Wyomissing hangs on to beat Danville, advances to PIAA 3A semifinal
(This story will be updated later tonight with additional details and postgame reaction.)
By Mitch Rupert — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
DANVILLE – As the football sailed inches wide of the left upright, a party started on the Wyomissing sideline. The party may have been more relief than it was excitement, but either way the Spartans were able to celebrate another trip to the state semifinals.
Danville missed a 32-yard field goal with three seconds left Friday night, falling just short on a furious second-half comeback as Wyomissing prevailed 21-19 in the PIAA Class AAA quarterfinals at Danville’s Ironmen Stadium.
Wyomissing ran for 325 yards, built a 21-0 lead, then held on for dear life through a bevy of mistakes in the second half.
“There’s two coaches on the staff that have A-Fib, and this game almost sent us both back into it,” Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum quipped afterward.
Wyomissing played a near-flawless first half, recording nearly as many first downs (14) as Danville ran offensive snaps (17).
The Spartans ran for 188 yards in the first half and scored on its first three possessions, grinding on a Danville defense which hadn’t given up three touchdowns in a game this season until last week’s District 4 final.
The Ironmen found their footing in the second half, stonewalling Wyomissing on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line in the third quarter before embarking on a 99-yard touchdown drive.
The Ironmen added another score 64 seconds into the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to two points.
Danville then partially blocked a Ryker Jones punt and got the ball back at its own 46-yard line with 1:25 to play in the game with no timeouts. The Ironmen drove as deep as the Wyomissing 14-yard line before settling for a fourth-down field goal attempt with 10 seconds to go.
Aaron Johnson’s 32-yard attempt from the right hash went just wide left sending Wyomissing to the state semifinals to either Northwestern Lehigh or Neumann-Goretti.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wyomissing | 14 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Danville | 0 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 19 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Wyomissing | Bickley, 23 pass from Zechman (Levering kick) | 5:40 |
| 1 | Wyomissing | D. Eisenhower, 12 run (Levering kick) | :47 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Kramer, 2 run (Levering kick) | 2:42 |
| 2 | Danville | Persing, 6 pass from Gordon (kick blocked) | :45 |
| 3 | Danville | Kiersch, 8 pass from Gordon (pass failed) | 2:12 |
| 4 | Danville | Gordon, 3 run (Johnson kick) | 10:56 |
Team statistics
| Wyomissing | Danville | |
| First downs | 22 | 11 |
| Rushes-yards | 58-325 | 21-96 |
| Passing yards | 31 | 175 |
| Total yards | 356 | 271 |
| Passes | 2-7-0 | 11-24-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-1 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 2-25.0 | 4-30.25 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-26 | 5-27 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Wyomissing: Kramer 27-157; D. Eisenhower 14-109, McIntyre 12-61, C. EIsenhower 2-10, Zechman 3-(-12).
Danville: Stauffer 6-36, Raup 1-31, Gordon 13-30, Johnson 1-(-1).
PASSING
Wyomissing: Zechman 2-7-0–31.
Danville: Gordon 11-20-0–175, Persing 0-1-0–0, Team 0-3-0–0.
RECEIVING
Wyomissing: Blickley 1-23, D. Eisenhower 1-8.
Danville: Johnson 4-102, Persing 4-21, Kiersch 2-31, Raup 1-21.
MISSED FIELD GOALS
Wyomissing: Levering 39.
Danville: Johnson 32.
