Season Preview: Kutztown Cougars
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
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Classification: Class 3A.
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5.
Schedule: Click here.
Last season: 2-5 league, 3-8 overall.
Last District 3 playoff appearance: None.
Head coach: Larry Chester, 10th season, 26-62.
Key losses: QB and all-league S Jake Lafferty, RB/LB Dakota Thomas (transferred to Fleetwood), all-league C Ryan Cardinale.
Top offensive players: QB Colten Mathias, second-team all-league FB Brenden Ackley, FB Jayce Gruber, HB Mason Sherry, HB David Bates, HB Jayden Swoyer, TE James Undercuffler, C Anthony Keeney, G Alex Reyes, G Gavin Hallock, T and Offensive Lineman of the Year Tyler Hallock, T Tyler Wicke.
Top defensive players: E Noah Ferrizzi, E James Undercuffler, all-league first-team T Tyler Hallock, T Eddy Yang, ILB Brenden Ackley, ILB Gavin Hallock, OLB Mason Sherry, OLB Jayden Swoyer, all-league second-team S Ethan Lafferty, CB Jayce Gruber, CB David Bates.
Did you know? The Cougars snapped their 70-game league losing streak with a 34-28 win over Northern Lebanon in Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 play. They exited the Berks Football League with a 67-game league losing streak. The win was their first in league play since 2009.
For the record: Calvin Laing is part of the two longest scoring plays in program history. He caught a 99-yard pass from Matt Lawhorne against Bristol in 2004 and ran for a 99-yard TD against Lower Moreland in 2005.
On schedule: The Cougars played three first-time opponents in 2022 and beat two of them, Northern Lebanon (34-28) and Columbia (19-13). They lost their first meeting to Lancaster Catholic (46-23).
Quotable: “(Our) objective (when I became coach) was to patch up holes, keep the ship from sinking and get this thing moving in a positive direction, (and) we’re doing it. We (now) have enough to go out and compete, that’s a huge hole.” — Cougars coach Larry Chester.
Outlook: It wasn’t that long ago that Kutztown had to forfeit a game because it didn’t have enough players to field a team.
Things have changed rapidly in the four seasons since Larry Chester returned to the program. The roster has swelled to more than 40. Only about six players will be starting two ways. And the Cougars are winning games. Their three victories last season were their most in seven years, and they won twice in league play after losing 70 consecutive league games.
“I think we can play against everybody in our league,” Chester said.
The Cougars return 18 starters, more than any team in Section 5, and last season found an identity, pounding the rock out of their old-school Power-T formation.
They averaged 55 rushing attempts and 327 yards over their final six games and return leading rusher Brenden Ackley, who went for 218 yards against Annville-Cleona and averaged 133 yards over the final six weeks as a sophomore.
“He’s a throw-back,” said Chester. “He has an edge to him; that translates to his game. He destroyed the offseason. He’s bigger, faster, stronger. We are expecting big things from him.”
The same goes for Mason Sherry, who got some looks as a freshman and is ready to take a bigger role. He’s among the fastest players on the team.
“He’s special,” Chester said.
The Cougars will be even more athletic at QB with junior Colten Mathias. He pitched for Kutztown’s district championship baseball team and brings more speed to the position.
They’ll have some bigs to run behind in 6-1, 307-pound Tyler Hallock, the Section 5 Offensive Lineman of the Year as a junior, and 6-1, 260-pound sophomore Tyler Wicke.
“We’re very confident that we figured out some things from last year,” Chester said.
One of those things is a renewed focus in special teams play, which cost the Cougars last season. They now have the depth to address that third of the game and should have even more going forward. Chester said he took seven QBs (grade 8 and up) to a team camp this summer.
Chester has been successful at recruiting athletes and, as Kutztown’s strength coach and a track and field coach, he’s been able to get them physically prepared to play football. For the first time in years the Cougars played a JV schedule in 2022.
“We did a lot more recruiting this offseason,” said Hallock. “We’re getting people to want to play.”
The Cougars went into their final game last season knowing a win would send them to the Eastern Conference playoffs. They came up short, falling 21-20 when Pequea Valley converted a two-point conversion in the final minutes.
“We were close,” said Hallock. “(This year) we’re shooting for the District 3 playoffs.”
Chester believes his team is ready to compete with the top teams in Section 5, and he’s not the only one: The Cougars got two first-place votes in a preseason coaches poll, as did defending champ Lancaster Catholic and Annville-Cleona; no team had more.
All that said, they’re still a relatively young team. There are just eight seniors and more than half the roster is composed of sophomores and freshman.
At the wire: Middle of the pack and more competitive against the top teams.
