and spoke to them, providing some life lessons and a positive message to what could have been an ugly scene.
The Red Knights, by the way, won 38-0, their third win in seven games. Given what’s gone on around the team in recent years, that’s a great start for Godinet as he tries to return the program to the glory days he knew as a player 20 years ago.
4TH DOWN
Wilson (2-1, 5-2) saw its hopes for a third straight Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 title slip away Friday night when Hempfield scored the go-ahead touchdown with 17 seconds left to win 20-16 in West Lawn. That snapped a 16-game Section 1 winning streak.
To claim at least a share of the title the Bulldogs will have to win out, which will include winning at Manheim Township (2-1, 5-2) in Week 10.
They’ll also need to see Hempfield lose one of its two remaining games, which seems unlikely. The Black Knights close with Cedar Crest (1-3, 3-4) and Reading High (1-3, 3-4).
Eager, a former Manheim Township receiver and Bulldogs assistant coach, is now in his third season as Black Knights head coach. He’s made up a lot of ground on his former teams in a short time.