Berks Catholic can’t slow down Cocalico, sees district playoff hopes fade away
Walking out onto his home field for what could have been the last time, the memories of four football seasons at Berks Catholic — good times and hard times — rushed through Josiah Jordan’s head.
By the time he greeted his parents at midfield on Senior Night he was in tears.
“I played with a bunch of guys I really enjoyed being around,” he reflected after the Saints’ 31-10 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4 loss to Cocalico Friday night. “A lot of guys coming, a lot of guys going . . . it’s been a really rocky road. I mean, with Anthony (Myers) gone away, and having to hear that all again (this week). . . (the emotions) came through.”
For a while Jordan thought he and the Saints were reliving last year’s playoff game against Cocalico, when the Eagles opened with a long, punishing drive and Berks Catholic answered to tie it up.
Like a year ago, the teams went into halftime tied. This time, though, the Saints couldn’t come up with an answer for Cocalico’s Veer offense as they did in winning their District 3 Class 4A meeting last year.
Sam Steffey and the Eagles (4-2, 5-4) were relentless, pounding away 60 times for 314 rushing yards.
“It’s rough,” said Jordan, a cornerback, of trying to stop the Eagles’ Veer. “Ground and pound, that’s them.”
Cocalico ran 36 plays to Berks Catholic’s 16 in the second half, out-gained the Saints 146 yards to 28 and outscored them 21-0.
Steffey rushed for 123 of his 234 yards in the second half, helping the Eagles get 11 first downs.
“We knew he was the guy we had to stop to win the game,” said Saints coach Rick Keeley. “They just kept giving it to the dive guy and he kept getting the yardage they needed to move the chains.
“He kept pounding and pounding and pounding and never gave up, and got the yardage they needed to move the chains. Good running backs do that.”
Overall, Steffey carried 42 times and scored three touchdowns.
Despite clearly out-playing Berks Catholic — it ran 32 offensive plays in the first half, to the Saints’ 15 — Cocalico went into halftime tied 10-10.
Eagles coach Bryan Strohl thought his team left some points on the field. In the second half he kept things even more basic, which meant Steffey carrying it on 23 of 31 plays — all of them runs.
“We felt we were moving the line of scrimmage,” Strohl said. “They’re not stopping it, so why change it? When you move the line of scrimmage good things are gonna happen, and we were able to do that tonight.”
The Saints tied it 10-10 just before the half when Jordan returned an interception 25 yards to the Cocalico 40, setting up a 23-yard field goal by Andrew Kurtz 15 seconds before intermission.
The game was still tied 10-10 late in third quarter before Steffey’s 9-yard TD run with 2:12 left put Cocalico on top 17-10. His 4-yard TD run made it 24-10 with 7:15 remaining.
Until the final minutes, when he came out of the game, Steffey never wavered.
“He’s a tough, tough, tough kid,” Strohl said.
Jordan accounted for Berks Catholic’s only touchdown and most of its offense. He opened the Saints’ second possession with a 24-yard run and ended it with a 23-yard touchdown.
He rushed for 71 yards in the first half but the Eagles did a much better job of closing off his escape lanes in the second half. He finished with 83 yards on 13 carries.
“The key is gang-tackling and not giving him space,” Strohl said. “When he’s on that sweep, you can’t give him a big gap because if he gets through it, you’re not catching him.”
In last year’s playoff match-up Berks Catholic was able to switch to a different defensive front to slow Cocalico down. This time, Keeley said, it wasn’t about X’s and O’s.
“More than anything, it was a physical thing up front,” he said. “Their running back, he did what he had to do. My hat’s off to him. We had a number of guys on him and he still got the yardage anyway.”
The loss all but eliminates the Saints (3-3, 3-6) from contention for a spot in the District 3 Class 3A playoffs. They’ll have to settle for an Eastern Conference playoff berth, a postseason route they’ve never taken.
Berks Catholic qualfied for the District 3 Tournament nine of the last 10 seasons; the only time it didn’t make it was when the field was reduced in 2020 due to COVID-19 issues.
“I thought this team could win enough games to get into districts, get good enough by the end of the year to make some noise once we got in there,” Keeley said. “We played a lot of good teams this year, and we played ’em pretty good.”
Cocalico isn’t as strong as some of the other top-shelf teams the Saints lost to: Wyomissing and Pope John Paul II, both of which are unbeaten, and Lampeter-Strasburg, which has one loss. It was good enough Friday, though.
“They were better than us,” Keeley said.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Cocalico | 7 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 31 |
| Berks Catholic | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Cocalico | Steffey, 2 run (Roos kick) | 2:25 |
| 1 | Berks Catholic | Jordan 23 run (Kurtz kick) | 0:32 |
| 2 | Cocalico | Poplis, 25 FG | 6:07 |
| 2 | Berks Catholic | Kurtz, 23 FG | 0:15 |
| 3 | Cocalico | Steffey, 9 run (Roos kick) | 2:12 |
| 4 | Cocalico | Steffey, 4 run (Popolis kick) | 7:15 |
| 4 | Cocalico | Weaver, 1 run (Roos kick) | 1:17 |
Team statistics
| Cocalico | Berks Catholic | |
| First downs | 21 | 7 |
| Rushes-yards | 60-314 | 29-98 |
| Passing yards | 6 | 33 |
| Total yards | 320 | 131 |
| Passes | 1-3-1 | 2-6-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 2-0 | 2-1 |
| Punts-average | 0-0 | 4-34.2 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-55 | 7-65 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Cocalico: Steffey 42-234, Longenecker 6-36, Myer 8-32, Angstadt 1-7, Weaver 2-6.
Berks Catholic: Jordan 13-83, Garcia 4-18, Blythe 4-16, Bradley 1-(-1), Armistead 3-(-7), Hess 4-(-11).
PASSING
Cocalico: Myer 1-3-1–6.
Berks Catholic: Hess 2-6-0–33.
RECEIVING
Cocalico: Angstadt 1-6.
Berks Catholic: Geddio 1-24, Jordan 1-9.
INTERCEPTIONS
Berks Catholic: Jordan.
