Short-handed Spartans still too much for overmatched ACN
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
On a lot of the teams Wyomissing plays Marcus Armistead would be a starting tailback and score a bunch of touchdowns.
| Final | |
| Wyomissing | 35 |
| Academy/New Church | 0 |
With the Spartans he’s deep down the depth chart at halfback. He’s resigned to give the front-line ballcarriers, such as Justice Hardy, Danny Fleischood, and Tyler Niedrowski, good looks on defense each day at practice.
“We’ve got (a lot of) great running backs out there,” Armistead said.
With Fleischood and Niedrowski out with injuries, Armistead got a chance to start in the backfield and had some early touches in the 35-0 non-league win over Academy of the New Church at Wolfrum Field.
He had six first-half carries, ripping off gains of 13, 10 and 11 yards, to help the state-ranked Spartans (3-0) put up four first-half scores and set the Mercy Rule into effect a couple minutes into the second half.
“When I get opportunities, I just do the best I can,” said the 5-8, 150-pound senior. “It was great (to get some carries). Our offensive line stepped up big, (even though) we were missing some key pieces.”
The Spartans were coming off a thrilling and challenging 29-26 win over The Haverford School, but that victory took its toll. They were without four two-way players Saturday; that’s why Armistead got so many early touches.
Armistead knows his greatest value to the team comes on defense. In a season-opening win at Southern Columbia the starting cornerback recovered a fumble and had two interceptions, including a Pick-Six. In last week’s win he had a key fourth-down pass breakup late in the game, then covered a fumble in the final minute to seal the win.
He was part of another strong defensive effort Saturday as the Spartans completely shut down the Lions (0-2). ACN gained just 65 total yards and netted minus-12 yards on the ground, in part because of four sacks, four fumbles and a couple of errant snaps from center. Seven of its 11 called run plays in the first half went for losses.
Linebacker Chase Eisenhower was in on a couple sacks and had five tackles for losses. Linebacker Diamante Strong and defensive lineman Robert Martino were each in on a sack and had three and four tackles for loss, respectively.
Academy of New Church quarterback Moses Bruno completed 14-of-25 passes but most were under coverage or on screens; the Lions netted just 77 passing yards. Armistead and his defensive teammates swarmed to the ball and prevented any yards after the catch or big plays.
“Our defense did a great job,” said Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum, who was without a pair of starting defensive ends (Andrew Bresnahan and Parker LaFerriere), a starting linebacker (Niedrowski) and a starting cornerback (Fleischood). “They had the ball the whole first quarter, not because they were moving the ball. Every time we got to a third or fourth down – penalty, we’d give ‘em the ball back.”
The Spartans played well considering they were missing so many key pieces but eight first-half penalties clouded the performance.
“It really shows how deep this team is,” Armistead said. “Someone can get hurt and someone else can go in and do just as well. That really shows a lot.”
“I thought we had competent people in there for (the injured players),” Wolfrum said. “Everything was fine, except the penalties.”
Despite all of those flags the Spartans found the end zone four times on their five first-half possessions. Eisenhower scored a pair of first-half touchdowns, from 28 and 12 yards. They also got a pair of touchdown passes from sophomore first-year starting quarterback Brady Eisenhower, 41 yards to Andrew DiFabrizio and 3 yards to Hardy.
It just seemed to take them longer than usual to build a commanding lead. They were up just 7-0 early in the second quarter. They pulled away with a pair of scores in the final 5 ½ minutes of the first half.
“We started off slow,” Armistead conceded, “but our coaches made some corrections and everyone patted each other on the back and said, ‘We need to pick this up,’ and I think we did.”
Even with a pair of backup offensive linemen in there Wyomissing managed 327 rushing yards on 33 carries and did not punt.
“We had a bunch of young guys who knew they had to step up, and they did,” Chase Eisenhower said. “Props to them, they did a great job.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Academy/New Church | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wyomissing | 7 | 21 | 7 | 0 | 35 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Wyomissing | C. Eisenhower, 28 run (Maher kick) | 7:20 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | C. Eisenhower, 12 run (Maher kick) | 9:20 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Westwood, 10 run (Maher kick) | 5:34 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | DiFabrizio, 41 pass from B. Eisenhower (Best kick) | 1:55 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | Hardy, 3 pass from B. Eisenhower (Best kick) | 10:50 |
Team statistics
| ACADEMY/NEW CHURCH | WYOMISSING | |
| First downs | 10 | 15 |
| Rushes-yards | 22-(-12) | 33-327 |
| Passing yards | 77 | 72 |
| Total yards | 65 | 399 |
| Passes | 14-25-0 | 4-6-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 4-27.2 | 0 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-61 | 10-109 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
ACN: Jean 11-20, Brun 8-5, Team 1-(-10), Pacitti 2-(-27).
Wyomissing: C. Eisenhower 6-92, Hardy 5-63, Armistead 6-53, Reason 2-34, Arguelles 2-32, Westwood 3-23, Gibney 1-14, Nye 2-10, Cirulli 1-4, Betances 3-2, White 1-1, Rohrer 1-(-1).
PASSING
ACN: Bruno 14-25-0–77.
Wyomissing: B. Eisenhower 2-4-1–44, White 2-2-0–28.
RECEIVING
ACN: Bradley 5-32, Pacitti 4-0, Jean 2-9, Gainsley 1-24, Swierczynski 1-9, Kitahama 1-3.
Wyomissing: Lecher 2-28, DiFabrizio 1-4, Hardy 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS
ACN: Bradley.
