Football notes: Cougars on the rise, Saints on the bubble, Schools in the record book

It’s Week 8 and the bumps and bruises and injuries are piling up. Every team deals with it, big and small.

There have been times in the not-so-distant past when Kutztown didn’t have enough healthy bodies at this point of the season to put a team on the field.

Not this season.

The Cougars are 42 strong, same as they were two months ago when the season kicked off.

Earlier this week Kutztown played a JV game. Not a big deal for most programs. For the Cougars, it was.

Head coach Larry Chester, involved with the program for 20 years, says he can’t remember the last time they had enough players to put a JV team on the field.

Athletic director Ed Yapsuga asked around at the school; no one else can remember playing a JV football game, either.

“We had 25 kids out there (Monday),” Chester said proudly. “I don’t think we’ve had over 40 kids (on the entire roster) but once or twice (in the last 20 years). It’s happeningly, it’s slowly happening.”

Chester was the Cougars’ head coach from 2002-2007. Things were different in that era. They even had a winning season, going 6-4 in 2004.

Interest in the program waned following that. The team went winless six times in a seven-year span from 2013-19. If not for a joint sponsorship program with Brandywine Heights there would be no program; the Cougars could not have fielded a team with just players from Kutztown the past several years.

Chester has breathed life back into the program. The switch to Section 5 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, where the Cougars now compete with like programs, has been a saving grace. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel.

Last week Kutztown beat Northern Lebanon 34-28. It was the Cougars’ first league win since 2009, if you can believe that. They had lost 70 in a row.

They don’t figure to be looking at any streaks like that in the coming years.

“Larry and his staff have done a great job promoting the program and recruiting and retaining kids,” Yapsuga said. “With only two seniors on the roster we are looking to have an even bigger roster next year.”

Yapsuga may have to order more uniforms.

Last week’s win over Northern Lebanon was no wild upset. The Cougars now have some good football players. They were in control of that game from the beginning, led 27-7 after three quarters and 34-14 in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a powerful thing to believe in kids, and have them know it,” said Chester, “they start believing in themselves. (When that happens) a lot of things can happen on the positive side.”

In Week 6, against a playoff-bound Annville-Cleona team, they were tied 21-21 at the half.

They could win a couple more games this season.

“To be able to parade out 25 kids (for the JV game) . . . that’s something that we’re just not used to,” Chester said, “but that’s where we are now.”

You call this downsizing?

Berks Catholic removed powerhouse programs Malvern Prep, Central Dauphin and McDonough (of Baltimore) from its schedule, thinking it would lighten the load. The Saints no longer have a roster dotted with Division I athletes such as Brandon George or Isaac and Cooper Lutz as they did a few years ago when they were winning district championships.

The result?

The Saints are fighting to avoid their first losing season.

“I thought we’d be fine (this season) and here we’re sitting 2-5,” said long-time coach Rick Keeley. “It’s a surprise to me.”

The brutal schedule has a lot to do with that.

Pope John Paul II, picked up to replace Malvern, is 7-0 and ranked No. 7 in the state in Class 4A. Loyalsock, picked up to replace Central Dauphin, is 6-1 and ranked No. 5 in the state in Class 3A.

Lampeter-Strasburg, now a rival in Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, is 6-1 and ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 4A.

And “Backyard Brawl” neighbor Wyomissing is unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 3A.

So much for downsizing.

Berks Catholic’s strength-of-schedule rating is .623, incredible for a Class 3A team. Only one other school in District 3 below Class 6A has a higher figure (Daniel Boone, at .701).

“We’re a pretty good football team and we’re sitting 2-5,” Keeley said.

All is not lost. The Saints are currently No. 7 in the Class 3A power ratings; the top six qualify. If they win out — against Octorara (1-6), Cocalico (3-4) and Elco (4-3) — they might be able to squeeze into the tournament.

If they end up No. 6 and on the opposite side of the bracket from Wyomissing they’ll have a chance to win some games. Maybe even reach the title game and get a rematch against the Spartans — a team they led at halftime.

“If we get into the playoffs, there’s really only one team there that should beat us,” Keeley said. “There’s a couple that can beat us, I’m sure. Wyo’s the monster we’d have to face. The other teams in Triple-A? Hey, we’ll line up and play and see what happens.”

Oh, and Central Dauphin? The Rams are 2-5, on the way to a rare losing season.

Long-distance call

When his placekicker missed three PATs in a 48-7 season-opening over Wilson in 2020 Gov. Mifflin coach Jeff Lang went to his backup.

“That was it,” Lang said. “Schools took over.”

Jackson Schools took the ball and ran with it, so to speak.

He’s been the Mustangs’ placekicker for three seasons and steady as a rock on PATs. He hasn’t had many chances to kick field goals.

With Nick Singleton in the backfield the past several years Mifflin was thinking six points, not three.

With time running down in the first half last week at Conestoga Valley and the ball at the 34 Lang gave Schools a chance. He came through, his 51-yard field goal setting a program record.

It was just the fifth of 50 yards or longer in Berks history.

“For a team that never goes for field goals, that’s pretty impressive,” Lang said.

Lang was more than confident Schools could hit from that distance; he had made a 52-yarder in practice the day before.

Schools was an all-division lacrosse pick as a junior; he plans to play at Hood College. He also wrestles for the Mustangs.

The field goal was just the fourth for Schools, who has been kicking for the Mustangs since his freshman season. It topped the Mifflin record of 45 yards, by Brandon Snyder in 2008.

Schools’ kick tied Kutztown’s Max Randolph for fourth-longest in Berks history. Darin Tranquillo of Schuylkill Valley set the record with a 57-yard kick in 1998. Jonah Bowman of Wyomissing set the PIAA playoff record with a 52-yard kick in the 2012 Class AA championship game.

According to Jeff Reinhart of lancasteronline.com, Schools’ kick is tied for second-longest in Lancaster-Lebanon League history. The record is owned by Annville-Cleona’s Mac Plummer, at 54 yards, in 2019.