Wyomissing looking forward to second chance against Lampeter-Strasburg
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Bob Wolfrum doesn’t generally care for rematches but the chess match part of playing a team a second time in a season intrigues the long-time Wyomissing coach.
“The neat thing is, both (teams) are going to change something,” he said, referring the Spartans’ District 3 Class 4A championship opponent Lampeter-Strasburg, which beat Wyomissing 20-7 in late October.
“What do we need to change from the first time?” he said. “What do we not need to change? That part of it has been interesting. The team that lost the first time is more likely to change more stuff, but nobody goes in with the exact same game plan.”
Wolfrum knows all about rematches — and he’s proven to be pretty good given a second chance. In 1990 his Wyomissing team lost to Holy Name 15-14 in the regular season, then came back to beat the Blue Jays 21-0 in the district title game. A year later the teams tied in the regular season, and the Spartans again won 21-0 in the district championship.
“Backyard Brawl” rivals Berks Catholic and Wyomissing met for the district title in both 2014 and 2015; both times the team that won the regular season meeting lost the rematch.
Only one team has beaten a Wolfrum-coached team twice in the same season: Conrad Weiser. The 1996 Scouts, coached by the late Al Silveri, won 36-13 in the regular season, then 16-13 in overtime in a district semifinal. (Silveri later joined Wolfrum’s staff as a line coach.)
Lampeter-Strasburg will try to become just the second team to sweep the second-seeded Spartans (10-2) when they meet Friday at Warwick at 7.
The top-seeded Pioneers (12-0) seem well-equipped to do it. They’re ranked No. 3 in the state, they’re allowing fewer points than any team in District 3 (8.5 per game) and have the highest margin of victory (32.4) of any team in the district.
They’re fueled by perhaps the most dynamic player in the Lancaster-Lebanon League, quarterback Caileb Howse, who has run for 1,245 yards and 19 touchdowns, passed for 1,360 yards and 14 TDs, and intercepted five more passes than he’s thrown (zero).
He ran for 111 yards and capped the Pioneers’ victory at Wolfrum Field with a 15-yard TD run around left end with 7:21 remaining.
“He’s hard to tackle because he moves well and he’s very agile,” Wolfrum said. “I watched him against Twin Valley, he went from one sideline to the other and halfway back; he was running around for 13 seconds and (then) threw a touchdown pass.”
When Howse doesn’t end up with the ball hard-running senior tailback Dominic Brown often does. He’s rushed for 1,279 yards and 21 TDs. He carried the ball 30 times for 128 yards against Wyomissing in the Week 10 game that determined the Section 4 championship.
Good as those two were, it was Lampeter-Strasburg’s defense that decided the game. It kept the Spartans completely hemmed in, allowing just 146 total yards. Wyomissing’s biggest gain of the day came on quarterback Teddy White’s 18-yard scramble late in the game. The Spartans’ only score came after a partially blocked punt gave them possession at the Pioneers’ 15 late in the first half.
“We just couldn’t do anything on offense that whole game,” Wolfrum said. “I thought our defense did a great job. They played great considering they were on the field the whole game. (Lampeter-Strasburg is) pretty darned good, and we made ’em work for everything they got.”
The Spartans saw their record 36-game home winning streak come to an end against Lampeter but they weren’t far from extending it. They trailed just 13-7 midway through the final quarter. Three times they stopped the Pioneers and forced field goal attempts. They committed just two penalties.
A fourth-quarter punt the Spartans failed to field ended up rolling 63 yards to the Wyomissing 7, putting them in a hole that turned out to be costly. The Spartans were forced to punt from their own 13; the Pioneers took over at the Wyomissing 41 and went in for the clinching touchdown.
Justice Hardy, Wyomissing’s No. 1 kick returner, wasn’t in the game at that point to field that punt. He was knocked out of the game a couple times earlier in the afternoon with injuries. In fact, he didn’t play in either of their playoff games – a 31-0 win over East Pennsboro and a 35-7 win over West York.
Wyomissing’s leading rusher, receiver, scorer, kick returner and top cover corner will be back on the field Friday, and that should make a difference. Tight end Andrew Bresnahan, who missed playoff time due to injury, is also expected to return.
Wyomissing’s streak of five straight district championships is on the line. Wolfrum is confident his team will battle for a sixth.
“They’re looking forward to the challenge,” he said. “They know how good Lampeter is, but they have a lot of pride; they’re used to winning. We’re not gonna go down there thinking we’re gonna lose. We’re gonna do our best to turn that around.”
“Coming out of that (first) game I just knew we were going to see them again,” said Wyomissing senior Max Tipton, “and here we are. Can’t wait. It’ll be fun.”
