Four Downs: Four big takeaways from Week 1 in Berks football
Four takeaways from Week 1 of the high school football season:
1. Nick Singleton just keeps getting better, doesn’t he?
The Gov. Mifflin senior simply shredded a York High team coming off a District 3 Class 6A championship-game appearance, rushing for five touchdowns and a career-high 281 yards.
He scored on runs of 8, 8, 50, 32 and 70 yards against a team that came into the season with pretty high expectations.
Hard to fathom, but he’s even stronger and faster than last season, when he recorded his third straight 1,000-yard season. No wonder Nick Saban rolled out the red carpet for him.
The Penn State recruit now has 4,548 rushing yards, just 230 short of the Berks record.
Singleton has scored 77 touchdowns, two short of the Berks record.
The 281 yards, by the way, is the most ever for a Mifflin running back in a regular season game.
The program record, 352 yards, was accomplished in a district playoff game, by Dustin Manz against Conestoga Valley in 2006.
2. The best backs don’t all play for the best teams
You don’t hear much about Hamburg’s Diohnny Ruiz, Kutztown’s Lennon Neiman or Muhlenberg’s Aaron Shuker because their teams don’t make the playoffs much.
They’re all good ballplayers, and they can run. Really, really fast.
Ruiz had three touchdowns and averaged 26 yards every time he touched the ball from scrimmage in the Hawks’ 47-20 rout at York Vo-Tech. He’s a true make-’em’-miss back.
Neiman averaged nearly 10 yards a carry, going for 178 yards in a 27-14 win over Shenandoah Valley. He also had one catch for 29 yards.
Shuker returned a kickoff 91 yards for a score and broke off a 64-yard TD run in the Muhls’ opener at Ephrata. He would be the feature back on almost every team in the league.
3. Off to a flying start
It’s always great to win your first game, and eight Berks teams did that, including Kutztown, Boyertown Hamburg and Twin Valley — none of which are coming off winning seasons. (Perennial playoff contenders Berks Catholic, Gov. Mifflin, Wilson and Wyomissing also won.)
Week 1 wins are great but you’re never sure how much they mean until you play a few games, and the team you beat plays a few.
Week 1 losses are no fun but they can have value and can shape your path.
No one in that Exeter locker room wants to hear about moral victories after that stinging 35-28 loss to Central York but the Eagles can come out that with plenty of positives. They chased around the best quarterback in the state and nearly took him down.
There will be a bunch of teams in the playoffs come November that lost this weekend. We’ll start the list with Conrad Weiser and Exeter.
4. Time to get excited for the Gurski-Linn Trophy Game
It seemed more fun when Gov. Mifflin and Wilson met in the season-opener. There were weeks and weeks of buildup for Berks football’s answer to the Daytona 500.
The rivalry game was pushed back to Week 2 a few years ago, when the PIAA started messing around with schedules and invented Week Zero. Life hasn’t been the same since.
Next year, when Mifflin and the other Berks teams join the Lancaster-Lebanon League, the Mustangs and Bulldogs will play in Week 6, which will take a little luster off the game. It will get lost in the weeds, to a degree.
The 64th meeting between the long-time rivals should be a good one. The state-ranked Mustangs will be favored but the Bulldogs will have plenty of incentive after getting spanked 48-7 last year in Shillington.
