Week 2 Glance: Bulldogs, Mustangs have plenty of things ‘to clean up’ this week
Berks football didn’t get off to the greatest of starts.
Just three teams — Hamburg, Muhlenberg and Wyomissing — earned wins over non-Berks opponents in last week’s season-openers.
There was an unprecedented hat trick: Berks Catholic, Gov. Mifflin and Wilson each lost on the same day. That had never happened before. Ever.
Granted, the Saints have only been playing for 12 seasons, and for many of those years the Mustangs and Bulldogs were opening against each other. Still, for three of Berks’ standard-bearers to go down in the same week was eye-opening.
The Bulldogs caught the worst of it, losing to emerging Philadelphia Catholic League power Roman Catholic 46-15. They turned it over seven times, yielded 457 total yards and were outscored 26-0 over the final 14 minutes.
“We’re not very good yet,” said Wilson coach Doug Dahms. “We made so many mental mistakes, it was ridiculous. We’ve gotta clean it up, keep working, keep trying to get better. We don’t know any other way.”
That’s what the Bulldogs did last season after starting 1-2 and 2-3. They figured it out and reached the District 3 Class 6A championship game.
Gov. Mifflin has reached the District 3 Class 5A championship game in back-to-back years but this is certainly a different, younger team. Gone are national Player of the Year Nick Singleton and half-a-dozen other all-league players.
That was evident in a 21-10 loss to Spring-Ford.
“It showed that we were out there with 20 new starters and a lot of underclassmen,” said Mustangs coach Jeff Lang. “It was kind of like a deer in the headlights.”
Things don’t get much easier for the Bulldogs or Mustangs this week. Wilson heads to Central Dauphin and Mifflin to Carlisle as part of a 12-game Week 2 schedule in Berks football.
Wyomissing goes for its 27th straight regular season win with its annual trip to Pottsville Friday. The Spartans have taken the last two meetings and lead the series 8-4. Most of the games in the series have been close — five have been decided by a touchdown or less — but the Spartans dominated last year, winning 42-14.
There could be more of the same this year: Wyomissing, ranked No. 2 in the state in Class 3A, is coming off a 49-0 win over Kennard-Dale. Pottsville opened with a 55-12 loss at Jersey Shore, which is ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 4A.
Fleetwood heads to Conrad Weiser in a meeting of former Berks 2 and playoff combatants. The Scouts have dominated the series, winning 12-of-13. Fleetwood’s only win came in 2019, 27-14. The Scouts came back that season to beat the Tigers 44-15 in a District 3 Class 4A opener.
Exeter, ranked No. 7 in the state in Class 5A, hosts a surprising Boyertown team, coming off a 61-0 win over Upper Perkiomen. The Eagles flexed their muscles with a 35-0 opening win over Daniel Boone.
Muhlenberg, coming off a 25-13 win at Octorara, looks for its first 2-0 start since 2013 when it faces Reading High for the “Battle of the Border” trophy. The Muhls snapped a 26-game losing streak last year by beating the Red Knights 38-6 in their season finale.
The rivalry dates back to 1974 when the Red Knights won the first of six straight in the series. The Muhls have come back to tie it 9-9.
Central Dauphin has proven to be one of Wilson’s toughest opponents. The Rams are one of the few teams to hold a series edge (7-5) over the Bulldogs. They’ve met three times in district championship games and five times in the playoffs. Wilson has won the last two after losing four straight in the series.
Central Dauphin also had trouble in Week 1, losing 36-19 at Central York. Rams coach Glen McNamee knows Wilson’s program as well as anyone outside West Lawn; it would be surprising if his team doesn’t play better in Week 2.
“(This is) a pretty typical Central Dauphin team,” Dahms said. “They have good size up front, they’re physical, they run to the ball and they’ve got a lot of experience back. We’ll have our hands full.”
The Bulldogs had their hands full last season with quarterback Max Mosey, who was as dangerous with his feet as with his arm. The Rams have another dual-threat quarterback in Keyron Plummer, who ran for a pair of scores last week.
Dahms’ main concerns are internal. His guys need to clean things up.
“(After watching film) they realized they’ve got a long way to go,” Dahms said. “They showed that they can play, they’ve just gotta get more consistent. Your most improvement always comes from Week 1 to Week 2, so we’ll see.”
Lang is hoping for the same against Carlisle, which was picked to finish fourth in the Mid-Penn Commonwealth behind Harrisburg, State College and Cumberland Valley (and ahead of Central Dauphin). The Thundering Herd opened with a 28-14 win over Mechanicsburg.
“We’ve gotta clean up some blown assignments, finish blocks and finish drives,” he said. “After the first couple series (last week) we came into our own; our defense came on, played pretty strong for the rest of the game.
“We played four quarters straight out. I’m very proud of them; they battled to the end. There was a lot of disappointment (afterward). It’s a sour taste, it’s something we’ve gotta get rid of.”
Week 2 schedule
Friday
Wilson at Central Dauphin, 7
Reading at Muhlenberg, 7
Boyertown at Exeter, 7
Gov. Mifflin at Carlisle, 7
Daniel Boone at Conestoga Valley, 7
Fleetwood at Conrad Weiser, 7
Lower Dauphin at Twin Valley, 7
Berks Catholic at Executive Education, 7
Wyomissing at Pottsville,
Warrior Run at Hamburg, 7
Schuylkill Valley at Upper Perkiomen, 7
Saturday
Kutztown at York Vo-Tech, 1
