Four Downs: Four big takeaways from Week 10 in Berks football

Four takeaways from Week 10 of the 2021 high school football season:

FIRST DOWN: Call this the year of the receiver

Conrad Weiser’s Aanjay Feliciano and Twin Valley’s Trey Freeman have been doing a Mantle & Maris kind of thing this season, chasing each other up the record chart.

With Freeman having another big game Saturday night at Gettysburg they became the first pair of Berks receivers to top 1,000 yards in the same season. Feliciano leads Berks with 1,075 yards; Freeman is next at 1,071.

Feliciano is 188 yards short of Zach Keeley’s Berks single-season record (1,263), set in 2008 with Daniel Boone; Freeman is 192 away. Each get a Week 11 game in the district playoffs and another if they win.

Freeman, a four-year starter, broke the all-time Berks mark Saturday and now has 2,217 yards. Feliciano, a three-year starter, is No. 8 all-time in Berks at 1,881.

SECOND DOWN: Are you ready for some (more) football?

The second season starts Friday and 12 of 15 Berks schools have made it to the postseason.

A record-tying nine made the District 3 field, led by No. 1 seeds Gov. Mifflin (5A) and Wyomissing (3A).

Three others — Boyertown, Fleetwood and Schuylkill Valley — have made the Eastern Conference championship games. That’s sort of an NIT deal but still rewarding for the players and coaches involved.

THIRD DOWN: Home sweet home

There’s no place better on a Saturday afternoon than the A-Field and it figures to get plenty of use over the next month. Wyomissing has earned the No. 1 seed in the District 3 Class 3A playoffs and home-field advantage throughout the three-round tournament.

The Spartans figure on taking advantage of it, and then some. If they win their third straight district championship they’ll host a PIAA quarterfinal Nov. 27.

The Spartans have won 17 straight games on their home field, dating to 2018. Seniors and three-year starters Nevin Carter, Tommy Grabowski, Aiden Mack and Amory Thompson have never lost there.

FOURTH DOWN: A new role for the Bulldogs

Wilson is usually the favorite from the get-go, and the Bulldogs play that role well. Turns out they’re pretty good underdogs, too.

After a tough start that saw them lose three of their first five games and get physically wrecked in the process their season was in jeopardy. They turned inward, did some soul-searching then set out to prove people wrong.

Well, they did that with five straight wins to end the regular season, including one-possession wins over Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 rivals Hempfield and Manheim Township. They took pride in proving the doubters wrong following their 21-14 win over the Blue Streaks.

By the way, they’re working on a new L-L streak: 14 straight league wins.