Season Preview: Hamburg Hawks
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Hamburg Hawks
Classification: Class 3A.
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5.
Schedule: Click here.
Last season: 5-2 league, 9-3 overall.
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2022.
Head coach: Matt Hoffert, second season, 9-3.
Key losses: QB Xander Menapace, Defensive Lineman of the Year and all-league OT Charles Sheppard, all-league RB & LB Pierce Mason, all-league CB Derek Ruiz, all-league OL Evan Snyder.
Top offensive players: QB/RB Ty Shuey, QB/WR Ethan Horvath, RB Aidan Readinger, RB Leland Moore, all-league WR & KR Cohen Correll, all-league WR Alex Bentz, all-league TE Mason Semmel, all-league C Bryce Kamp, G Owen Hause, G Cayden Mason, T John Sharpe, T Chris Brown, all-league PK Eli Blatt.
Top defensive players: E Owen Hause, E Cayden Mason, E Will Marchiano, T Bryce Kamp, T Chris Brown, LB Mason Semmel, LB Tyler Shuey, LB Leland Moore, LB Aidan Readinger, LB Logan Monroe, S Cohen Correll, S Daniel Brady, S Ty Werley, S Madden Brandstatter, CB Ethan Horvath, CB Aaron Villafane, CB Alex Bentz, CB Misael Oviedo, P Ricky Clark.
Did you know? The Hawks set program records last season by scoring 507 points and averaging 42.2 points per game. They set a single-game scoring mark with 75 points against Warrior Run.
For the record: Pierce Mason, in his only season as a starting RB, matched or set program records for touchdowns in a game (5) and season (25), rushing yards in a game (292) and season (1,367), and rushing TDs in a game (5) and season (23).
Quotable: ” I like what we accomplished overall as a team (last season) but I didn’t like the way we went out. It’s never good to lose your last game, ever. It was like a learning curve for us.” – Senior wide receiver/safety Cohen Correll.
Outlook: A breakthrough victory in the District 3 Tournament last season only served to whet the appetite for football around Hamburg.
The Hawks don’t seem content with their 9-3 finish, the best in nearly 40 years. They want more, as evidenced by their crowded weight room in the offseason where a record number of players regularly lifted.
“The expectations are higher now,” said former Hawks lineman Matt Hoffert, coming off the most successful debut of any coach in program history.
The Hawks were a couple plays – and a couple of questionable calls on late fumbles – away from a share of the Section 5 championship last season in their first tour of the Lancaster-Lebanon League. They lost on a late field goal at Lancaster Catholic, which went on to complete a perfect run through the section.
The Hawks are capable of challenging again, though they’ll have to do it with a mostly new and much younger cast after graduating top-shelf talent such as Xander Menapace, Pierce Mason and Charles Sheppard.
Hoffert could be starting several sophomores on the offensive line, in the defensive backfield and maybe even one at QB but he’s confident they rise to the challenge.
Junior Tyler Shuey and sophomore Ethan Horvath entered camp battling for the QB job. With Menapace around neither got much work last season; they combined for one completion.
Whoever wins the job will have excellent targets in TE Mason Semmel, WR Cohen Correll and WR Ty Werley – the team’s top three receivers a season ago.
Semmel is 6-3 and drawing Division I interest. Correll had a team-best 39 catches, then went out and tacked on 40 pounds in the offseason; he’ll be tough to bring down after the catch. Werley had 35 receptions.
Despite the loss of the record-setting Mason the Hawks could be as good in the backfield, what with the return from injury of junior Aiden Readinger and junior Leland Moore.
Readinger is even faster than Mason, a true breakaway threat last season, and had the inside track on the job before an injury in the preseason scrimmage ended his season. Moore got a start against Northern Lebanon when Mason was hurt and responded with 232 yards and two TDs on a program-record 37 carries.
The Hawks spent the offseason learning a new defensive system, the 3-5 Stack. If they adapt to it quickly they could contend with the teams that were at the top last season: Lancaster Catholic, Schuylkill Valley and Annville-Cleona.
Semmel and Correll will be keys to the new defensive look. Semmel will sit in the middle and chase down ballcarriers. Correll will play safety and roll up often to play the run; his added bulk will give the Hawks some oomph on ‘D.’
For most of their history the Hawks have struggled to get to .500 and then stay there. Playoff appearances have been rare. They’ve turned the page and are coming off back-to-back seasons with district playoff victories – a first for the program. Hoffert and his players expect that to be the new normal.
“We were at nine wins last year,” Hoffert said. “I tell them that’s not good enough; we’ve got to be better.”
On schedule: The Frost Bowl, traditionally played on the final week of the regular season, will again be played in Week 8, Oct. 13, at Leesport. The Hawks lead the series 24-23-1 after Schuylkill Valley’s 41-34 win last year.
At the wire: Darkhorse pick in a top-heavy section that has Schuylkill Valley and Lancaster Catholic leading the way.
