66 was a winning number for the Tigers
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Two free throws by Mason Musitano in the final minute of Fleetwood’s 66-25 victory over Kutztown Friday night may have seemed like so much window dressing, but to the Tigers those points were meaningful.
Finishing with 66 points seemed like a perfect tribute to their friend and classmate, Ben Miller, who died in a one-car accident the day before on his way to school. Ben wore No. 66 in the sport he lived to play, football.
With a few minutes left in the basketball game and the Tigers sitting at 62 points, Musitano and Hunter Svoboda, life-long football teammates of Ben, thought it would be special if they could end the game with 66 points.
The Tigers held the ball, worked the clock down and made sure to end the game on Ben’s favorite number.
“It was really a healing moment for our players,” said Tigers basketball coach Terry Sitler. “It’s about more than basketball. Our fans and players understood what it was about and were excited about it. It was a very emotional moment for us.”
Words can’t express the pain that’s inflicted when a young person loses his or her life in such a fashion. Death is never easy to accept, no matter how many times you have encountered it. For teen-agers it’s impossible to fathom that the 18-year-old you were sitting in class with yesterday, cracking jokes with, is gone suddenly forever.
Understandably, the Fleetwood community is devastated by Ben’s passing, none more than the guys who spent so much time with him on the field.
“He left an indelible mark on the field and in our hearts,” Musitano wrote on his Twitter account.
“Ben was so loved by so many people,” Svoboda wrote on his social media account. “He was a great teammate and an even better friend.”
Ben was a three-year starter on the defensive line for the Tigers. At 5-9 he was small for a lineman, for sure. But he more than made up for that with his ferocity on the field and his passion for the game.
“Tenacious,” said Fleetwood football coach Steve Pangburn. “That’s one word to describe him. He was undersized for the position but that really didn’t matter. He just played with a relentless motor. Football was this kid’s life. This is what he did.”
Ben was a big part of the Tigers’ winning season, and their victory over Shamokin in the season-ending Eastern Conference championship game. With other players injured he was moved to H-back for the final three games. The Tigers won each of them.
A 40-point win over a struggling division rival won’t be the highlight of the season for a talented Tigers basketball team with playoff ambitions. Still, when the season’s over – and years from now, too – the players will probably look back and remember seeing 66 on the scoreboard more than any other score.
“It was very emotional at the end of the game,” Sitler said. “This supersedes basketball.”
“The world lost a great kid,” Fleetwood quarterback Jack Riffle wrote on Twitter. “He was the kid who made sure no one would get to me, and for that I’ll be forever in debt. Ben was caring, protective, and did anything to make those around him laugh and smile. I knew when 66 was on the field with me things would be more than fine.”
