Manheim Township too much for Burdine, Red Knights

By Hunter Phillips — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

Amier Burdine knows his football team isn’t headed for a championship or even a winning season but the senior quarterback is doing what he can to push the Reading High program in that direction.

Even after seeing Manheim Township open the game with seven unanswered touchdowns, en route to a 49-14 Lancaster-Lebanon Section 1 victory Friday at Shirk Stadium, Burdine kept trying to make plays and do the right thing to lead his younger teammates.

“It’s hard sometimes when you’re just looking at the score and you’re down,” Burdine said. “(With) these young guys, we need to keep their positive energy up, so they can build for their year coming up.”

Burdine has put it on himself and his fellow upperclassman to make sure the team’s energy stays up in situations of adversity, like the one they faced Friday.

His recruitment of basketball teammate Ruben Rodriguez has paid its dividends throughout the season, and did so again Friday. Eight-one of Burdine’s 83 passing yards went to Rodriguez.

They connected for 31 of those yards on a deep ball down the right sideline, where Rodriguez made a fantastic toe tap grab.

It wasn’t enough. Manheim Township had its win wrapped up by halftime, leading 49-0.

After converting a risky attempt on fourth-and-1 on its own 44-yard line, it looked like Reading (1-4, 3-5) could be on track for a successful opening drive.

But the Red Knights were forced to punt after gaining only 3 yards on the next three plays.

After Declan Clancy’s 70-yard run put Manheim Township (3-1, 6-2) on the Reading 20, it only took three plays for Landon Kennel to secure his first trip to the end zone. His 6-yard back-shoulder TD catch put Manheim up 7-0 after just five plays.

After that score, Kennel and Manheim were off to the races. Kennel found the end zone two more times. Manheim scored 42 more points before the end of the half.

It took until 9:34 was left in the third quarter for the Red Knights to get on the board on a 15-yard Burdine run.

Burdine finished with 127 yards rushing, 83 yards passing, and provided Reading with both its scores. He topped his night off dashing down the field for an 82-yard rushing touchdown in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. 

A season that has seen its highs like the Red Knights’ upset win over Red Lion saw one of its lowest lows Friday.

Burdine has remained productive through the highs and lows.

The Blue Streaks defense was able to contain the Red Knights offense throughout the night, holding it to 245 yards. Burdine accounted for 210 of them.

Manheim Township finished with 318 yards total, 212 of them coming on the ground. 

	1	2	3	4	Final
Manheim Township	14	35	0	0	49
Reading High	0	0	8	6	14

Scoring summary

1	Manheim Township	Kennel, 6 pass from Johnson (Nguyen kick)	7:39
1	Manheim Township	Kennel, 21 pass from Johnson (Nguyen kick)	5:05
2	Manheim Township	Kennel, 14 pass from Johnson (Nguyen kick)	11:53
2	Manheim Township	Claney, 3 run (Ryan kick)	9:59
2	Manheim Township	Covington, 2 run (Nguyen kick)	7:01
2	Manheim Township	Covington, 48 rush (Nguyen kick	5:23
2	Manheim Township	Larue, 50 fumble return (Arnold kick)	1:13
3	Reading High	Burdine, 15 run (Small run)	9:34
4	Reading High	Burdine, 82 run ( run failed)	4:25

Team statistics

	Manheim Township	Reading High
First downs	10	7
Rushes-yards	25-212	18-149
Passing yards	106	83
Total yards	318	232
Passes	7-10-0	6-12-2
Fumbles-lost	0-0	4-3
Punts-average	1-36	3-34
Penalties-yards	2-15	0-0

Individual statistics

RUSHING

Manheim Township: Clancy 4-85, Covington 6-76, Pfitzemaier 12-31 Johnson 1-20, Gonzalez 1-3, Weisser 1-(-3).

Reading High: Burdine 9-127, Alverado 5-13, Small 4-9.

PASSING

Manheim Township: Johnson 6-9-109, Weisser 1-1-(-3.

Reading High: Burdine 6-12-83.

RECEIVING

Manheim Township: Kennel 4-89, Palumbo 2-12, Ethan 2-8 Haberbosch 1-(-3).

Reading High: R.Rodriguez 5-81, Gonzalez 1-2.

INTERCEPTIONS

Manheim Township: D.Rodriguez, Perez.