Red Knights can’t mount offense in loss to Emmaus
2024 Berks football coverage
presented by UECU
By Mike Hennelly — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
EMMAUS — Reading High was limited to just 97 total yards in a 38-7 non-league loss to Emmaus Friday night.
The Red Knights’ defense allowed 307 total yards, including 232 yards on the ground. Javier Santos and Reilly Bechtel led Emmaus’ offense with a combined 153 yards on the ground with each scoring a rushing touchdown in the first half.
Emmaus (2-1) took an early lead on its first drive after a 32-yard field goal by William Buck.
The Red Knights (1-2) allowed five unanswered touchdowns, three rushing and two passing, through the midway point of the third quarter with the final one coming off a 15-yard run by Neo Michel to put Emmaus up 38-0. The mercy rule came into effect for the remainder of the game.
Red Knights’ senior quarterback Kayson Fritz completed just four passes on 13 attempts for 35 yards. Fritz threw two interceptions with the second leading to an Emmaus touchdown at the end of the first quarter to make it 17-0.
“I think we’ll be able to clean it up,” Red Knights coach Troy Godinet said. “We just have to go back to work. It’s just like we talk about a lot, it’s the little things. The little things were off tonight. We weren’t taking care of the little things, and it resulted in a big loss.”
Fritz scored the lone touchdown for the Red Knights on a 2-yard touchdown run with 3:23 left in the third quarter to make it 38-7.
Alexis Alvarado finished with 60 yards on 15 carries for Reading.
“I think we were just not prepared,” Red Knights’ lineman Bryant DelCarmen said about the team’s preparation and energy. “We didn’t practice the right way. We were doing things wrong and it translates into the game. We were being lazy.”
Reading was simply outplayed by Emmaus in all aspects. After putting up 403 total yards in last week’s 34-20 win over Muhlenberg the Red Knights couldn’t sustain many drives. The Red Knights were forced to punt eight times and recorded only six first downs.
The Red Knights finished with a 1-9 record in 2023.
“We have to continue to be positive, loving, encouraging and loving tough,” Godinet said. “We have to get back to the things we were doing and being successful. We have to continue to grind and work and not be complacent. We’re trying to build the program here, and we have to continue to do that.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Reading | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Emmaus | 17 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 38 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Emmaus | Buck, 32 FG | 7:36 |
| 1 | Emmaus | Jefferson-Rushing, 15 pass from Cooper (Buck kick) | 4:32 |
| 1 | Emmaus | Bechtel, 9 run (Buck kick) | 1:03 |
| 2 | Emmaus | Santos, 36 run (Buck kick) | 6:07 |
| 3 | Emmaus | Duggan, 27 pass from Cooper (Buck kick) | 11:42 |
| 3 | Emmaus | Michel, 15 run (Buck kick) | 7:54 |
| 3 | Reading | Fritz, 2 run (Guzman kick) | 3:23 |
Team statistics
| READING | EMMAUS | |
| First downs | 6 | 15 |
| Rushes-yards | 34-56 | 35-232 |
| Passing yards | 41 | 75 |
| Total yards | 97 | 307 |
| Passes | 5-14-2 | 4-12-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 2-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 8-40.3 | 4-36.8 |
| Penalties-yards | 8-62 | 5-50 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Reading: Alvarado 15-60, Bonilla 3-16, Boston 1-2, Laws 2-1, Beatty 1-(-4), Fritz 9-(-5), Plylaharn 2-(-5), Team 1-(-9).
Emmaus: Santos 6-81, Bechtel 9-72, Michel 4-37, Cooper 8-31, Torres 4-14, Sherman 1-3, Issler 3-(-6).
PASSING
Reading: Fritz 4-13-2–35, Plylaharn 1-1-0–6.
Emmaus: Cooper 4-11-0–75, Sherman 0-1-0–0.
RECEIVING
Reading: Camara 3-26, Laws 1-9, Malave 1-6.
Emmaus: Duggan 2-22, Moreau 1-38, Jefferson-Rushing 1-15.
INTERCEPTIONS
Emmaus: Daves, Stephens.
