Garden Spot’s Kye Harting too much for Fleetwood
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Chris DeAntonio — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
After falling behind by 20 points in the first quarter, Fleetwood had a chance to make it a one-score game on its first drive of the second half. The Tigers moved the ball to Garden Spot’s 42 but the drive, along with Fleetwood’s comeback hopes, ended with a fumble.
Garden Spot quarterback Kye Harting tossed one of his six touchdown passes on the next play.
It was all part of a big game by Harting, who steered the Spartans to the 48-21 victory in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section 3 game Friday night at Fleetwood.
“You can’t make mistakes against a team like that,” said Fleetwood coach Steve Pangburn. “We had moments where we got momentum, we just didn’t sustain them. You can’t go down 20 points.”
Fleetwood (0-2, 2-3) outscored Garden Spot (2-0, 5-0) in the second quarter 14-7 thanks to an interception by Brate Maddocks and touchdowns by Landon Hare and Czion Brickle. Brickle scored from 14 yards out and broke through several tackles with just over five minutes left in the first half.
“We won the second quarter,” said Pangburn. “We just weren’t able to keep it going.”
Most of Brickle’s damage came on that run—he finished with 10 carries for 31 yards.
Fleetwood struggled to contain Harting. In addition to his six passing touchdowns he ran for a 57-yard touchdown on the game’s opening drive. Harting finished with 155 rushing yards and completed 10-of-17 passes for 209 yards. He threw one interception.
Everyone got involved in the passing game for Garden Spot. Austin Hurst, Jace Conrad, Trenton Hoober and Caleb Zimmerman all finished with at least one touchdown reception for Garden Spot. Hoober finished with a game-high three touchdown catches.
This loss marked the third straight for the Tigers, who started the season off with wins over Kutztown and Conrad Weiser.
“I don’t want our kids looking ahead in the schedule, but as a coach, the toughest part of our season is behind us,” said Pangburn. “We’ve got to start piling up some wins, because we have been piling up losses. We have some winnable games ahead of us.”
Maddocks contributed on both ends of the field for the Tigers. He had one interception on defense, and hauled in five catches for 63 yards on offense.
Fleetwood quarterback Jack Riffle completed 18-of-32 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 23 yards.
Riffle found receiver Tristin McFarland throughout the game. McFarland finished with a game-high seven catches for 80 yards.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Garden Spot | 20 | 7 | 21 | 0 | 48 |
| Fleetwood | 0 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 21 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Garden Spot | K. Harting, 57 run (Martin kick) | 9:41 |
| 1 | Garden Spot | Hurst, 34 pass from K. Harting (Martin kick failed) | 5:21 |
| 1 | Garden Spot | Hoober, 22 pass from K. Harting (Martin kick) | 2:19 |
| 2 | Fleetwood | Hare, 6 pass from Riffle (Maurek kick) | 10:45 |
| 2 | Garden Spot | Hoober, 3 pass from K. Harting (Martin kick) | 8:05 |
| 2 | Fleetwood | Brickle, 14 run (Maurek kick) | 5:02 |
| 3 | Garden Spot | Conrad, 59 pass from K. Harting (Martin kick) | 9:52 |
| 3 | Garden Spot | Zimmerman, 27 pass from K. Harting (Martin kick) | 7:43 |
| 3 | Garden Spot | Hoober, 16 pass from K. Harting (Martin kick) | 4:38 |
| 4 | Fleetwood | Petion, 3 run (Maurek kick) | 3:58 |
Team statistics
| Garden Spot | Fleetwood | |
| First downs | 14 | 11 |
| Rushes-yards | 29-245 | 23-28 |
| Passing yards | 209 | 200 |
| Total yards | 454 | 228 |
| Passes | 10-17-1 | 18-34-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 3-37 | 5-30.8 |
| Penalties-yards | 9-80 | 7-45 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Garden Spot: K. Harting 10-155, G. Martin 1-31, Humphreys 3-27, Sauder 2-17, Pemberton 9-13, Davis 1-8, Zimmerman 1-0, Team 1-(-1), Smeltz 1-(-5).
Fleetwood: Brickle 10-31, Riffle 4-23, Petition 2-10, McFarland 4-(-4), Team 3-(-32).
PASSING
Garden Spot: K. Harting 10-17-1–209.
Fleetwood: Riffle 18-32-0–200, Domenech 0-2-1–0.
RECEIVING
Garden Spot: Hoober 4-49, Hurst 3-68, Conrad 2-65, Zimmerman 1-27.
Fleetwood: McFarland 7-80, Maddocks 5-63, Hare 2-17, Musitano 2-10, Petition 1-22, Brickle 1-8.
INTERCEPTIONS
Garden Spot: Usner.
Fleetwood: Maddocks.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Garden Spot: Martin 40.
