Pope John Paul II not half bad in dominant win over Berks Catholic
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Matt Gaffney — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug.
Berks Catholic played the role of the bug Friday night as Pope John Paul II steamrolled the Saints 35-0 in a non-league matchup at Forino Sports Complex.
The game was suspended in the second quarter with 4:11 remaining due to weather; it will not be resumed.
Two quarters was all the time Berks Catholic (1-2) coach Rick Keeley needed to see that it was not to be his team’s night.
“You gotta give them credit,” Keeley said of the state-ranked Golden Panthers. “They didn’t let us back in the game and kept the pressure on defensively and they have a nice scheme offensively.”
PJP’s balanced offense will be giving defenses problems all season long. The Saints are not alone. Defenses have yet to find a way to slow down the Golden Panthers.
Coach Scott Reed’s team, now 3-0, has outscored its opponents by a combined 102-7.
There is a ton of talent on the offensive side of the ball but the defense isn’t too shabby, either, judging by the single touchdown allowed in the first three games, a gaudy 2.3 points per game.
Quarterback Luke Terlesky, a 6-4 junior, has plenty of weapons at his disposal, including bruising running back Boyd Skarbek and wide receivers Braden Reed and Brent Mitala. The offensive and defensive lines are anchored by Wisconsin commit Kevin Heywood, a very large human who can block out the sun at 6-8, 315 pounds.
On its eight-play, 72-yard opening drive, Pope John Paul rode the running of Skarbek behind Heywood and his linemates. Skarbek rushed six times for 61 yards as Terlesky capped it off with a quarterback sneak from a yard out.
The Saints muffed the ensuing kickoff at their own 25-yard line and PJP recovered. One play later, Terlesky lofted a pass over a Saints defender near the goal line, hitting Reed in stride with a 25-yard touchdown strike for a fast 14-0 lead.
Berks Catholic could not generate much offense against the stout Golden Panthers defense as it accumulated only 25 total yards. The fumbled kickoff and an onsides kick recovered by PJP limited the Saints offensive opportunities.
“We didn’t have the ball very much,” said Keeley. “They drove right down on that first series and scored. We fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and they scored again right away so the natural tendency is for heads to drop (being) down 14-0 early in the game.”
After PJP flipped the field when the teams traded punts, the Golden Panthers set up shop deep in Saints territory.
It didn’t take long to hit paydirt. It was three straight runs by Skarbek, who scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns on a 6-yard run out of the Wildcat formation. He followed that up on the next offensive series with an 8-yard score to give the Golden Panthers a commanding 28-0 lead.
“That big No. 13 is a great running back,” said Keely of the 6-foot, 195-pound senior. “We were in position on defense, we just weren’t making the play. I guess they were just hungrier than us.”
Terlesky, who threw for 153 yards, hit Reed for his second score on a screen pass that the speedy junior wideout took 56 yards to the house to make it 35-0 with 5:34 left in the second quarter. Reed finished with five catches for 120 yards and the two touchdown receptions.
“I would have liked for us to have played harder,” said Keeley. “I don’t think we got a great effort from the kids tonight. All the time the kids spend in the weight room, they deserve to play better than they did tonight because of all the work they put in throughout the offseason and summer.
“I learned a long time ago that when you suffer a big loss like this, you look at the film and you’re going to find out you’re not really as bad as you thought you were. The opposite is true too when you win, you’re not really as good as you think you were. So, we’ll look at the film.”
The Saints, who begin Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4 play next week on the road at rival Wyomissing in the “Backyard Brawl”, will head back to the drawing board.
When asked what the message to his team will be after the game, Keeley quickly responded: “Don’t forget it! Know what this feels like and be ready to regroup next week and come out and play well against a very good Wyomissing football team.”
(Game suspended with 4:11 left in 2nd quarter.)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Pope John Paul II | 21 | 14 | 35 | ||
| Berks Catholic | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Pope John Paul | Terlesky, 1 run (Bosio kick) | 8:49 |
| 1 | Pope John Paul | Reed, 25 pass from Terlesky (Bosio kick) | 8:39 |
| 1 | Pope John Paul | B.Skarbek, 6 run (Bosio kick) | 1:17 |
| 2 | Pope John Paul | B.Skarbek, 8 run (Bosio kick) | 6:41 |
| 2 | Pope John Paul | Reed, 56 pass form Terlesky (Bosio kick) | 5:45 |
Team statistics
| Pope John Paul II | Berks Catholic | |
| First downs | 10 | 2 |
| Rushes-yards | 14-95 | 12-23 |
| Passing yards | 153 | 4 |
| Total yards | 248 | 27 |
| Passes | 7-10-0 | 1-4-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 2-33 | 3-31.3 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-58 | 5-50 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Pope John Paul II: B. Skarbek 11-93, D. Skarbek 1-2, Terlesky 1-1, Reed 1-(-1).
Berks Catholic: Garcia 3-23, Rose 1-5, Bradley 4-1, Pennington 1-(-2), Hess 3-(-4).
PASSING
Pope John Paul II: Terlesky 7-10-0–153.
Berks Catholic: Hess 1-4-0–4.
RECEIVING
Pope John Paul II: Reed 5-120, B. Skarbek 1-23, Mitala 1-10. Berks Catholic: Bradley 1-4.
