Tigers dodge late bullets, celebrate big comeback win at Kennard-Dale
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Ryan Vandersloot — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
FAWN GROVE – It didn’t seem like Saturday’s 10 a.m. kickoff in southern York County against Kennard-Dale would end well for the Fleetwood Tigers.
Especially after those first 22 minutes.
Trailing by 17 points while possessing the ball for a mere two-plus minutes in the first half, the Tigers had their backs to the wall. Rather than make excuses they put together a quick scoring drive to end the first half.
That drive proved to be the catalyst for an unlikely comeback, the Tigers scoring 20 unanswered points for a 20-17 non-league victory.
The victory wasn’t assured until Kennard-Dale’s Dylan Logue missed a 36-yard field goal attempt with 2.2 seconds left.
Logue converted two field goals moments before but each was waved off, the first due to a Fleetwood timeout, the second by an encroachment penalty against the Tigers. The third try sailed wide right.
Pangburn didn’t want his team to use the early start time – requested by Fleetwood so that its players could return home in time to participate in an afternoon community parade – as an excuse for it’s slow start.
“We only touched the ball nine times in the first half,” Pangburn said. “At halftime, instead of crying over spilled milk, we just made adjustments.”
The Tigers (3-3) flipped the script by limiting Kennard-Dale to 37 second-half rushing yards while piling up 226 yards of their own. The Tigers adjusted to the Rams’ Wing-T offense and stopped their long, ball-consuming drives.
“We had to close their ‘C’ gap,” Pangburn said of his team’s defensive adjustment. “That’s what they were doing best and we had to take that away. My hat’s off to our defensive coordinator as he put together a hell of a game plan at the break because we were a different team in the second half.”
The win snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Rams (2-4) rushed for 172 yards on 36 attempts in the first half.
The Tigers turned the ball over on their first two drives, setting the ground-and-pound Rams up for what they do best.
Kennard-Dale’s David Smith sandwiched two TD runs around a 37-yard field goal by Logue that made it 17-0 late in the first half.
A six-play, 80-yard drive after Smith’s second score was exactly what the Tigers needed before intermission. The Rams certainly helped fuel the drive with a pair of 15-yard penalties, gifting the Tigers extra yards while stopping the clock.
Czion Brickle, who was stripped of the ball on Fleetwood’s second possession, made amends by finishing off the scoring drive with an 11-yard run. He finished with 132 rushing yards.
Brickle’s score didn’t immediately turns things around for the Tigers. A bad snap that resulted in an ugly 2-yard punt and a turnover on downs at the Tigers’ 31 twice gave the Rams a chance to seize momentum.
The Rams couldn’t capitalize on either opportunity as they turned it over on downs and had a field goal blocked, leaving them without any additional points.
Fleetwood put together a 10-play, 72-yard scoring drive after the blocked field goal to pull within 17-12. Brate Maddocks capped the drive a 23-yard score with 11:16 remaining.
The Tigers forced a quick three-and-out defensively at got the ball back at their own 25. It didn’t take long for them to strike as quarterback Jack Riffle found a wide-open Mason Musitano for a 75-yard go-ahead score with 9:21 remaining.
Trey Killian’s two-point conversion run capped the 20-0 scoring run.
Kennard-Dale had the ball three more times in the fourth quarter but punted twice before missing a field goal to end the game.
A fumble by Brickle at the end of a 50-yard run prevented the Tigers from expanding their advantage.
The Rams had to punt it back before Fleetwood’s final drive short-circuited. A holding penalty and a big loss on a botched snap forced the Tigers to punt with under two minutes left.
The Rams were able to drive within field goal range despite having no timeouts. Quarterback Jessup Sharp drove his team 41 yards in just over a minute before he killed the clock with a spike with 7.7 seconds left at the Fleetwood 20. That set up a wild closing scenario.
“All week we were talking about the long ride back,” Pangburn said. “And we needed this in more ways than one. I love our guys and they played their butts off today.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Fleetwood | 0 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 20 |
| Kennard-Dale | 7 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Kennard-Dale | D. Smith, 8 run (Logue kick) | 5:46 |
| 2 | Kennard-Dale | Logue, 37 FG | 10:45 |
| 2 | Kennard-Dale | D. Smith, 3 run (Logue kick) | 2:10 |
| 2 | Fleetwood | Brickle, 11 run (kick failed) | 1:23 |
| 4 | Fleetwood | B. Maddocks, 23 run (pass failed) | 11:16 |
| 4 | Fleetwood | Musitano, 75 pass from Riffle (Killian run) | 9:21 |
Team statistics
| Fleetwood | Kennard-Dale | |
| First downs | 11 | 17 |
| Rushes-yards | 19-172 | 53-209 |
| Passing yards | 133 | 71 |
| Total yards | 305 | 280 |
| Passes | 9-15-1 | 9-12-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 2-2 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 2-14 | 3-44.3 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-25 | 11-91 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Fleetwood: Brickle 14-132, B Maddocks 4-38, McFarland 1-2.
Kennard-Dale: Klimm 13-80, D Smith 13-72, McShane 8-12, Sharp 9-2, Warne 6-30, Green 4-13.
PASSING
Fleetwood: Riffle 9-15-1–133.
Kennard-Dale: Sharp 9-12-0–71.
RECEIVING
Fleetwood: Musitano 5-113, B. Maddocks 2-4, McFarland 1-13, Brickle 1-3.
Kennard-Dale: Klimm 1-3, D. Smith 2-9, Tarbert 6-59.
INTERCEPTIONS
Kennard-Dale: D. Smith.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Kennard-Dale: Logue 2.
