HANOVER TOWNSHIP — Brock Simms is listed at 5-feet, 11-inches on Berwick’s roster. It might be a little generous for the senior linebacker, but however tall Simms is, it was plenty tall enough to wreak havoc on a Hanover Area goal-to-go situation to end the first half Friday night.
Simms tipped two passes over the middle of the field on the defining defensive stand of the game for the Bulldogs. He also scored a rushing touchdown as a part of a new Berwick offense which strips time off the clock like an hour glass with a leak in it.
Berwick snapped a two-game losing streak with a 14-0 win at Memorial Stadium, moving back to .500 and keeping pace in the District 2 Class 4A playoff race. Simms helped the Bulldogs post their second shutout this year as it forced four turnovers.
“I mean, what a stud,” Berwick coach CJ Curry said. “He’s a senior who’s been waiting for his time to go have a game like this. It’s a career-defining game to this point.”
Berwick’s defensive stand to close the first half was critical as it held the two-score lead, but even more so because Hanover Area (0-6) was receiving the second-half kickoff. But Hawkeyes quarterback Logan Richardson got his team to the Berwick 9 with an 11-yard scramble to set up first-and-goal.
When Richardson tried to hit a quick slant on first down, Simms jumped and tipped the ball off line. After the second-down pass was behind the receiver and fell incomplete, Simms again reached up and tipped away a pass that had eyes for an open receiver. Two plays later, when Richardson was pressured on fourth down, his desperation throw was intercepted by Shiloh Escobar on the goalline.
“I have the running back coming out on those plays. If he stays in the backfield, I’m a spy,” Simms said. “I was just sitting there reading his eyes. He looks my way and I float that way and got my hand on the ball. That’s a big turning point right there.”
Berwick repeated the effort to start the second half. Richardson and his brother Brody picked apart the Berwick defense on the ground accounting for 61 rushing yards to get the ball to the Berwick 1-yard line.
Logan Richardson was off the field on first down after his helmet came off on a third-down quarterback sneak to get a first down. Brody Richardson, who was filling in at tailback for injury leading rusher Dewayne Downey, was stuffed for a 2-yard loss on a run play on first down. Logan Richardson scrambled for a yard on second down to the 2. He threw low to Conor Richardson on a slant on third down for an incomplete pass. And on fourth down, Logan Richardson was sacked for a 1-yard loss and a turnover on downs by Berwick’s Evan Neiderheiser.
Hanover Area’s two drives to end the second quarter and start the third quarter totaled 25 plays, 137 yards of offense and zero points.
“That short field shrinks our offense, and then we’re already down our tailback,” Hanover Area coach Eric Richardson said. “Our quarterback has to come out because his helmet comes off. So our tight end has to come in to play quarterback for a play, but we don’t have a backup tight end this week because our tight end has to play fullback because our fullback has to play tailback this week because our tailback is out. So we got in a situation where they blitzed in the middle and knocked us back a couple yards, and then we have to scramble, and then we have to try some stuff that maybe we weren’t really comfortable doing in that situation.”
“When they’re able to spread guys out, they’ve been really successful in those situations all year,” Curry said. “It was able to force some tighter window throws, and we were lucky a couple times. But our guys played great. They understood their assignments, and they understood what we wanted to do down there on the goal line. And they came up big play after play after play.”
From there, Berwick’s offense took over. Hanover Area ran more than 8 minutes off the clock with its opening drive of the third quarter. The Hawkeyes’ offense had the ball just one more time in the second half, and that was a series which lasted just two plays because the Bulldogs’ pounced on a mishandled snap from a backup center.
Berwick’s offense was anything but flashy Friday night. With the dynamic Brady Cleaver at quarterback for the second consecutive week, the Bulldogs went to a run-heavy offense which saw them quite often utilize three backs in the backfield.
Gavin Galutia led Berwick with 79 yards on 23 carries, including a touchdown. Simms posted a career-high 32 yards and just his second career touchdown. Escobar ran for 45 yards from his quarterback position. Berwick ran for 200 yards as a team on 48 carries, gaining just enough yardage to consistently move the chains and keep the clock running.
Berwick held the football for more than 29 of the game’s 48 minutes. And when it didn’t have the ball, it recovered two Hanover fumbles and intercepted two Hanover passes.
Berwick ran out the final 8:52 with 13 consecutive runnings plays before taking a knee to run out the clock.
“Four yards and a cloud of dust,” Curry said. “We tried to control the clock and they did a good job of that. Our offensive line’s been phenomenal. All those guys up front have gelled together. They have a great relationship and you need that chemistry for a good offensive line. Hopefully we can continue to build on this momentum.”
Berwick 14, Hanover Area 0
Berwick 7 7 0 0 – 14
Hanover Area 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
B—Gavin Galutia 1 run (Caleb Yost kick), 1:45
Second quarter
B—Brock Simms 3 run (Yost kick), 6:01
Ber HA
First downs 15 11
Rushes-yds 48-200 22-117
Com-att-int 1-4-0 8-16-2
Pass yards -2 96
Total yards 198 223
Fumbles-lost 1-0 5-2
Penalties-yards 7-42 9-64
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing—Berwick, Gavin Galutia, 23-79, TD; Shiloh Escobard, 8-45; Brock Simms, 7-32; Jake Lisnock, 4-29; Gabe Decker, 3-10; Bryce Cleaver, 1-6; Conner Roberts, 1-1; Team, 1-(-2). Hanover Area, Logan Richardson, 12-80; Brody Richardson, 9-39; Angel Tejada, 1-(-2).
Passing—Berwick, Escobard, 1-3-0, -2 yds.; Lisnock, 0-1-0. Hanover Area, L. Richardson, 8-16-2, 96 yds.
Receiving—Berwick, Decker, 1-(-2). Hanover Area, Tejada, 4-51; Conor Richardson, 2-20; B. Richardson, 1-22; Luke Willis, 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS—Berwick 2, Bryce Cleaver, Shiloh Escobar.
RECORDS: Berwick (3-3); Hanover Area (0-6).