Hawks pull away from Cougars in Berks 2 shootout, 47-34

Diohnny Ruiz and Pierce Mason each scored a pair of second-half touchdowns as visiting Hamburg broke from a halftime tie to beat Kutztown 47-34 in a Berks Football League Section 2 game Friday.

The Cougars (0-3, 2-4), bidding for their first league win in more than a decade, led three times in the first half thanks to Lennon Neiman. He scored two of his four touchdowns in the half; his 80-yard kickoff return gave Kutztown a 20-13 lead.

The Hawks (1-1, 5-1), off to their best start in more than a decade, tied it on Mason’s 30-yard run in the second quarter and went ahead for good on Ruiz’s 24-yard run in the third quarter.

Ruiz finished with 230 yards on seven carries, four of them for TDs; that’s one short of the program record for touchdowns in a game. The 230 rushing yards ranks fifth-highest in program history.

Neiman finished with 143 yards on 16 carries and also scored four TDs; he scored on runs of 7, 3 and 54 yards.

Mason had three TDs, on runs of 30, 38 and 45 yards. He finished with 138 yards on six carries.

The Hawks ran for 367 yards on just 14 carries, an average of 26.2 yards per play.

Kutztown went up 8-0 on Jake Lafferty’s 10-yard TD pass to Dakota Thomas, and Lafferty’s conversion run. They led 14-7 after Neiman’s 6-yard TD run.

The teams combined for six second-quarter TDs and went into halftime tied 20-20.

Hamburg scored the first three TDs of the third quarter to go ahead 40-20.

The Hawks came up with a pair of turnovers, on interceptions by Cam Harris and Derek Ruiz.

Neiman has 894 rushing yards and is within range of becoming the first Kutztown back to top 1,000 yards since 2010. His 14 TDs are seven short of the program single-season record.

Thomas rushed for 104 yards on 20 carries for Kutztown.

The Cougars last won a league game in 2009; they have lost 64 straight.

The Hawks are off to their best start since 2006, when they started 6-0.