Football Notebook: Home cooking, hanging 10, amazing turnaround, and more
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
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Did an early season trip to Delaware cost Manheim Central home field advantage for its District 3 Class 4A semifinal Friday against Twin Valley?
Probably.
The Barons beat Smyrna, De., 37-36 in Week 2, but the game didn’t count for their playoff power rating because only games against PIAA opponents are counted.
Manheim Central finished No. 3 in the Class 4A power rankings at .7539. Twin Valley was one notch higher at .7541.
That’s a minute separation. Had one of Manheim Central’s opponents won one more game or had one of Twin Valley’s opponents lost one more game, Friday’s game would be played at Rettew Field, not Twin Valley Stadium.
“When you’re that close, you kind of wonder (what the difference was),” said Barons coach Dave Hahn. “When we beat Exeter (in the regular season finale), I thought that would’ve been enough to move us up (past Twin Valley).”
Manheim Central’s non-league opponents – West Chester East, Cocalico and Susquehannock – went a combined 19-11.
Twin Valley’s non-league opponents – Schuylkill Valley, Lower Dauphin, Conrad Weiser and Hatboro-Horsham – went a combined 21-19.
Advantage, Barons.
However, Manheim was hurt by its Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 schedule. It’s section rivals went a combined 25-35.
Twin Valley’s Section 3 rivals went a combined 28-31.
Advantage, Raiders.
The two bottom teams in Section 2, Muhlenberg and Lebanon, combined for one win. The two lowest-finishing teams in Section 3, Elizabethtown and Daniel Boone, combined for three wins.
Advantage -and a very slight one — Raiders.
“It’s a really good thing to be able to play them at home, which our boys earned,” said Twin Valley coach Brett Myers. “It’s nice for our fans; they get another Friday night where they can just come up on top of the hill and watch us play.”
Hahn said his program has needed to find out-of-state competition in recent years because Pennsylvania opponents aren’t lining up to play the 18-time district champion Barons.
He’s not too broken up about the trip to Elverson.
“We just roll with it,” he said. “Obviously you want to play at home. The main thing is you’re in and you have an opportunity to play.”
Spartans going for more history
A win Saturday over West Perry will give Wyomissing the best three-year record in the history of Berks football.
The Spartans have gone 38-3 over the past three seasons.
Wilson compiled the best three-year run in Berks history, going 39-4 from 2012-14.
Wyomissing needs four more wins to top Wilson (51-6) for the best four-year record in Berks history. The Spartans are 47-4.
To get four more wins they would need to win the PIAA Class 3A championship.
This is Wyomissing’s third straight 10-win season, something only three other Berks programs have accomplished.
Wilson has the record with nine straight 10-win seasons, from 2008-16. The Bulldogs also have the most 10-win seasons, 24.
Berks Catholic won 10 or more six straight seasons, from 2013-18.
Gov. Mifflin also won 10 or more three straight seasons, from 2006-08.
The Spartans previously had 10-plus wins in three consecutive seasons, from 1989-91.
Until the early 1990s many teams played an 11-game regular season schedule. The expanded district playoffs caused teams to cut back to 10.
Prior to the district playoff era, which started in 1982, it was more difficult to win 10 games in a season.
Wyomissing has won 10 or more games 18 times.
Coulda been a contender
A rough non-league schedule that included state-ranked Loyalsock and Pope John Paul II, coupled with rugged Section 4 games against state-ranked Wyomissing, Cocalico and Lampeter-Strasburg led to Berks Catholic finishing with a losing record and out of the six-team District 3 Class 3A field.
The Saints probably deserved better.
According to the Born Power Index, Berks Catholic is the third-best Class 3A team in the district, ahead of qualifiers Lancaster Catholic, Schuylkill Valley and Littlestown.
The Saints would have been nearly a touchdown favorite against the Crusaders, Panthers or Thunderbolts, according to the Born rankings.
Wyomissing is a 20-point favorite over West Perry in Saturday’s championship game, according to the Born ratings.
Amazing turnaround
The story of the year in the Lancaster-Lebanon League has to be the Ephrata Mountaineers, who just a few years after snapping the longest active losing streak in Pennsylvania find themselves one game way from playing for a District 3 championship.
They beat Lower Dauphin 14-13 in the opening round of the Class 5A Tournament, their first playoff appearance since 1987.
Now, after a 31-10 win over No. 4 Garden Spot, the Mounts are 10-1 as they get set to host Hershey Friday in a Class 5A semifinal. Ephrata’s only loss came at Garden Spot, 42-22, in Section 3 play.
“It was some dire straits to get that first win,” Mounts coach Kris Miller told Jeff Reinhart of lancasteronline.com of the win over Northern Lebanon in 2018 that snapped a 52-game losing streak.
“And the last few years we were 5-5, 6-4,” Miller said. “So we knew this was the year we had to get over that hump.
“I don’t think I could have even written anything that put us in this situation right now.”
The Mounts are the No. 5 seed; they get the home game after No. 8 Hershey knocked off No. 1 New Oxford.
Miller, who endured winless seasons his first two seasons on the job, in 2016 and 2017, has found the winning formula at Ephrata. He’ll be at the top of the list for Coach of the Year candidates, along with Twin Valley’s Brett Myers and Cocalico’s Bryan Strohl.
Section 5 smackdown
Annville-Cleona, Lancaster Catholic and Schuylkill Valley each enjoyed big seasons on the way sharing the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 title.
The second season was a different season, for sure, as they got smacked around and sent packing pretty quickly.
Schuylkill Valley was the only team of the three to win a district game, beating Littlestown 45-21.
The top-seeded Dutchmen were taken out by Camp Hill in a Class 2A semifinal 35-14. The second-seeded Crusaders were swamped by West Perry 49-29 in a 3A semifinal, the same round that saw the Panthers lose at Wyomissing 48-0.