Slow-starting Spartans turn it on, topple Scouts to remain unbeaten
By Sam Cavalieri — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Wyomissing football coach Bob Wolfrum said he had to kick his team off the practice field on Thursday for a lack of focus.
The Spartans continued to lack focus at the outset against Conrad Weiser Friday night in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4 matchup at Robesonia.
They trailed by a field goal in the second quarter and faced a deficit for only the second time this season.
They quickly proved that a slight lack of focus can be made up for by sheer explosiveness. Wyomissing scored six touchdowns in a span of less than eight minutes across the second and third quarter on its way to a convincing 49-10 victory.
The initial Wyomissing drive was stopped when Drew Eisenhower fumbled and Weiser’s Jonathon McQuillen recovered. Eisenhower got the ball back for his team with an interception, but the Spartans (5-0, 8-0) then had a rare three-and-out.
Matt Noll kicked a 26-yard field goal to give the Scouts (2-3, 3-5) the lead, but the Spartans quickly answered with Matt Kramer pounding the middle for five of six plays on a touchdown drive. His 16-yard touchdown run with 7:10 left in the first half was the first few drops of rain in what turned into a flash flood.
“We had to start running our power stuff,” Wolfrum said. “I hate to, we wanted to do some stuff tonight that we couldn’t do. Then we went to our power and we went up and down the field.”
Charlie McIntyre scored the next two touchdowns (25 and 5 yards) on a five-play drive and four-play drive, respectively.
It appeared it would be a 21-3 halftime margin, but the Scouts fumbled with 13.7 seconds left and Logan Hyde recovered on the Scouts 37. Ben Zechman didn’t even need the full 13.7 seconds. He dropped back and threw a perfect pass to Ethan Brower deep down the field to score the fourth Wyomissing touchdown of the second quarter.
“We scored three touchdowns and it was going by so quick,” McIntyre said. “We just had the momentum going for us and getting that score (Brower’s reception) to go out at half set our minds right.”
Halftime couldn’t stem the Spartans’ run. Eisenhower, who only had two carries in the first half, took the first carry of the second half and powered through a few Conrad Weiser defenders before using his speed and angle to outrace the rest 61 yards to the end zone. The very next play he got his second interception of Donovan Gingrich and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.
“(I wanted to) go up, try to high point it and see what happens from there,” Eisenhower said. “On that return it was blocked beautifully. Everyone turned around right away and hit someone. It was great.”
Eisenhower finished with a game-high 88 rushing yards on three carries; McIntyre had 87 yards on five carries. Kramer had the lowest average per carry at just a shade under 11, with 75 yards on seven attempts. Those three backs are all big-play threats. Throw in Ryker Jones, a surging Zechman passing game and this offense is a juggernaut.
It all starts up front. Penn State commit Jven Wiliams, Caleb Brewer (offers from numerous D-1 schools) and Pacen Ziegler (preferred walk-on offer from Penn State) allow these talented backs to do what they did to the Scouts.
The Spartans finished with 311 yards rushing on 26 carries for just shy of 12 yards a pop. They only ran five offensive plays in the mercy-rule shortened second half.
“Knowing every time you touch the ball you can score no matter what play you run is great,” McIntyre said. “I put so much faith in those guys (on the offensive line). It’s just the greatest thing to have. Those guys are amazing. The front line, I thank them after every play and I just love them.”
Wolfrum said he may need to switch up the order of attack for his offense. They were trying to get the outside rushes going to open up the inside, but they had their most success just using their power rush game.
“Maybe we oughta start the games that way and pound the other team,” Wolfrum said. “I do think when we start doing that we wear them out, too. Maybe we should start games that way and open it up later instead. We tried to do it the other way today and we couldn’t.”
He has a few weeks to tinker with his plans. The Spartans will be heavily favored against their next opponent, Octorara. But the regular season finale will be against Section 4 co-leader Lampeter-Strasburg and it figures to be for the title.
“It’s hard when there is a team that you know you are probably going to pound, but one of the good things that our last couple teams did was they were workmenlike every time they came out,” Wolfrum said. “This team hasn’t learned to do that yet.”
If this team can get to that level of mental focus combined with this level of talent then the PennLive.com’s No. 1 ranked Class 3A team just might finish in that spot.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wyomissing | 0 | 28 | 21 | 0 | 49 |
| Conrad Weiser | 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 10 |
Scoring summary
| 2 | Conrad Weiser | Noll, 26 FG | 9:27 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Kramer, 16 run (Levering kick) | 7:10 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | McIntyre, 25 run (Levering kick) | 3:36 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | McIntyre, 20 run (Levering kick) | 1:05 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Brower, 37 pass from Zechman (Levering kick) | 0:08 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | D. Eisenhower, 61 run (Levering kick) | 11:38 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | D. Eisenhower, 50 interception return (Levering kick) | 11:15 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | Jones, 4 run (Levering kick) | 5:55 |
| 4 | Conrad Weiser | Britting, 3 pass from Gingrich (Noll kick) | 5:21 |
Team statistics
| Wyomissing | Conrad Weiser | |
| First downs | 13 | 11 |
| Rushes-yards | 26-311 | 30-64 |
| Passing yards | 40 | 112 |
| Total yards | 351 | 176 |
| Passes | 2-2-0 | 12-24-3 |
| Fumbles-lost | 3-2 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 1-39 | 3-36.66 |
| Penalties-yards | 5-55 | 3-25 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Wyomissing: D. Eisenhower 3-88, McIntyre 5-87, Kramer 7-75, Jones 3-34, C. Eisenhower 3-23, C. Niedrowski 2-7, Macrina 1-5, Team Rush 1-0, Zechman 1-(-8).
Conrad Weiser: Conde 17-44, Parham 6-16, Dianna 2-5, Britting 2-4, Rittle 1-(-2), Gingrich 2-(-3).
PASSING
Wyomissing: Zechman 2-2-0-40.
Conrad Weiser: Gingrich 12-24-3-112.
RECEIVING
Wyomissing: Brower 1-37, D. Eisenhower 1-3.
Conrad Weiser: Conde 3-12, Rittle 2-53, Dianna 2-19, J. Miller 2-14, E. Miller 1-6, Britting 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS
Wyomissing: D. Eisenhower 2, Macrina.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Conrad Weiser: Noll 39.
