Wilson will grow from season-opening win over Cheltenham
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Gross — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
| Final | |
| Wilson | 35 |
| Cheltenham | 24 |
Doug Dahms, Wilson’s venerable coach, had the right cliche for the Bulldogs’ promising-but-uneven 35-24 defeat of Cheltenham Friday.
“The biggest jump a football team makes,’’ he told the post-game huddle, “is from Week 1 to Week 2.’’
A lot is expected of Dahms’ club, coming off an 11-win season, a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 championship, and a postseason that reached the District 3 Class 6A championship game.
“Anytime you go into Week 1, your kids are feeling their oats a little bit,’’ Dahms said later. “They think they’re better than they are.’’
And then you’re leading 21-0 a quarter-and-a-half in, and maybe you think it’s going to be easy.
Especially since that lead was built on the arm of Mason Young, Wilson’s quarterback, making his first varsity start. Young hit Correll Akings for a 20-yard TD just five plays into the game. On Wilson’s next possession, Young hit Jaiden Carpenter for a 24-yard score. Early in the second quarter he rifled a strike to Akings to set up a score — on Akings’ 3-yard run, that made it 21-0.
This was mostly short, horizontal stuff, rhythm throws set up by pre-snap motion. And Young did have one meltdown, a bad interception on a broken, very extended play in the second quarter.
But the good far outdid the bad, and by halftime Young had completed 15-of-18 throws for 187 yards and three touchdowns.
“That was a bad (pick),’’ Dahms said. “But he kept (plays) alive a couple times, too, and made some scrambling throws. Typical first game.’’
The Bulldogs led 28-12 at halftime, at which point they had run 39 plays and possessed the ball for nearly 17 of the half’s 24 minutes. It wasn’t a blowout entirely because of two plays — a 71-yard touchdown pass from Kendall Jackson, Cheltenham’s gifted senior quarterback, to Chaz Moore and a 67-yarder from Jackson to Carsen Giddiens.
Both could safely be termed coverage mistakes; the Bulldogs completely lost track of Giddiens on his easy, pitch-and-catch TD.
“They have a lot of speed, and we had breakdowns,’’ Dahms said. “We have speed back there too, but (Jackson) had the cannon to make it happen.’’
Wilson never got that fixed, at least on this night. Jackson, who also caused the Bulldogs problems in a 28-20 season-opening win a year ago, completed a modest 12-of-23, but for 329 yards and all four Cheltenham TDs.
Wilson didn’t dominate the line of scrimmage. Young was sacked three times, and despite a few big plays the Bulldogs ran for just 4.4 yards per carry.
It actually got dicey for the Bulldogs at the start of the third quarter, when Cheltenham put together an actual drive, running the ball effectively for the only time all night, setting up a 26-yard slant route from Jackson to Zeke Upchurch for 26 yards to the Wilson 1-inch line.
Then the Panthers false-started. On third-and-goal Jackson was penalized for an illegal pass — he uncorked it while falling down but also from past the line of scrimmage. On fourth-down Wilson got a clutch pass breakup from Carpenter.
The outcome was never much in doubt after that, and Wilson did get better in the trenches as the game wore on. The Bulldogs finished it off with a 10-play, 73-yard, fourth-quarter drive that included just one pass, and ended with Ethan Harding’s 11-yard run.
Akings finished with 85 all-purpose yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Wilson also got a strong game from junior tight end Mike Glover, all-state a year ago, who had five catches for 77 yards and 33 yards in just two carries. Glover also had four solo tackles and two sacks.
And Dahms will get his guys’ attention as they prepare to travel to Plymouth-Whitemarsh Friday.
“Our backs ran tough,’’ he said. “We played pretty well defensively except for a few breakdowns. We’ll get better.’’
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Cheltenham | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 24 |
| Wilson | 14 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 35 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Wilson | Akings, 20 pass from Young (Oxenreider kick) | 9:53 |
| 1 | Wilson | Carpenter, 24 pass from Young (Oxenreider kick) | 5:51 |
| 2 | Wilson | Akings, 3 run (Oxenreider kick) | 6:00 |
| 2 | Cheltenham | Giddiens, 67 pass from Jackson (kick failed) | 5:42 |
| 2 | Wilson | D. Greer, 1 pass from Young (Oxenreider kick) | 1:53 |
| 2 | Cheltenham | Moore, 71 pass from Jackson (pass failed) | 1:18 |
| 4 | Wilson | Harding, 11 run (Oxenreider kick) | 4:44 |
| 4 | Cheltenham | Giddiens, 13 pass from Jackson (pass failed) | 3:31 |
| 4 | Cheltenham | Upchurch, 45 pass from Jackson (pass failed) | 1:36 |
| CHELTENHAM | WILSON | |
| First downs | 12 | 21 |
| Rushes-yards | 21-29 | 32-178 |
| Passing yards | 329 | 190 |
| Total yards | 358 | 368 |
| Passes | 12-23-1 | 17-22-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 4-37.0 | 2-28.5 |
| Penalties-yards | 11-85 | 8-70 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Cheltenham: Walker 4-32, Butler 4-8, Ezell 3-2, Stehman 1-(-2), Jackson 9-(-11).
Wilson: M. Greer 9-61, Akings 14-45, Glover 2-33, Harding 2-21, Herb 1-14, D. Greer 1-11, Young 3-(-7).
PASSING
Cheltenham: Kendall 12-23-1–329.
Wilson: Young 17-22-1–190.
RECEIVING
Cheltenham: Upchurch 6-149, Giddiens 4-111, Moore 2-69.
Wilson: Glover 5-77, Dean 4-6, M. Green 3-35, Akings 2-40, Carpenter 2-31, D. Greer 1-1.
INTERCEPTIONS
Chelenham: Smith.
Wilson: Akings.
