Schuylkill Valley’s Dominic Giuffre broke off an 18-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.
From there, it was an utterly forgettable night for the Panthers on Homecoming.
Annville-Cleona dominated at the line of scrimmage on both sides in a 42-10 victory over Schuylkill Valley in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5 game at Leesport.
The Panthers (5-1, 6-3), a week after beating archrival Hamburg 41-34 for their sixth straight win, came in on a high and were looking to set up a showdown for the section title against unbeaten Lancaster Catholic in the regular season finale.
Instead, there was nothing but frustration.
“We didn’t come to play,” Schuylkill Valley coach Bruce Harbach said. “I mean, our kids were not ready to play. After a big win last week, you know, everybody’s right, this was a trap game. The classic trap game. Our kids were not ready to play. That’s partly my fault.”
The Dutchmen (4-2, 6-3) ended up running for 358 yards on 59 carries and outgained the Panthers 408-201.
“The kids are playing physical,” Annville coach Matt Gingrich said. “I mean, that’s the biggest thing, our physicality. It’s nice to be physical because when you’re physical it masks a lot of mistakes.”
Not that the Dutchmen made too many errors. They controlled the ball and the clock on offense and never let the Panthers get going.
Annville held Giuffre, who came in as the leading rusher in Berks with 1,270 yards, to 69 yards on 17 carries.
“They were keying on him,” Harbach said. “They were coming off the edge, they were blitzing. Our linemen didn’t pick it up. It was an all-around bad game for us.”
Things looked good for Schuylkill Valley after Giuffre’s opening run, but it was Annville that set the tone just four plays later when it stopped quarterback Michael Goad a yard short on a fourth-and-3 play from Panthers’ 48.
The Dutchmen took the lead in six plays. Phoenix Music scored on what ended up as a 31-yard pass on a forward pitch from Gavin Keller with 6:54 left in the first quarter.
Annville made it 14-0 with a 13-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a 9-yard scoring run by Cael Harter seven seconds into the second quarter.
The Panthers cut it to 14-3 on a 29-yard field goal by Noah Wamsher with 8:53 left in the first half, but the Dutchmen came right back with a 10-play, 64-yard drive to go up 21-3 as Music ran it in from 14 yards.
Music, a senior, finished with 157 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries, plus the one catch for the 31-yard TD.
“I mean, they came to play,” Harbach said of the Dutchmen. “They were prepared. They’re a good football team, no question about it. What a difference from last week to this week. It was like night and day.”
Annville didn’t let up in the second half.
Alex Long ran for a 33-yard touchdown on a reverse on the first series of the third quarter to make it 28-3.
Schuylkill Valley showed some life with a 60-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a 6-yard run by Giuffre off a pitch from Logan Nawrocki, who ran the first 5 yards on the play. That made it 28-10.
But again the Dutchmen answered with a nine-play scoring drive, finished off by Music with a 9-yard run.
Music scored his final TD on a 10-yard run with 9:11 left.
After forcing Schuylkill Valley to punt on its next drive, Annville was able to run the final 6:27 off the clock.
It was a fitting end to a disappointing night for the Panthers, who now will get a chance to play for a share of the Section 5 title against the Crusaders, who Harbach coached to two state titles and 139 wins in 16 seasons.
“We’ll get the drawing board and try to figure it out,” Harbach said, “make some changes and see what happens.”
Source: Berkshire mont