Season preview: Twin Valley Raiders
Classification: Class 5A
League: Berks Section 2
Last season: 3-1 league, 3-3 overall
Schedule: Click here
Last District 3 playoff appearance: None
Head coach: Kris Olsen, first season.
Key losses: All-league LB Cenzo DeFabrizio, all-league DL Hunter Hittle, all-league C Ollie Savage.
Top offensive players: QB Evan Myers, all-league RB Dominic Caruso, FB Nick Harris, HB Ethan Ameisen, TE Aidan Kozan, all-league WR and KR Trey Freeman, G Paul McClune, all-league second-team T Ryan Corros, T Cody Baker.
Top defensive players: E Aidan Kozan, LB Ryan Corros, LB Ean Winchester, all-league S Dominic Caruso, S Ethan Ameisen, S Seth Hatfield, second-team all-league CB Trey Freeman.
Did you know? The Raiders have had 10 head coaches in their 26 seasons; no one has coached longer than five seasons.
Fast fact: The Raiders are 29-12 in Berks Section 2 play and 11-43 in Section 1 play. The returned to Section 2 for the 2020 season.
Quotable: “It just came down to everybody buying into a new face. Not a whole lot has changed. We’re still that same tough team; we’re gonna go four quarters. We don’t need to be flashy with our mouths, we’re gonna show you with how we play, show you what we know and what we know how to do.” — Senior linebacker Ryan Corros, on changes in the program with a new head coach.
On the record: Dominic Caruso matched the program single-game rushing record with 358 yards last season vs. Fleetwood. Dan Ziegler set the mark in 2014.
Outlook: The Raiders have two of the premier players in the league in Dominic Caruso and Trey Freeman but their class is small — there are just eight seniors — and there are just eight juniors behind them. That makes it tough to compete at this level or crack the playoffs — something they haven’t achieved in over a decade.
The transition from Dean Owens, who managed .500 records in four of his five seasons, to Kris Olsen as head coach has been smooth. Olsen was Owens’ offensive coordinator for all five seasons and knows the program top to bottom.
Numbers, often an issue in Morgantown, continue to be a problem. The Raiders ended last season with just 33 players. The current roster shows 50, though 35 of those are sophomores or freshmen; hard to say how much they can help this season.
One freshman sure to make an impact is 5-10, 180-pound Evan Myers, who has won the quarterback job. He’s the son of former Middletown head coach (and current Twin Valley administrator) Brett Myers, which should be a big plus. He grew up watching film with his dad and watched Brett’s teams dominate the District 3 Class 3A playoffs.
Evan Myers replaces Ryan Scheivert, who transferred to Berks Catholic.
Olsen is looking for a game-manager at QB, someone to throw 8-10 passes a game, not someone to carry the load. Caruso and Freeman are capable of doing that.
The 5-6, 175-pound Caruso, a four-year starter at RB, is on pace to finish with over 4,000 yards and 40 TDs. He went for 929 yards and eight TDs over a six-game schedule as a junior and averaged 8.2 yards per carry. He already owns program records for career rushing yards (2,741), touchdowns (27) and points (168). He’s not flashy but he plays hard and smart and is tough to bring down in the open field.
Freeman could soon have his name all over the Twin Valley record books, as well. He averaged a Berks-leading 24.1 yards per catch on his team-high 21 receptions and shared the Berks lead with seven TD catches. He’s also a weapon in the return game. He needs 137 receiving yards to break the career program record and 23 catches to become the most prolific receiver in school history.
That duo will be key on defense, as will LB Ryan Corros and converted LB Aidan Kozan, who’s now at end. They’ll need to tighten things up on that side this year; they allowed 30 or more points four times last year and lost three of those games.
At the wire: Middle of the pack.
