Spartans don’t let up against Braves, score convincing bounce-back victory
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
Wyomissing has been up by four or five touchdowns at halftime against most of its opponents this season but veteran coach Bob Wolfrum hasn’t always been pleased.
He hasn’t seen that knockout punch, that killer instinct, his best teams of recent vintage have displayed.
Saturday it reappeared.
| Final | |
| Wyomissing | 49 |
| Octorara | 8 |
Linebacker Chase Eisenhower blitzed on the second play of the game, flushed Octorara quarterback Mason Prokay out of the pocket, and forced an incompletion.
On the next play defensive end Andrew Brenahan sacked Prokay – the first of five in a first half that saw the Spartans build a 35-point lead en route to a 49-8 win over the short-handed Braves in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4 game at Wolfrum Field.
“During this last run (of championship teams) we’ve always been businesslike in games like this,” Wolfrum said. “We didn’t come out and play down to the level of teams. That’s what I wanted to see (all season). We didn’t get it all year long but we did today. That was our best game (this season) against (a school) not competing for a championship.”
Justice Hardy scored three first-half touchdowns and Bresnahan led an aggressive defense that limited the Braves (2-4, 4-5) to 32 first-half yards and forced them to punt on each of their five possessions before intermission.
It was an important showing. Wyomissing was coming off its first loss, 28-6 to Twin Valley, a game that essentially eliminated the Spartans from a shot at the Section 4 title and one knocked them down a couple spots in the District 3 Class 4A power ratings.
There was no hangover from that loss. Anything but.
If anything, Hardy suggested, the Spartans (5-1, 8-1) drew motivation from hearing about how they were handled by the Raiders.
“We got disrespected . . . by critics,” he said.
Hardy said he and his teammates were also bothered by what they considered disrespect from the Braves during a pregame ceremony to honor Wyomissing Hall of Fame inductees Matt Bennis, Barry Bohn, Dr. Thomas Kohl, and Dean Vandersall.
“They were over there yelling, doing their jumping jacks (on the field during the ceremony),” Hardy said. “So we took the disrespect to the chin, and we punched them in their mouth before they could punch us. We played our hearts out.”
| SECTION 4 | League | Overall |
| Twin Valley | 6-0 | 9-0 |
| Wyomissing | 5-1 | 8-1 |
| Lamp.-Stras. | 5-1 | 7-2 |
| Elco | 3-3 | 4-5 |
| Octorara | 2-3 | 4-4 |
| Donegal | 2-4 | 3-6 |
| D. Boone | 1-5 | 1-8 |
| N. Lebanon | 0-6 | 1-8 |
The Braves dressed just 24 players and saw their top ballcarrier, Brandon Mastrippolito, helped off the field three plays into the game when he suffered an apparent ankle injury. Mastrippolito, who entered the game fourth in the league in rushing with 1,177 yards, didn’t return and never touched the ball.
“That hurt them,” Wolfrum said. “Their offense can be a handful, with the speed he has. If that guy didn’t get hurt that would’ve been more of a test for us.”
Mastrippolito has accounted for nearly half of Octorara’s offense but the Spartans didn’t let up after he was helped off. They went hard from start to finish, even though the outcome was never in doubt. They sacked Prokay five times in the first half and registered 14 negative plays in the game (out of 40 offensive snaps).
Bresnahan had five tackles for loss and was in on a pair of sacks. Eisenhower had a sack, two tackles for loss, and two quarterback hurries. Linebacker Xander Westwood had a pair of tackles for loss.
“We wanted to be aggressive,” Wolfrum said.
Hardy touched the ball four times and scored on the last three of them, with a 2-yard run and 4-yard reception in the first quarter and a 21-yard run in the second that gave the Spartans a 28-0 lead four minutes before halftime.
Brady Eisenhower’s second touchdown pass of the game gave Wyomissing a 35-point cushion 90 seconds before halftime and ignited a running clock for the entire second half.
Wyomissing split up 332 rushing yards among 13 different ballcarriers. Hardy had 35 yards on three carries, Brady Eisenhower had a pair of runs for 47 yards, and Westwood had 48 yards on four carries. Marcus Armistead scored on a 25-yard run on his only carry.
The win was critical for the Spartans, who end the season next week at Lampeter-Strasburg. Those teams are battling for top seeds in the District 3 Class 4A Tournament. Wyomissing went into the day in fourth place in the power ratings, one spot ahead of the Pioneers. Next week’s game could determine homefield advantage for a potential rematch between those teams in the district quarterfinals.
If the Spartans lose they may not play at home again this year.
There’s more to it than just playoff positioning, Hardy said. He and his teammates haven’t forgotten their two losses last year to the Pioneers, especially the painful 30-27 overtime defeat in the district championship game.
“Last year didn’t end against them how we wanted it to,” Hardy said, “so we’re coming with something to prove.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Octorara | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| Wyomissing | 14 | 21 | 7 | 7 | 49 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Wyomissing | Hardy, 4 pass from B. Eisenhower (Maher kick) | 7:27 |
| 1 | Wyomissing | Hardy, 2 run (Maher kick) | 2:08 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Armistead, 25 run (Maher kick) | 8:57 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Hardy, 21 run (Maher kick) | 4:18 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | DiFabrizio, 12 pass from B. Eisenhower (Maher kick) | 1:27 |
| 3 | Wyomissing | Westwood, 8 pass from R. Delp (Best kick) | 5:38 |
| 4 | Octorara | Prokay, 17 run (Prokay run) | 11:02 |
| 4 | Wyomissing | Nye, 6 run (Best kick) | 4:06 |
Team statistics
| OCTORARA | WYOMISSING | |
| First downs | 9 | 20 |
| Rushes-yards | 37-89 | 33-332 |
| Passing yards | 17 | 24 |
| Total yards | 106 | 356 |
| Passes | 1-3-0 | 3-5-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 3-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 4-20.0 | 0 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-37 | 7-65 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Octorara: Prokay 15-44, Dow 6-19, D’Andrea 8-14, Davis 1-9, Powell 6-8, Pooler 1-(-5).
Wyomissing: Gibney 2-61, Westwood 4-48, B. Eisenhower 2-47, Arguelles 2-42, Hardy 3-35, C. Eisenhower 5-32, Armistead 1-25, Fleischood 4-20, Nye 3-17, Bettances 3-8, Niedrowski 1-5, Roher 1-2, R. Delp 2-(-10).
PASSING
Octorara: Prokay 1-3-0–17.
Wyomissing: B. Eisenhower 2-4-0–16, R. Delp 1-1-0–8.
RECEIVING
Octorara: Remphrey 1-17.
Wyomissing: DiFabrizio 1-12, Westwood 1-8, Hardy 1-4.
