Nick McArdle, Cocalico sack Warwick
2024 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
(This story was produced by LNP/Lancasteronline, and published in partnership with MikeDragoSports.com.)
By Bruce Morgan — LNP/Lancasteronline
DENVER — It hasn’t been that long ago since Chase Ochs was making big plays on the football field.
A 2019 graduate of Cocalico, the 6-foot-2, 235-pound lineman was instrumental in helping the Eagles reach the District 3 finals in his senior year.
Now Ochs is back, and he is once again making his impact felt — this time as a mentor.
Cocalico’s defensive line coach is working with the guys in the trenches, pushing them to their potential and helping them get better. One such player, two-way junior lineman Nick McArdle, was a star pupil Friday night.
With Cocalico and Warwick tied 7-7 early in the fourth quarter, McArdle strip-sacked Warrior QB Thomas Myers and recovered the ball at the Warriors’ 25-yard line. That set up a go-ahead 23-yard field goal from kicker Talen Popolis and Cocalico held on to earn a 10-7 win in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 battle in Denver.
It was Ochs whom McArdle credited as a motivational figure.
“I love Coach Ochs,” said McArdle. “He’s constantly texting us, ‘Hey get better at this,’ working on pass rush moves and I just love everything he does with us.”
Cocalico head coach Bryan Strohl loved everything McCardle did to get the ball back for the team.
“Turnovers always change momentum,” he said, “and I felt like early on, (Warwick) had all the momentum going. That helped to get the momentum back for us.”
It marked the third time in the red zone in the second half for the Eagles (2-0, 3-2), but the first two ended with a fumble and then a missed 38-yard field goal by Popolis. This time, Popolis was money.
“I know he missed the one earlier, and you always worry if that’s in his head a little bit, but he’s a great kicker,” Strohl said.
It wasn’t over yet, though. Warwick (1-1, 2-3) had managed just one first down against Cocalico’s defense on its first four second-half possessions, but after getting a defensive stop, the Warriors took over at their own 35 with 1:27 left and no timeouts. Myers completed 4-of-5 passes to get Warwick to the Eagles’ 28. Three plays later, they were still there, and then Myers’ aerial into the end zone hit the turf, and that was the game.
“We were right on that edge of kick a field goal, don’t kick a field goal,” Warwick coach Bob Locker said. “We thought we’d just want to try and score.”
The game featured a clash of two teams who entered the game 1-0 in Section 3 following league-opening wins the previous week. The Warriors, looking for their third victory in a row, took a positive first step on a Myers-to-Judah Willard 14-yard TD strike with 4:06 left in the first.
Meanwhile, Warwick’s defense was bottling up a Cocalico team averaging 225 yards on the ground per game. But then Eagle senior running back Brayden Eppinette (six rushes, 118 yards) got the ball on a reverse, found open spaces and sprinted 89 yards for a game-tying touchdown with 5:43 left in the half. Outside of that run, the Eagles mustered only 67 yards of offense in the first half.
“We knew it — that defense is fast and they fly to the football,” Strohl said. “They’re persistent.”
But in the end, McArdle was persistent himself in getting to the quarterback to make the game’s biggest play.
