Wyomissing offense struggles in loss to Haverford School

By Rick Woelfel Last updated Sep 2, 2024

Wyomissing's Danny Fleischood tries to elude Haverford defenders during the Spartans' 20-3 loss Friday. (Tim Macrina photo)

2024 Berks football coverage

presented by UECU

By Rick Woelfel — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

HAVERFORD — When a team faces a quality opponent, there is little room for error. Wyomissing made too many mistakes Friday afternoon en route to a 20-3 loss to The Haverford School in a non-league game Friday afternoon at Sabol Field.

The Spartans (1-1) managed just 101 yards in total offense against the Fords, who were making their season debut.

Wyomissing struggled to move the ball offensively, particularly in the first half. Coach Bob Wolfrum felt those early struggles affected his team’s mindset.

“Now, we’re flustered,” he said. “And when you’re flustered and you’ve got a team like that to go against, the going is tough. We just had mistake after mistake. Against a team like that, you can’t make any.”

Wolfrum noted that the Fords’ size and speed neutralized his own team’s strengths.

“Some the teams we’ll play, if you miss a block or two, maybe the running back still beats somebody who has got a clear shot at him,” he said. I’m not sure we broke a tackle all day. They were fast enough to run us down and they tackled. They did everything well.”

Haverford School scored twice on big plays, a third touchdown came off a Wyomissing fumble in the red zone.

The hosts took the lead on the first drive of the game when quarterback Thomas Gaffney found Nick Krakovitz on a deep ball down the middle on a 55-yard catch and run. It was 7-0 with 3:18 gone in the opening quarter.

Gaffney wasn’t around much longer. He left the game four-and-a-half minutes into the second quarter when he was knocked out of bounds along the Wyomissing sideline after being flushed from the pocket.

His replacement, Finn Tierney, directed his team to a second score just before halftime after the Fords recovered a Wyomissing fumble that gave them the ball at the 10-yard line.

Matthew Jones went in from a yard out on fourth-and-goal with 22 seconds left in the half to put his team up 13-0.

Spartans’ Justice Hardy hurdles a defender. (Tim Macrina photo)

The Spartans had more success moving ball after halftime. Their best drive came after a fumble gave them the ball at their own 45-yard line. Over nine plays they drove to the Ford 16 before Keegan Maher delivered a 33-yard field goal.

“We had a few things we discussed at halftime,” Wolfrum said. “We thought we’d be able to get something going.

“We got a few plays, but we were never quite able to get that play we needed to get in the end zone. A touchdown would have made a nice difference mentally for us.”

Haverford School’s final score came on another big play when Tierney found Jones on a 58-yard strike with 11:09 left in the game.

Wolfrum credited his defensive unit for keeping the Spartans in the game.

“Our defense played great,” he said. “They really hung in there. And it’s the same kids (as the offensive unit). Who knows why that happens? We didn’t do a thing on offense but we looked great on defense.”

Wyomissing’s Caleb Beane left the game in the first quarter with an injury and did not return.

Spartans’ Chase Eisenhower cuts outside. (Tim Macrina photo)

	1	2	3	4	Final
Wyomissing	0	0	3	0	3
Haverford School	7	6	0	7	20

Scoring summary

1	Haverford School	Krakovitz, 54 pass from Gaffney (McClave kick)	8:42
2	Haverford School	Mat. Jones, 1 run (kick failed)	0:22
3	Wyomissing	Maher, 33 FG	2:11
4	Haverford School	Mat. Jones, 58 pass from Tierney (McClave kick)	11:09

Team statistics

	WYOMISSING	HAVERFORD SCHOOL
First downs	5	10
Rushes-yards	40-76	38-178
Passing yards	25	129
Total yards	101	307
Passes	5-8-0	5-8-1
Fumbles-lost	2-1	3-1
Punts-average	4-26.8	3-25.0
Penalties-yards	6-40	6-45