A little ‘Delta’ force helps lift Panthers to Frost Bowl ‘Four-peat’
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
Brandon Pyle was so excited by Schuylkill Valley’s Frost Bowl victory Friday over Hamburg he had a momentary brain freeze when someone asked him the name of the plays that sparked the Panthers to a 31-13 victory.
| Final | |
| Sch. Valley | 31 |
| Hamburg | 13 |
“We call it ‘Delta’ when we go left,” he said of the Jet Sweep toss that he scored on early in the second half. “When we go right, we call it . . . ”
He turned to a teammate for an assist, but got no help.
“I’m sorry, I can’t think of the name of it right now,” Pyle confessed. “A lot of emotion right now.”
The senior tailback was calm when it mattered most, turning the game around with his 84-yard catch-and-run to give the Panthers (4-1, 5-3) a 21-13 lead three minutes into the second half of their Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 victory in Leesport.
It was basically a handoff from quarterback Alex Aletras, off motion from the wing. He picked up a block from Logan Cammauf on the edge, turned up field, then was nearly stripped of the ball. After a brief bobble he regained control, found the sideline and was gone, leaving Hamburg defenders in the wake of his sprinter’s burst.
“It’s nice to have that 4.3, 4.4 speed,” said Schuylkill Valley coach Bruce Harbach.
Pyle’s play was a big one, not just because he found the end zone but because it came after the Panthers blunted Hamburg’s bid to take the lead.
The Hawks (1-4, 2-6) held nothing back for this 45th annual Frost Bowl. They went for it twice on fourth down on a first-quarter drive that ended with quarterback Isaac McFadden’s 1-yard sprint around the left corner that pulled them within 7-6.
They came out of halftime down 14-13 and surprised the Panthers with an onside kick. Alexander Valentino recovered for the Hawks at the 39. Two plays later McFadden ran for a first down, to the 29.
The Hawks, missing half-a-dozen or more front-line players due to injuries, had some momentum and a chance to seize the lead.
“We were in position to win that football game,” insisted first-year coach Tyler Hartranft.
They couldn’t cash in, though. A second-down holding call pushed them back 10 yards. Then they lost starting center John Sharpe – their key offensive lineman – on the series when his ankle got rolled up on. On fourth-and-4 McFadden’s short flip was intercepted by Ervin Ortiz.
One play later Pyle was in the end zone.
“When we run that play, there’s an 85 percent chance we’re going to get (big) yards off it,” said Pyle. “Their three (linebackers) like to sit inside, and they all crash, and we just go right outside – no one’s there.”
“That was a key momentum-changer right there,” said Harbach of the defensive stop, followed immediately by Pyle’s field-flipping run.
The Panthers played without their leading rusher in last week’s oh-so-close 17-14 win over Columbia. Pyle, who got dinged up in the Berks Catholic game in Week 6, was cleared to play but Harbach held him out as a precaution. He knew he would need him for this game, and the big ones the Panthers have ahead as they try to squeeze into the district playoffs.
And the play they exploited the Hawks with?
Harbach was saving that one, too. He intentionally didn’t show it on film the last several games, hoping he could spring it on Hamburg.
“We knew we could get the perimeter on them,” said Harbach.
It came up big early in the game when Pyle – who finished with 208 yards from scrimmage –took it 60 yards to the 7 before Elijah Metzler cut him off with a touchdown-saving sideline stop. Three plays later Aletras rolled right and found Anthony Batista for a 3-yard TD and 14-6 lead.
Hamburg made it a one-point game nine seconds before the first quarter ended when McFadden, a cool freshman and probably his team’s fastest player, broke contain and sprinted around left end for a 65-yard scoring run.
The Panthers made sure that didn’t happen again. In the second half they had Cammauf, their All-State linebacker, spy him, making sure he didn’t get loose out of the pocket.
“He’s a quick kid,” Harbach said of McFadden. “We knew on third down he was going to sprint out right or keep it the other way.”
The Hawks didn’t score after intermission. They were held to just 102 second-half yards, 60 of them coming on a last-ditch drive in the final two minutes that ended with an interception in the end zone – their fourth turnover of the game.
It was an emotional game on both sides, as it always is when there’s a Frost Bowl Trophy up for grabs.
“Every time we come into the Frost Bowl we know it’s gonna be a heated game,” Pyle said.
| SECTION 5 | League | Overall | PF | PA |
| Ann.-Cleona | 5-0 | 7-1 | 216 | 136 |
| Berks Cath. | 5-0 | 6-2 | 304 | 145 |
| Sch. Valley | 4-1 | 5-3 | 216 | 192 |
| Columbia | 2-3 | 3-5 | 153 | 178 |
| Lanc. Cath. | 2-3 | 4-4 | 214 | 171 |
| Pequea Valley | 1-4 | 3-5 | 101 | 176 |
| Hamburg | 1-4 | 2-6 | 107 | 249 |
| Kutztown | 0-5 | 1-7 | 216 | 286 |
“We didn’t know if some of our guys were going to be able to go, and they toughed it out,” Hartranft said. “They played some good football tonight. I was so proud of the way our kids fought.”
When it was over and the Panthers gathered around the trophy for a picture Cammauf held up all the fingers on his right hand, save for this thumb, and barked: “Four-peat!”
Like Pyle, he was tackled by emotion at game’s end.
“I haven’t lost to Hamburg since youth, or junior high, or in four years of high school,” he said. “I mean to go four in a row, that’s pretty hard to do.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Hamburg | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Schuylkill Valley | 14 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 31 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Schuylkill Valley | Pyle, 14 run (Wamsher kick) | 8:29 |
| 1 | Hamburg | McFadden, 1 run (kick failed) | 3:14 |
| 1 | Schuylkill Valley | Batista, 3 pass from Aletras (Wamsher kick) | 1:28 |
| 1 | Hamburg | McFadden, 65 run (Moser kick) | 9.6 |
| 3 | Schuylkill Valley | Pyle, 84 pass from Aletras (Wamsher kick) | 8:55 |
| 4 | Schuylkill Valley | Wamsher, 28 FG | 5:13 |
| 4 | Schuylkill Valley | Ortiz, 25 run (Wamsher kick) | 2:15 |
Team statistics
| HAMBURG | SCH. VALLEY | |
| First downs | 14 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 32-129 | 32-155 |
| Passing yards | 166 | 249 |
| Total yards | 295 | 404 |
| Passes | 17-30-3 | 13-19-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 2-1 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 3-36.7 | 1-22.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-45 | 8-70 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Hamburg: Schmeck 20-73, McFadden 10-66, Stewart 2-(-10).
Schuylkill Valley: Pyle 13-67, Aletras 13-59, Ortiz 3-25, Cammauf 3-8.
PASSING
Hamburg: McFadden 13-21-2–122, Stewart 4-8-1–44, Team 0-1-0–0.
Schuylkill Valley: Aletras 13-19-0–249.
RECEIVING
Hamburg: Horvath 6-45, Metzler 5-56, Bentz 3-25, Strunk 2-20, Schmeck 1-20.
Schuylkill Valley: Gehret 6-86, Pyle 3-145, Ammarrell 2-13, Batista 1-3, Cammauf 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS
Schuylkill Valley: Ortiz, Gehret, Batista.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Schuylkill Valley: Wamsher 32.
