Warwick uses trick play to upset state-ranked Lampeter-Strasburg
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
(This story was produced by LNP/Lancasteronline, and published in partnership with MikeDragoSports.com.)
By Jeff Reinhart — LNP/Lancasteronline
LITITZ — There’s nothing like a little trickeration to spruce up a football game.
Warwick dipped into its bag of tricks on Friday night, and the Warriors were treated to a game-changing play.
| Final | |
| Warwick | 14 |
| Lampeter-Strasburg | 7 |
Tyler Musser, Warwick’s leading receiver, took a quick lateral from quarterback Thomas Myers. Musser then heaved the go-ahead 40-yard touchdown pass to Vinny Bagonis in the fourth quarter.
The Warriors withstood Lampeter-Strasburg 14-7 in a real slobber-knocker of a non-league game in Lititz.
“My visor was all blurry, and I couldn’t see the ball at all,” Bagonis said. “I was praying that I caught it. That play usually works in practice, and we got it to work in a game. Great, great play.”
Both teams came in at 1-0 and feeling fine after superb Week 1 victories. Warwick got out of Dodge at 2-0; Lampeter-Strasburg, which went 14-1 last year and didn’t lose until the PIAA Class 4A championship game, suffered its first regular season loss since 2023.
“It’s only two weeks into the season, so you don’t want to hype anything up too much,” Warwick coach Bob Locker said. “But (Lampeter-Strasburg) is a really good football team. So we, at a minimum, have a chance to be a really good football team.”
The Musser-to-Bagonis play was a thing of beauty. It was a 7-7 game in the fourth quarter, and neither team was exactly stuffing the stat sheet with crooked numbers.
Musser was lined up on the left flank. Myers took the shotgun snap and tossed a quick-out to Musser, who got a great block from Grant Lugar, freeing up a passing lane.
“I thought it was a matchup thing,” Lampeter-Strasburg coach Victor Ridenour said. “I thought they might take a shot at our corner on the other side. We really weren’t expecting that.”
Instead of staying home from his tight end spot to block, Bagonis was able to shake free when Lampeter-Strasburg bit, and he was wide open in the slot.
Musser, who played quarterback for Warwick in middle school, hit Bagonis on the numbers, and he thundered for a 40-yard TD with 8:50 to go in the regulation.
“We’re always ready to run any play in our book,” Musser said. “So when they sent it in, I was ready.”
Musser’s instincts from his former QB days took over.
“I knew they would bite,” he said. “They bit hard. What a great feeling. We rode that right until the end of the game.”
“Big shout-out to my middle school QB,” Bagonis said. “Such a great feeling.”
It was a perfect call at a perfect time for Warwick.
“We thought it was the right time to call it,” Locker said. “And they ran it just like you draw it up.”
Lampeter-Strasburg scored first. After Warwick misfired on a long field goal attempt on its first possession, the Pioneers mustered a scoring drive. Asher Jones hit Keegan Curtis on a fourth-down pass to keep the drive alive. Later, Jones had a 20-yard keeper, setting up his 7-yard TD run for a 7-0 lead with 10:15 to go in the second quarter.
Warwick responded, tying it up just before there half. Myers hit Musser for a clutch 28-yard pass. Those two hooked up again for the score; Myers lobbed a 6-yard TD toss to Musser — who made a scrawling reception off a tipped ball in traffic — with 29 seconds to go in the half.
Penalties hurt both teams. Lampeter-Strasburg was flagged seven times for 85 yards, and Warwick survived 11 yellow hankies for 110 yards in march-offs.
After Musser’s trick-play TD toss to Bagonis, Warwick iced the game behind Heath Schnipke, who took the rock over and over to chew up the yards and keep the clock running.
Schnipke had 31 workmanlike carries for 160 yards — 86 yards on 10 carries in the fourth quarter to help Warwick seal it.
“He was unreal,” Musser said. “And our O-line was unreal.”
“Everything we want to accomplish is still attainable,” Ridenour said. “We didn’t even get to section play yet. We’re proud of how we played tonight, against a really good football team over there.”
