With District 3 playoff hopes hanging in the balance on Friday at Forino Sports Complex, one team kept its dream alive.
Berks Catholic defeated Hamburg 48-14 in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5 matchup.
“Our expectation was obviously to win,” senior quarterback Zach Suski said. “We’re on a hot streak now, trying to get this last win of the season. Happy with how the offense played. Defense played great too, and excited for the playoffs.”
The Saints (4-2, 5-4) capitalized on an undermanned Hawks team without their starting quarterback, Tyler Shuey.
Shuey, who had 1,316 passing yards and 408 rushing yards on the season, suffered a season-ending injury. Sophomore Isaak Stewart got the start at quarterback.
“No, in fact, even when he didn’t warm up, I thought he might still dress,” Saints coach Dave Stahler said of the Hawks’ star. “Shuey’s a really good player, and without him that’s hard. Anybody losing one of your better guys, it’s tough. We’ve been through that here a little bit. And Matt (Hoffert) does a great job, and they run a great program, and it’s just tough. Small school football, when you lose guys, you lose guys on both sides of the ball, and you’re moving people around. So it’s just tough when guys get hurt.”
“He’s a great player,” Suski said of Shuey. “We were obviously happy to see that he wasn’t in but hopefully he gets better. They’re a great team, but I’m happy with how our whole team played today.”
From the opening series, it was evident the Hawks’ offense would struggle throughout the game.
On the second play of the game, Stewart fumbled the snap and fell on the ball to retain possession. One play later he was sacked by Eric Bennethum for a four-yard loss.
The Saints immediately got the ball rolling on offense when Suski hit Jackson Kozik on a slant that he took 39 yards down to the 29-yard line.
Five plays later senior Bryce Gumby broke away from defenders for a 21-yard touchdown.
“I think we’re starting to come together,” Stahler said. “Play a little better, execute a little bit better. I think one of the things we asked our guys to be is great teammates, and I think I saw a lot of that tonight, so I was happy with that.”
After another three-and-out by the Hawks’ offense, the Saints found the endzone again.
With 2:56 left in the first quarter, Suski threw a beautiful over-the-shoulder pass where only his receiver, Scott Duffy, could catch it for a 32-yard touchdown.
On the ensuing drive, Hamburg (3-3, 5-4) got their offense to click as they put together a drive into the second quarter.
Starting at their own 29-yard line, the Hawks drove down to the opposing 18-yard as they faced a third-and-three.
Stewart completed his third pass of the series as his receiver, Ty Werley mossed Gumby for an 18-yard touchdown to put six points on the board.
However, it went downhill from there for Hamburg.
Suski threw his second touchdown of the day, this time to a wide-open Gavin Welker up the seam taking the 21-7 lead.
Two plays into the Hawks’ next series, Stewart threw a bad ball that was intercepted by Owen Schalk.
Taking over at the 38-yard line, it took only one play for the Saints to get back into the endzone.
Suski connected with a wide-open Welker once again on a nine-route for six points.
With 5:43 remaining until halftime, Hamburg decided to switch quarterbacks as Leland Moore took snaps out of shotgun.
That experiment only lasted one possession as they were forced to punt after picking up one first down. Stewart would return under center the ensuing series.
In between the quarterback change, junior Xavier Gerald had an 11-yard run before breaking a 61-yard touchdown on his second carry of the game.
Leading 35-7 with 4:32 remaining, the Hawks had to get something going to have a chance of a second-half comeback.
Unfortunately for them, Stewart fumbled the snap on third-and-eighteen as Johnny Sauppee jumped on the ball for the Saints.
The trend of getting into the endzone continued when Schalk got rewarded with a five-yard score after his interception earlier in the quarter.
The Saints went into halftime with a comfortable 42-7 lead which activated the second half running clock for the remainder of the game.
Berks Catholic scored one more time on their opening possession with a one-yard score from Aidan Curley to cap off an 11-play 60-yard drive.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Hamburg’s Misael Oviedo scored from six yards out before the Saints were able to run the clock out.
Berks Catholic was ecstatic to not only keep their playoff hopes alive but also dominate on senior night.
“I think they were excited about senior night,” Stahler, who is a first-year head coach of the Saints, said of his first group of seniors. “Our seniors have worked really hard, and it’s a good group of kids. It was nice to see them all have some success tonight. I thought defensively, I thought our defensive played really, really well. I was happy with that group.”
The Saints’ defense allowed only 133 yards of total offense, 38 of which came when the game was out of reach.
Offensively, Gerald had 113 yards on seven carries. Nathaniel Rose had 88 yards on nine carries.
For Hamburg, Moore had 35 yards on seven carries. Stewart went 6-of-12 for 50 yards and one interception.
The Hawks’ playoff aspirations are more than likely out of reach as they entered the day as the 13th team in a 10-team field in Class 4A.
The Saints will need to win next week against Annville-Cleona to continue their playoff dreams in Class 3A.
“We stated last week that every week is a playoff game, we got to keep winning,” Stahler said. “That’s kind of been our mentality. So we’ll get ready for a playoff game against Annville-Cleona…That’s the expectation here is that we compete for championships. We’ve struggled the last couple of years, but I think our kids are starting to work and starting to understand that expectation is what it is,”
“We have to practice hard all week,” Suski said of what is needed to make the playoffs. “Every play is important. We need to run every play to 100%. No days off, no plays off, just 100% at all times.”
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment