Season preview: Twin Valley Raiders
2024 Berks football coverage
presented by UECU
Classification: Class 4A.
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 4.
Schedule: Click here.
Last season: 5-1 Section 3, 10-2 overall.
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2023.
Head coach: Brett Myers, third season, 17-7.
Key losses: All-League G Paul McClune, C/LS Noah Roehm, all-league TE and Defensive Lineman of the Year Ean Winchester, all-league DE Kyle Kline, DE Ben Savidge, DT Markell Norris, P Jack Hater, PK Sam Frey.
Top offensive players: QB Evan Myers (1,472 passing yards), all-league RB Drew Engle (1,599 rushing yards), all-league second-team RB Evan Johnson (1,089 rushing yards, 15 TDs), H-B Lucas Myers, second-team all-league WR/KR Ben Grundy, WR Justin Pinciotti, WR Matt Knights, TE Joey Buckley, TE Gavin Crawford, all-league C Carter Fauble, second-team all-league G Greyson Miller, G Isaiah Saunders, second-team all-league T Aris Drake.
Top defensive players: All-League E Carter Fauble, T Aris Drake, T Greyson Miller, T Mark Minardi, T Noah DiGiacomo, all-league LB Lucas Myers, LB Ryan Rementer, LB Gavin Crawford, all-league second-team DB Evan Johnson, all-league second-team DB Drew Engle, DB Ben Grundy, S Harley Hartwell, S Ryan Pigeon, CB Tristan Bailey, CB Brendan Yagle.
Did you know? For the second straight season the Raiders set a program scoring record, averaging 39.7 points. They averaged 32.2 points in 2022.
For the record: Drew Engle, as a sophomore, set the program record for rushing yards in a season last year, going for 1,599 yards – topping the record by 375 yards.
On schedule: Twin Valley has never played three of its new Section 4 rivals: Northern Lebanon, Donegal or Lampeter-Strasburg.
Quotable: “Obviously we didn’t get the outcome that we wanted (last year), with sharing the Section 3 title; we wanted to win it (outright). We’ll work harder and try and get it this year.” – Raiders senior lineman Aris Drake.
Outlook: Evan Myers says he feels a buzz around his football team.
“There’s a lot of commotion about what could happen (this season),” the senior quarterback said.
He’s not getting too excited – not yet.
“We’re taking it a day at a time, progressing as we should,” he said a few weeks before the start of camp. “If we’re looking forward to Week 1, we miss three weeks to progress and make ourselves better.”
That’s the attitude around the Raiders: They know they could achieve big things but they’re too focused on making that happen to expend energy thinking about it right now.
There’s a good reason there’s so much excitement about this Twin Valley team: One year after winning a program-record 10 games it is fully positioned to be even better.
Back is Myers, a four-year starter and record-setter at quarterback; a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Drew Engle and Evan Johnson; and some of the league’s top linemen, including Navy recruit Aris Drake and transfer Carter Faubel, a two-way all-league pick last season for District 2 champ Delaware Valley. All told about a dozen starters, including six players who earned all-league honors, return.
This is all pretty heady stuff for a program that had just two winning records in its first quarter-century — but it’s not surprising. Once Brett Myers, the architect of three District 3 championship teams at Middletown, showed up the pulse of the entire program spiked.
The Raiders matched the program record for wins in his first season, 2022, and tied for the Section 3 title last season – only the second championship in their 28-year history. They could do much more this season.
Evan Myers is a dual threat capable of running for 1,000 yards as well as passing for it. The only thing keeping him from that is his two tailbacks, Engle and Johnson, won’t leave many yards for anyone else.
The Raiders set a program scoring record last season, averaging 39.7 points, and there’s no reason to think they can’t duplicate that. They’ll again have a huge O-line and plenty of weapons, including overshadowed but talented sprinter Ben Grundy, who earned all-league nods as a receiver and kick returner last year as a sophomore.
Improving on defense is the key to any of kind of extended postseason run. In their only losses last year, to Ephrata and Manheim Central, the Raiders’ ‘D’ couldn’t get off the field.
Faubel will help ease the loss of graduated Defensive Lineman of the Year Ean Winchester and LB Lucas Myers should be even better than he was a year ago, when he was the Raiders’ leading tackler and an all-league pick as a freshman.
At the wire: Favorite to hold off a young Wyomissing team for Section 4 title, and then again for District 3 Class 4A championship.