On a beautiful afternoon for football at Bob Wolfrum Field on Saturday, Wyomissing could not get their offense going.
Lampeter-Strasburg defeated Wyomissing 20-7 to finish its flawless 10-0 season while capturing the Lancaster-Lebanon Section 4 title.
The Spartans (6-1, 8-2) came into Saturday ranked No. 2 in the state in Class 4A and and the Pioneers (7-0, 10-0) were just behind at the No. 4 spot.
Last season, Wyomissing scored a win 18-13 over Lampeter-Strasburg so the Pioneers had extra motivation to get revenge this season.
“Same thing they did last year,” Spartans coach Bob Wolfrum said of the Pioneers’ success. “There was nothing X’s and O’s wise. I’m sure they’ll tell you they did a few things differently, but they were physical and we couldn’t we couldn’t block them. We had nothing we could call our own. We were lucky to get a first down, and on a lot of the plays, the point of attack was blocked in a second. That middle linebacker (Emory Fluhr), we couldn’t get to him, and among others, he just killed us, and they physically beat us up pretty good. Having said that, I thought our defense was great, especially since we never gave him a rest. They were on the field all day.”
In what many thought would be a high-scoring affair, it turned out that defenses on both sides asserted themselves early and for four quarters.
Both teams were forced to punt on their opening series before the Pioneers put together a drive.
Quarterback Caileb Hawse connected with Dominic Brown and Danny Weichler for gains of 16 and 20 yards to get into Wyomissing territory.
Facing a third-and-seven at the 20-yard line, Hawse broke free for a 12-yard gain.
Down to second-and-goal, the Spartans’ defense stood strong and stuffed two consecutive Hawse runs.
Head Coach Victor Ridenour decided to take the three points with a 19-yard field goal attempt from Peter Fiorello.
However, a roughing of the kicker call on Wyomissing kept the drive alive.
Two plays later, Brown scored from one yard out to capitalize on the costly mistake from the Spartans.
“I never figure out how much that helps or hinders you when you know what happened the rest of the game,” Wolfrum said of the penalty. “They were kicking our butt no matter what the score was, but that definitely was a downer for us. We had a nice stop there and made him get three (points). But you do dumb stuff like that, you pay for it.”
Trailing 7-0 with 4:43 remaining in the first, Wyomissing was forced to punt again.
On the Pioneers’ ensuing possession, they were forced to punt in only three plays.
The Spartans’ special teams came up big as multiple players looked to get a hand on the ball to cause the ball to fly directly up and then backward for great field position.
Wyomissing started the drive at the opposing 15-yard line, and it didn’t take long for the Spartans’ offense to make something happen.
Justice Hardy ran a sweep to the right side before getting pushed out at the two-yard line.
Two plays later, Derek Macrina bounced a run to the left and got points on the board for the home crowd.
Tied at 7 after the first, it looked like the game might come down to whatever offense could get a bit of luck at the right time.
Hawse got the ball moving on the next drive with completions of 11 and 10 yards before the offense stalled at midfield due to a holding penalty.
On the ensuing series, the Spartans picked up two first downs before facing a fourth-and-four at their own 41-yard line.
“I had confidence that we could move them a little bit and run our offense,” Wolfrum said. “And we couldn’t, we couldn’t count on anything.”
With 5:05 remaining in the half, the Pioneers got the ball back.
Taking up the rest of the clock on a 14-play 74-yard drive, Lampeter-Strasburg faced a fourth-and-goal from the four-yard line.
Ridenour decided to take the three points to take the lead at halftime 10-7.
The second half was not much different for both teams as the same struggles continued for Wyomissing while Lampeter-Strasburg found some creases offensively.
The Spartans had back-to-back runs of 10-plus yards from Hardy and Chase Eisenhower before the big plays disappeared.
Punts were traded back and forth until the Pioneers took over at the 5:00 mark.
That is when Hawse took a QB-keeper 45 yards down the sidelines to the Wyomissing 25-yard line.
Hardy, one of the Spartans’ biggest playmakers, was injured on the play as he left the game but would come back in the second half.
On a third-and-five, safety Daniel Delp had a nice pass breakup to force fourth down.
This time Fiorello knocked down a 42-yard field to extend the lead to 13-7 with 2:59 remaining in the third quarter.
The Spartans failed to get anything going on offense on their next two possessions going into the fourth.
With 9:35 left in the game, the Pioneers’ offense took over with great field position at the 39-yard line.
Two minutes and five plays later Hawse scored on a QB-power to the left side untouched for six points. His 19th rushing touchdown of the season.
Time was not on their side down two scores for the Spartans, who had to get something going quickly to have any chance at the section 4 title.
Quarterback Teddy White scrambled and took off from an 18-yard gain down to the Pioneers’ 33-yard line.
White then threw an interception over the middle to Fluhr on the next play to all but close the door on any last-minute comeback.
After a few first downs on the ground, the opposing sideline went up into celebration mode.
“I just told them, ‘Now we know what it feels like to get our ass kicked and that happens to everybody at one point. You got to get up and work to get better because we might be playing them again, down the road. We certainly don’t want that kind of outcome again,’” Wolfrum said.
Wyomissing rushed for only 147 yards on 40 carries. Hardy was the leading rusher with 52 yards on 12 carries.
For the Pioneers, Hawse, who passed and rushed for over 1,000 yards on the season, only had 66 yards through the air on 10-of-15 attempts. He had 136 yards on 16 carries.
Brown also eclipsed the 100-yard mark with 122 yards on 27 carries.
Both teams earned a bye in the District 3 Class 4A playoffs.
Source: Berkshire mont