Wyomissing advances to District 3 Class 3A football title game with win over Schuylkill Valley

Nov. 11—There is something different about Wyomissing during the playoffs.

With a 48-0 win over fourth-seeded Schuylkill Valley in a District 3 Class 3A football semifinal on Saturday at Bob Wolfrum Field, the top-seeded Spartans are 19-0 at home in the postseason under coach Bob Wolfrum.

Next up for Wyomissing (10-1) in the district championship game is third-seeded West Perry (11-1), the team the Spartans defeated 63-7 last season for their fourth straight title.

For senior running back and linebacker Ryker Jones, the difference in postseason football is in the intensity, and it's been building for the last few weeks at Wyomissing.

"The difference is our intensity," said Jones, who finished with 50 rushing yards. "Earlier in the season, we were winning games but we weren't coming out — they were a lot closer than they should have been. We weren't coming out with intensity. We weren't coming out with energy. Last week against Lampeter-Strasburg and today, we had a lot of intensity and when you just see a difference from the start."

The difference in intensity was apparent early on as Jones scored a 30-yard rushing touchdown to allow the Spartans to start to pull away with a 20-0 lead with 1:57 remaining in the first quarter. Jones shed a tackle and broke free on the outside with a strong cut to complete a six-play, 47-yard drive for Wyomissing.

Jones was involved on a pass rush earlier in the first quarter on the Panthers' second drive that forced an interception return for a touchdown by fellow senior Collin Niedrowski. Deep in their own territory on third down, Schuylkill Valley quarterback Logan Nawrocki got rid of the ball under pressure from the blitzing Spartans and Niedrowski jumped in for an interception at the Panthers' 7-yard line before running it in for a score to make it 14-0.

The play came after sophomore fullback Chase Eisenhower scored an 11-yard rushing touchdown for Wyomissing on the Spartans' first drive of the afternoon.

Niedrowski finished with 27 rushing yards, including a 7-yard rushing touchdown with 5:48 to play in the second quarter, which made it 27-0. Wyomissing ended the day with 303 rushing yards on 41 carries with 12 different ball carriers.

"He's a linebacker, he's a special teams player and he's a fullback — and he can play all three," Spartans coach Bob Wolfrum said. "He doesn't get full time at fullback because we got a couple others too, so a lot of our backs aren't full time. And I think that keeps them fresh. Probably none of them are real happy because they're not getting a lot of carries, but they understand and they know it's a team thing."

A strong defensive showing by Wyomissing limited Schuylkill Valley to 76 yards of total offense (53 passing and 23 rushing). Senior running back Dominic Giuffre was held to 15 rushing yards on seven carries as the Panthers struggled to pick up first downs early in the game, earning just three in the first half and finishing with seven.

"Dominic is a really good running back, but we planned for him all week," Jones said. "We knew he was a really good athlete, a really good running back, and again the intensity (was key). We played to our roles and all 11 guys did what they were supposed to do, and we were able to shut it down."

Schuylkill Valley was coming off its first home district playoff win in program history and its second all-time. Though it was not the final result they wanted, the Panthers accomplishments in 2023 have put them on the right track for a bright future, according to Nawrocki.

"We're all super thankful, coach (Bruce Harbach) has been amazing, this is a great team and the senior class was great," Nawrocki said. "We set all these school records and it was a great season. We obviously didn't want it to end like this, but it's just a great school and we had a great season.

"Next year, we'll have a lot of skill players back," Nawrocki said. "We'll lose a lot of lineman but hopefully we get back to where we are and go father."

A 37-yard pass from senior quarterback Logan Hyde to freshman running back Justice Hardy completed a four-play, 83-yard drive in just 57 seconds to give the Spartans a 34-0 lead heading into halftime.

Hyde also completed a 36-yard pass to Ethan Brower on the drive. He finished 4-of-5 passing for 113 yards and the touchdown and Brower had two catches, one for 36 and one for 37 yards.

The only downside of an otherwise strong performance for Wolfrum and company were the penalties his team committed. Wyomissing committed four penalties for 55 yards, while Schuylkill Valley committed three penalties for 20 yards.

"He was right on the money today," Wolfrum said of Hyde's two-minute drill. "I thought we played very well today on both sides of the ball. Too many penalties and we need to address that because it just doesn't stop. It's gonna get us at some point unless we fix it.

"They really got hardly anything and we gave them a couple first downs where we had them stopped but then penalties (moved the chains) for a first down. Our defense played very well and we moved the ball. I can't complain about any of that."

In the second half, senior running back Marvin Armistead scored an 18-yard rushing touchdown with 7:02 to go in the third quarter and sophomore running back Wayne Reason scored a 5-yard rushing touchdown to close out the scoring with 10:23 to go in the game.

Heading into yet another District 3 championship game, Jones said he is thankful to have the opportunity to try and bring another title home after injuries have limited his time in the past.

"Really I'm just thankful that I'm able to be in this position," Jones said. "I know it's a privilege to get to play football. Especially after tearing my ACL and sitting out for the whole summer and then for the first three games, it's not a fun feeling. You can't take this stuff for granted, so I'm really thankful to be back."