Four Downs: Four big takes from Week 10
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
1ST DOWN
(Chris Knight/LNP photo)
A few days before facing unbeaten Manheim Township, Wilson coach Doug Dahms thought he was looking at a potential state finalist.
He felt just as strongly about that after a 49-34 loss Friday night to the Blue Streaks.
“They’re the real deal,” he said after quarterback Hayden Johnson and his teammates played flawlessly. “That’s a good football team. I don’t know who’s gonna beat ’em.”
Township is a strong favorite to win the District 3 Class 6A championship and should make it to the PIAA final. It’ll run into perennial powerhouse St. Joseph’s Prep at that point.
Johnson may be the best quarterback in Township history; he has a mastery of the offense, makes fast reads, gets the ball out quickly and is a threat with his feet.
He’s got a hard-running back in Declan Clancy, top-shelf receivers and a swift defense that sets him up in prime scoring position.
2ND DOWN
It’s easy to take Wyomissing’s success for granted. The Spartans crank out 10- and 12-win seasons with such regularity it has come to be expected.
(Tim Macrina photo)
They wrapped up a 9-1 regular season Friday by building an 18-point lead on the road against the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s No. 1 defense, Lampeter-Strasburg.
Wyomissing has gone 44-1 in the regular season over the past five seasons.
Let that sink in for a moment. (It would have been 49-1 had COVID not cut the 2020 season in half.)
It has gone 19-1 in Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League – the most competitive of the five sections – even though by enrollment it should have been playing in Section 5.
Over the past five seasons the Spartans have gone 58-5 overall, with four of those losses after Thanksgiving.
3RD DOWN
A berth in the Eastern Conference will give Hamburg’s Tyler Shuey a shot at the Berks passing record, though it’ll take a monster effort.
The junior will need to throw for 404 yards to top Jon Monteiro’s Berks record of 2,669 passing yards, set while slinging the football around for Daniel Boone in 2008.
The game against the Saints figures to be a shootout, so anything’s possible.
Shuey just missed topping Monteiro’s record for passing yards in the regular season; he has 2,566, just 9 shy of the record.
Shuey passed for a season-low 147 yards Friday in a win over Columbia. He topped 300 yards in each of his first three games.
4TH DOWN
Not much has changed in the last 12 months.
Take a look at the District 3 playoff brackets and it appears five of the six 2022 champions will repeat: Cocalico in 5A, Bishop McDevitt in 4A, Wyomissing in 3A, Trinity in 2A and Steel-High in 1A. McDevitt, Wyomissing and Steel-High enter the tournament as No. 1 seeds.
Township’s Lex Haberbosch. (Joe Mays photo)
The lone exception is Class 6A, where Manheim Township appears head-and-shoulders above the crowd.
The Blue Steaks beat No. 2 Harrisburg, No. 4 Cumberland Valley, No. 5 Wilson, and No. 7 Cedar Crest by a combined 118 point – nearly 30 points per game.
Cocalico is the No. 3 seed but playing great football. McDevitt and Steel-High are each unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the state in their respective classes.
Wyomissing is ranked No. 2 in the state in 3A; it’s lone loss is to Cocalico.
There’s a chance none of the six championship games will be close: That’s how dominant the top teams are.
