Week 9 glance: Fleetwood enjoying the late-season football spotlight for a change (updated)

It’s not often Fleetwood is involved in a big football game this late in the season. In their first 20 seasons the Tigers have made just one District 3 playoff appearance and have known only three winning seasons.

After three straight wins they’re in the thick of the playoff chase as they face Upper Dauphin Friday in a non-league game at Tiger Stadium.

“It’s where we wanted to be,” said second-year head coach Steve Beatty. “The kids are excited; they’ve earned (this chance). We’re gonna do what we can to finish it out.”

The biggest game on the Berks Week 9 slate involves Wilson (3-0, 5-3) and Hempfield (2-1, 5-3) in a battle for first place in Section 1 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League; that’s the GoBigRecruiting.com Game of the Week.

Nothing quite so exciting is going on in Sections 1 or 2 of the Berks Football League; the big ones there come in Week 10, when Gov. Mifflin and Wyomissing, respectively, try to finish off their title runs.

For Friday, the Section 1 games include: Berks Catholic (2-1, 5-3) at Muhlenberg (0-3, 0-8) and Reading High (0-2, 1-5) at Exeter (2-1, 5-3).

Daniel Boone (2-1, 5-3) was forced to cancel it game at Gov. Mifflin (2-0, 7-0) due to a COVID situation; this is the third time this season a Mifflin opponent has withdrawn.

The Section 2 slate has been truncated, what with Hamburg canceling its game against Twin Valley due to COVID issues. That leaves Kutzown (0-4, 2-6) playing at Conrad Weiser (3-1, 6-2) Friday and Schuylkill Valley (1-3, 2-6) playing at Wyomissing (4-0, 8-0) Saturday.

Twin Valley (5-3) was able to secure a game against independent Executive Education Charter Academy; they’ll play Friday at Twin Valley Stadium.

Also Friday, Boyertown (1-2, 3-5) wraps up its PAC Liberty schedule against Norristown (0-3, 0-8).

The section races will likely not be affected by this weekend’s games but district seeding will. Eleven Berks teams enter the weekend in position to qualify for the District 3 playoffs, and Boyertown is in position to make the Eastern Conference field.

Wilson in Class 6A, Daniel Boone and Twin Valley in 5A and Schuylkill Valley in 3A are all on, or near, the bubble; a loss could seriously deflate their playoff chances.

The same goes for Fleetwood, which is 12th in Class 5A, where the top 14 qualify. The Tigers close against Kutztown but it could take two more wins to crack the playoffs. That, and the quality of their opponent, make Friday’s game intriguing.

Upper Dauphin is 6-1, has won five straight and is ranked No. 3 in the Class 2A field. The Trojans have faced mostly smaller schools and a fairly week schedule overall but they’re disciplined and well-coached and that has Beatty’s attention.

So does their Wing-T offense, which they run with precision.

“Everything they do, they do well,” Beatty said. “They do all the Wing-T stuff — the Jet, counter, option — and they are quick. That’s the type of team that gives us trouble. They’re gonna be a handful. We’re gonna have to play disciplined football.”

The Tigers were 2-3 at midseason but it wasn’t as bad as it looked, Beatty tried to remind his players. They had back-to-back losses to playoff-caliber opponents, Conrad Weiser and Wyomissing.

“Those two losses made us look like lesser of a team than we are,” he said. “To be honest, (after that) they were looking forward to getting on with the rest of the season. We felt we could compete with everyone else on the schedule.

“We wanted to string a few (wins) together. You know, once they won a game or two they got that confidence.”

The season-shifter came in Week 6 against a Twin Valley team riding high after an overtime victory against Conrad Weiser. The Tigers put together their best effort, played well defensively and won 26-9.

They followed with a 43-27 win at Schuylkill Valley and a 28-26 win over Hamburg.

“We’ve won three games three different ways,” Beatty said. “It was a total team effort with Twin Valley. Against Schuylkill Valley we started slow, they got all over us, then we found a way. Last week, it was an old school slobber-knocker. We were knocking each other all around; it was just a fight the whole way. We’re finding ways to get it done.”

The Tigers’ only district appearance came in 2019 when current seniors Tanner Maddocks — then a wide receiver, now the quarterback — Gage Moyer, Will Ryan, Joey Svoboda and Gavin Morris were sophomores.