Huge comeback gives Kutztown breakthrough win over Hamburg

By Mike Mitchell Jr. Last updated Sep 23, 2023

Brendan Ackley and Kutztown celebrate win over Hamburg. (PhilMarPhoto)

2023 Berks football coverage presented by

Utilities Employees Credit Union

By Mike Mitchell Jr. — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

Kutztown ended a long winless drought against Berks opponents, scoring 22 unanswered points in the second half to stun Hamburg 35-34 Friday night in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5 matchup at Kutztown.

It was the Cougars’ first win over the Hawks since 2008. It was also the Cougars’ first win over a Berks team since 2009, when they defeated Fleetwood in the regular season finale.

“The theme of the week was accountability,” said Cougars coach Larry Chester. “We made a few adjustments on both sides of the ball at halftime, but we told the kids to hold each other accountable. That was our theme. The kids did that. They were resilient and never gave up.”

The contest was a tale of two halves. The Hawks came out strong after sputtering last week in a loss to Annville-Cleona. Quarterback Tyler Shuey completed 11-of-13 first half passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for another to spark the Hawks to a 34-13 halftime lead.

The Hawks (0-2, 3-2) were equally impressive on defense in the first half. They held the Cougars (1-1, 2-3) to just one first down in the opening half.

With as dominant as the Hawks were in the first half, Kutztown seemed to gain some momentum after falling behind 20-0 with 8:20 to go on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Shuey to Cohen Correll.

Alex Reyes recovered a Hamburg fumble with 6:33 to go in the half. Three plays later, Mason Sherry scored from 46 yards out to get the Cougars on the board with 4:09 left to play, setting the stage for a wild four minutes.

Hamburg answered with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Shuey to Alex Bentz — second of the game for the Hamburg connection — with just 1:14 to go.

Cougars’ Brendan Ackley runs for a fourth-quarter touchdown. (PhilMarPhoto)

After a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff, the Cougars struck back three plays later. Sherry scored from 21 yards out to cut the Hamburg deficit to 27-13 with just 41 seconds left in the half.

There was life on the Cougars sideline as they were set to receive the second half kickoff, but the Hawks weren’t done yet. Shuey hit Tyler Werley with a 58-yard screen pass and run where Werely broke multiple tackles and made several defenders miss for a touchdown with just 13 seconds left in the half to extend the Hamburg lead to 34-13 at the break.

However, that was the last good news for the Hawks. The second half was all Kutztown.

The Cougars dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball the rest of the way. They looked like a completely different team. The lines were dominant, the backs were running hard and would not go down on the first or second hit, the defense delivered vicious hits on the Hawks, and they gang-tackled getting all 11 defenders to the ball on three different occasions.

The three-headed monster backfield of Sherry (175 yards, two touchdowns), Brenden Ackley (113 yards, two touchdowns), and Ethan Lafferty (24 yards, a touchdown, a key fourth-quarter interception, and the winning 2-point conversion) led the Cougars to a dominant second half.

The Cougars ran 35 second half plays to the Hawks’ 17. Hamburg gained only 59 yards in the second half.

After Kutztown had pulled to within 34-27 with 1:43 left in the third, the Hawks were driving to get the game back to a two-score lead. However, on a first-and-10 from the Cougars 23 with 9:35 left Lafferty made a tremendous, leaping interception at the 1 to thwart the Hawks drive.

The Cougars proceeded to drive 99 yards on 16 plays, all on the ground, to score the game’s final touchdown, a 2-yard run by Ackley. Trialing 34-33 with 1:41 left to go, Chester elected to go for two.

Quarterback Colton Mathias pitched to Ehtan Lafferty on the left side and Lafferty made a beautiful inside-out move to go into the end zone untouched for the decisive points.

“Lafferty knows the game,” said Chester. “He’s had brothers who have come through our program. That’s why we gave him the ball there. He used his football knowledge to make a great move to get into the end zone.”

Cougars’ Ethan Lafferty intercepts a pass. (PhilMarPhoto)

	1	2	3	4	Final
Hamburg	14	20	0	0	34
Kutztown	0	13	14	8	35

Scoring summary

1	Hamburg	Shuey, 3 run (Blatt kick)	8:59
1	Hamburg	Bentz, 12 pass from Shuey (Blatt kick)	3:58
2	Hamburg	Correll, 14 pass from Shuey (Kick failed)	8:20
2	Kutztown	Sherry, 46 run (Kimpland kick)	4:09
2	Hamburg	Bentz, 44 pass from Shuey (Blatt kick)	1:14
2	Kutztown	Sherry, 21 run (Pass failed)	:41
2	Hamburg	Werley, 58 pass from Shuey (Blatt kick)	:13
3	Kutztown	Lafferty, 16 run (Stoess run)	9:26
3	Kutztown	Ackley, 10 run (Run failed)	1:43
4	Kutztown	Ackley, 2 run (Lafferty run)	1:41

Team statistics

	Hamburg	Kutztown
First downs	15	18
Rushes-yards	26-122	49-301
Passing yards	249	14
Total yards	371	315
Passes	14-20-1	1-5-0
Fumbles-lost	1-1	0-0
Punts-average	0-0	2-36
Penalties-yards	9-80	13-98