Is the ‘Backyard Brawl’ still a big game? You better believe it
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
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Eight-year-old Logan Hyde watched in disbelief as Isaac Lutz made one miraculous catch after another in the final minutes of the 2014 “Backyard Brawl,” the second giving Berks Catholic a 19-14 victory on Wyomissing’s home field.
It stung Hyde then; it still hurts years later.
“It’s not a good memory,” said Hyde, now a senior and Wyomissing’s quarterback, “but I remember it every year when we play BC. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
Hyde flushed a little of that awful taste away last year with a victory that knotted the series at six apiece. Still, even that victory had it sour parts.
The Saints, who entered that match-up winless, took the lead into halftime when Andrew Kurtas drilled a 44-yard field goal as time expired. The Spartans, unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the state at the time, trailed for the first time.
They responded by scoring every time they had the ball in the second half for a 41-24 win.
They’ve been the more dominant team in recent seasons. The rivals didn’t meet in 2020 and 2021, after Berks Catholic moved up to Section 1 of the Berks Football League; had they played Wyomissing most likely would’ve won.
The Spartans reached the PIAA Class 3A championship game in each of those season; the Saints won one postseason game.
The series has mostly been closely matched since its inception in 2011, after Central Catholic and Holy Name merged to form Berks Catholic. It didn’t take long for it to become Berks’ football hottest rivalry. The games regularly drew huge crowds and often came down to the wire.
In 2013 the Saints stuffed a two-point conversion bid in the final minute to win 14-13. The next year the Spartans took the lead with four minutes left only to see the Saints come back to win it.
Four times both sides entered their Week 10 meeting with a perfect record.
Twice – in 2014 and 2015 – the teams met in the District 3 championship game. Each time the team that lost the regular season meeting reversed things in the rematch and went home with a championship trophy.
The two programs have gone in opposite directions in recent years.
Wyomissing is on an amazing roll; it has lost just four times in the last five season. Berks Catholic, a state power in its early years, has fallen back. It finished with a losing record for the first time last season.
Since the Saints last won in the series, in 2018, they have gone 27-22. The Spartans in that same span are 53-5.
The game may have lost some of its luster . . . but don’t try telling that to the players. To them its still the biggest week on the calendar, an old-fashioned neighborhood scrum, the result of which you’ll wear the rest of your life.
“I don’t think it’s any less intense,” Hyde said. “The rivalry’s the same. It still means the same; it’s still a big game for us.”
“It’s very important to me and the rest of the seniors that we get a win here,” said Wyomissing’s Ethan Brower, a defensive back and team captain. “Even though they’re 1-2, it doesn’t matter. That showed us last year. We went into that game thinking we would run over them and that didn’t happen. So we’re going into this week very focused and mentally prepared for what they have to throw at us.”
The Spartans are coming off what could be a season-defining 35-34 victory at state-ranked Trinity. They trailed 34-14 before dominating the second half and scoring with 14 seconds left to extend their regular season unbeaten streak to 38 games.
“We really came together as a team,” Brower said. “We played for us, not so much for ourselves. I think we found our purpose as a team. (Our coaches) told us to go out and have fun. That was a big issue for us in the beginning of the year. I don’t think we were having fun because of the high expectations.”
The Saints have had a rough summer. They had a lot of spots to fill after graduating 15 starters, then saw three key players transfer out of the program, two to Wyomissing.
They opened the season with a four-point loss on the road to state-ranked Loyalsock, came back to upset state-ranked Executive Education, then lost all of that momentum with a 35-0 loss last week to state-ranked Pope John Paul II in a game that suspended late in the second quarter due to weather issues and not resumed.
The Spartans are ranked No. 2 in the state, are playing at home for the first time and will be excited to see All-State linebacker Ryker Jones, who suffered a knee injury in December, play for the first time. They will be a heavy favorite.
The Spartans know that in a rivalry game such as this the records and rankings don’t put points on the board. They’ve been playing the Saints at every level of youth ball and up and know they’re in for a battle.
“No matter what level of talent the teams may have it’s always going to be a war between us and both sides are going to put up a fight, no matter what,” said Brower. “We know that they’re just going to keep coming at us and they’re not gonna give up.”