Overwhelming rushing attack leads Wyomissing football over Pottsville in non-league matchup

Sep. 2—POTTSVILLE — Though it may not have necessarily been the performance he wanted, coach Bob Wolfrum and Wyomissing football got the job done against a familiar foe on Friday night, defeating Pottsville 41-7 in a non-league matchup.

"A win's a win and we did what we had to do, but it's the second week in a row we've scored right away and gone to sleep for a while," Wolfrum said. "And I give them credit, I thought their kids played hard. They stayed in the game with us and they were getting the better of us with a lot of 1-on-1 stuff.

"We gotta get better at that. We have Trinity next week and they got some guys. That's going to be a rough one for us."

Led by running back Chase Eisenhower, who finished with 113 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries, the Spartans (2-0) were able to use their deep rushing attack to pull away with the victory.

Eisenhower, a sophomore, scored on rushes of 4 and 42 yards in the first half, and Wyomissing ended the night with 356 rushing yards. Senior Drew Forrey also had two scores: a 59-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Logan Hyde late in the second quarter that gave the Spartans a 21-0 lead, and a 3-yard rushing touchdown on their opening drive of the third quarter.

"Anybody can touch it and anybody can go for a long run," Eisenhower said. "That's what's so great about our team. Anybody can get the ball and anybody can make it happen."

While the rushing game provided the numbers on the scoreboard, the Wyomissing defense did its part to prevent the Crimson Tide's (0-2) stifling offense that threatened in the first half.

The Spartans held just a 7-point lead at the end of the first quarter after the 4-yard rushing touchdown from Eisenhower that capped an 8-play, 60-yard opening drive.

"We were the better team and they stayed in the game with us at least until halftime," Wolfrum said. "We had some good plays but we were in the wrong place way too much."

Wyomissing was indeed in the wrong place at the start of the second quarter with Pottsville threatening at the Spartans' 7-yard line with a first-and-goal. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, quarterback Kole Becker fumbled and Wyomissing recovered.

After having to punt from their own 29 on the ensuing drive, the Spartans found fortune as the Crimson Tide fumbled and Max Tipton recovered the botched return for Wyomissing.

The recovery set up an 8-play, 64-yard drive in which Eisenhower followed his blockers, found a hole and took a rush up the middle 41-yards for a touchdown on fourth-and-1 to make it 14-0.

"I think the blocking was great and everything just worked out offensively on those long drives," Eisenhower said.

The Spartans started to pull away after getting the ball back with under two minutes to go in the first half when Hyde found Forrey for the 59-yard passing touchdown.

Forrey broke free of the Pottsville defense on a deep slant to the outside and Hyde hit him in stride for what turned into an easy breakaway touchdown.

Hyde finished 1-for-4 passing with 59 yards and the touchdown pass. Wyomissing led 21-0 at the half.

"Logan had a really nice throw to Drew," Eisenhower said. "If we make it work, it's going to go for a great play. Most teams don't expect it because we usually run the ball most of the time, and they don't expect the pass when it comes."

After holding the Crimson Tide to 45 yards in the first half, defense paid dividends once again in the second half for Wyomissing as freshman Justice Hardy came up with an interception in the red zone to stop a promising Crimson Tide drive midway through the third quarter.

Collin Niedrowski had two sacks and 30 rushing yards for the Spartans.

Jeremiah Diaz and Tyler Niedrowski contributed to the Spartans' strong rushing attack the rest of the way. Each added a touchdown, as Diaz scored from 50 yards out on a reverse with 2:26 to go in the third quarter following Hardy's interception to make it 35-0. Neidrowski closed out the scoring on a 4-yard touchdown run with 5:57 to go in the fourth.

"We can put in a lot of running backs," Wolfrum said. "It seems like all of the substitute running backs have really good speed."

Pottsville's lone score came with 11:25 remaining in the game when Parrish McFarland scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown. He finished with 109 rushing yards on 13 carries.

Heading into next week's game on the road against Trinity, Wolfrum and the Spartans believe they need to clean some things up in order to have a more consistent game from start to finish.

"When somebody is supposed to be on the edge, he needs to be on the edge," Wolfrum said. " If he is supposed to be in the 'B gap,' that's where he needs to be. Too often they (the Crimson Tide) exploited that a bunch tonight. They couldn't keep it going, but they got a lot of plays off against us."

"We need to work hard and practice (and) just overall play better," Eisenhower said. "We still got a lot to do, but we're gonna work for it. So I'm looking forward to it."