Four Downs: Four big takeaways from Week 5 in Berks football

Four takeaways from Week 5 of the high school football season:

1. Have the Raiders arrived?

Twin Valley has eight seniors on its roster and a freshman quarterback in its starting lineup. Not a tried-and-true formula for success.

No matter, the Raiders are making it work, reaching 4-1 with a breakthrough double-overtime win vs. Conrad Weiser Friday.

It’s the program’s biggest victory since it beat Wyomissing 34-14 to clinch a tie for the Berks 2 title in the 2007 regular season finale.

Was quarterback Evan Myers even born at that point?

Twin Valley has never qualified for the District 3 Tournament. Right now the Raiders are positioned to not only make the Class 5A field but host a first-round game.

That deserves a wow.

2. What Nick Singleton’s doing is ridiculous, right?

How many touchdowns could Nick Singleton score if Gov. Mifflin was actually pushed in game? Seven? Eight?

It appears the only thing that can keep this guy out of the end zone is the mercy rule, which cuts minutes off the clock and usually signals it’s time for the starters to take a seat.

Singleton took the opening kickoff back for his first of six first-half touchdowns Friday against Episcopal Academy, which was 3-0 and plays in the Inter-Ac League, a private-school league that is a step up from most competition around the state.

Singleton has 22 TDs in five games. He’s averaging more than a touchdown per quarter. If he averages three TDs per game — that’s a conservative estimate — over a 15-game season that’s 45. The Berks record is 39. He’ll have that before the postseason starts, COVID-willing.

That’s the X Factor in all of this, COVID. Right now the Mustangs’ Week 6 game against Reading High is in jeopardy, after the Reading program was shut down last week. If Reading’s not available who’s willing to step up?

3. Where does Wilson go from here?

After a 24-21 loss to Manheim Central the Bulldogs have a losing record at midseason for the first time in 20 years, when they lost three in a row (to Whitehall, Cedar Crest and McCaskey) to fall to 2-3.

That was 2001. The quarterback at the time was a sophomore by the name of Chad Henne; you may have heard of him.

All is not lost in West Lawn. Play opens in the Lancaster-Lebanon League this week. None of the other teams in Section 1 have distinguished themselves, either.

The Bulldogs could still win the section and could still make the District 3 Class 6A field (though their chances of hosting a first-round game appear pretty slim right now).

Before they look at the big picture they’ve got to look at the small one, directly in front of them, and realize they need to get their own house in order first before thinking about Manheim Township or Hempfield or even Penn Manor, which they play Friday.

Head coach Doug Dahms basically threw down the gauntlet after Friday’s loss: It’s all on the players, he said. He suggested it was time for a little soul-searching.

4. The Game of the Year is finally here

It’s coming a year later than we might have hoped for but Wyomissing’s game at Southern Columbia Friday night is one of the most-anticipated match-ups in the state this year.

Southern won (another) Class 2A state title last year; Wyomissing played for the 3A title. Neither team is quite as strong as a year ago but they’re both unbeaten and again ranked at or near the top of their respective classifications.

As interesting as the on-field match-up will be the one on the sidelines will be historic.

Jim Roth of Southern Columbia is the winningest football coach in Pennsylvania history, with 461 victories. Bob Wolfrum of Wyomissing ranks ninth among the state’s all-time winningest coaches (he passed C.B. West’s Mike Pettine Friday).

Between them they have won 788 games and 12 state titles. (Roth has a record 11.)

The teams were supposed to play at Wyomissing last season but that game became a COVID casualty.