Special teams help send Archbishop Wood back to Hershey
Written by: Dean Beers on Sunday, December 8th, 2013. Follow Dean Beers on Twitter.
By Dean Beers, D11Football.com
ALLENTOWN – The game was originally scheduled for Friday night in Allentown but due to inclement weather, game officials rescheduled the game for Saturday night, at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown.
Archbishop Wood senior running back Luke Spahits didn’t seem to mind the postponement. He scored two special teams touchdowns, both of 75 yards, to help his team to a 42-14 win over Berwick. The win sends the District 12 champion to Hershey next Friday night to face Bishop McDevitt for the chance to win PIAA Gold.
Spahits scored the first of his two kickoff returns for touchdowns late in the first quarter. The touchdown answered Berwick’s touchdown, a CJ Curry 32 yard touchdown pass to Trent Force. Spahits’ kickoff return for a touchdown put the Vikings ahead of Berwick for good, at 14-7.
After the Bulldogs struggled to move the ball on their next possession, Berwick punted the ball. Jarrett McClenton was on the receiving end of the punt, and returned the punt to the Berwick 1 yard line before being tackled. McClenton scored two plays later, for a Vikings 21-7 lead, midway thru the second quarter.
After another Berwick punt, McClenton did much of the legwork. This time, it was a run of 24 and he scored on a long run of 57 yards down the right sideline put the Vikings ahead 28-7.
The two teams traded punts to end the first half at Archbishop Wood 28, Berwick 7.
The Bulldogs received the kickoff to begin the second half. Behind the legs of Bulldogs running back Dain Kowalski and the throwing arm of CJ Curry, Berwick drove 73 yards for a touchdown. Curry tossed an 11-yard pass to Andrew Force to close the gap at 28-14.
Archbishop Wood had an answer. Luke Spahits was that answer with his second 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The Vikings regained their 21-point advantage, 35-14.
The Vikings and the Bulldogs traded possessions throughout the third quarter and halfway through the fourth quarter.
Archbishop Wood put the nail in the coffin of the Berwick fans’ dreams on a long drive lasting nearly 5 and 1/2 minutes.
Backup senior running back Tyrone Dean did much of the legwork a run of 26 and his only touchdown of the night, scoring from one yard out, with 6:25 left in the game. The District 12 champions are on their way to Hershey.
SCORING SUMMARY:
1st Quarter:
Wood: McClenton 1 yard run (5:35)
Berwick: Curry 32-yard pass to Trent Force (2:48)
Wood: Luke Spahits 75-yard kickoff return for TD (2:37)
2nd Quarter:
Wood: Garlick 1 yard TD run (8:48)
Wood: McClenton 57 yard TD run (6:50)
3rd Quarter:
Berwick: Curry 11-yard TD pass to Ian Mazonkey (8:26)
Wood: Luke Spahits 75-yard kickoff return for TD (8:12)
Wood: Tyrone Dean 1 yard TD run (6:25)
Stats SUMMARY:
RUSHING: Wood: Josh Messina (4/17 yards), Jarrett McClenton (24/182), Luke Spahits (6/46), Joe Dutkiewicz (1/0), Tom Garlick (4/20), Tyrone Dean (4/37); Berwick: Dain Kowalski (13/58), Jordan Stout (2/0), CJ Curry (15/-34), Nate Maczuga (1/2).
PASSING: Wood: Tom Garlick (2 for 4, for 26 yards); Berwick: CJ Curry (9 for 18, for 116 yards).
RECEIVING: Wood: Kendall Singleton (1 rec./10 yards), Luke Spahits (1 rec./16 yards); Berwick: Kyle Trenholm (2 rec/15 yards); Ian Mazonkey (3 rec./58 yards), Trent Force (1 rec./32 yards), Trevon Simmons (1 rec./4 yards).
FIRST DOWNS: Wood: 15; Berwick 12
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December 10th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
I’m going to close those thread. I really don’t think any schools are really going out recruiting.
When Berwick, CB West, Mount Carmel and Southern Columbia were winning state championships everyone said they were recruiting.
It seems if you are winning you are recruiting, right?
It seems that some adults on this site are acting like little kids. I was talking to George Curry this morning about the gentlemen who passed away on the sidelines and my thoughts go out to his family.
But, some bad fans are acting like spoiled brats and making it look like Berwick football program is whining about losing to Wood.
Well I can tell you they aren’t and I talked to Mr. Curry he said good things about Wood and can’t wait to play them again one day.
So he wanted me to past on that a few bad apples are making their program look bad and that they players or coaches aren’t.
So, let’s talk about the state championship games and move on.
December 10th, 2013 at 12:03 pm
@Jim B; the fact is you can blame Curry for the 2 kickoff returns. Wood saw that every kickoff was tipped as to what type of kick and location. Poor coaching obviously and a tip of the hat to Devlin and staff for picking up on it.
Spahits played at Hatboro-Horsham last year; fact is, you can’t blame any kid for leaving that school and their program. If he were not returning kickoffs, it would have been McClenton and I’m thinking that McClenton would have returned 3 for scores, not 2.
December 10th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
@billy splain; if you understood Catholic schools at all you would know that there are no junior high programs at Wood because there are no Catholic junior high schools associated with a Catholic high school.
All Wood kids start playing together on the freshman team in 9th grade unless they transfer in later.
December 10th, 2013 at 11:47 am
@BillySplain kids that play pee football at a very young age have a great advantage on kids that are just coming into playing football. My son has been playing since he was 8 years of age playing with 11 & 12 year old’s because he was too heavy for his weight class, starting nose guard. The juniors on the Wood team have played since freshman year, they were the 2011 Undefeated Squad!!! My son & I chose this school because of academics and the football regiment. Reading these comments makes it unfair on how hard these kids work. They aren’t congratulated on how well their doing, yet their being chewed up about how they are recruited from different areas. Wood was the better team on Saturday simple as that, I wish both of the teams Good Luck on Friday and may the better team win.
December 10th, 2013 at 9:14 am
@Footballmom24/7, you say “Wood does not recruit, these kids attend these schools because they’ve been playing football since they were 5 years of age. They grow up wanting to play not only at the best schools, but also schools with great academics”
What town/area in respect to the A. Wood school did these kids compete at football when they were 14? Did they all play football at Wood in junior high? Or have most of them joined the Wood team when they were 9th/10th grade? Not busting your butt, it’s a serious question. Thanks.
I don’t think anyone is doubting the hard work the players put in, it’s the rules that allow the Catholic teams to draw from much larger areas that people are having a problem with. This isn’t a new issue, it’s been around for a number of years.
December 10th, 2013 at 9:04 am
Footballmom
Where did the kid who returned the two kickoffs fit touchdowns against berwick go to school last year? It wasn’t Wood, was it?
December 9th, 2013 at 8:45 pm
I love the low information crowd that are ready with their pitchforks to march on Hershey to slay the catholic schools. Where were they last year when the public schools took 3 of the 4 state titles and 6 of the 8 finalists were public schools? Clue. They are the same low info people that 15-20 years ago were outraged at the alleged recruiting at Berwick. Now, Berwick loses and all of a sudden they’re outraged.
First off rocket scientists, there aren’t enough catholic schools to make another class. And the catholic schools that do exist? Well, they’re so far from each other to make travel cost prohibitive. And how are all Catholic schools bad? They’re not all winning state titles. Its the same schools year in year out…because they have the best coaches. I know, you only want to play the catholic schools that stink at football. Them you’re OK with.
People, think for once. Use your brain for good rather than trying to ensure “Little Johnny Public” has no competition.
December 9th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
@DutchCoDan
You sound really crazy!! Do you want to know why those kids dominate because they work their asses off all year round to get to this point. I speaking from experience because my son is one of them. He’s an honor roll student, not only does he play football but he studies Tae Kwan Do and runs track. It called keeping condition and eat, sleep, & breathing football. So I’m going to tell you like I told the other guy stating the same thing about recruiting. Wood does not recruit, these kids attend these schools because they’ve been playing football since they were 5 years of age. They grow up wanting to play not only at the best schools, but also schools with great academics. Oh!!! Did you not know that we thrive off getting a good education? Get yourself together and take your “L” with dignity.
December 9th, 2013 at 8:29 pm
As I understand, Imhotep is a charter school not a public school; big difference. Go to their website, interesting to say the least. Dutch is right the playing field is unfair at this point. Furthermore, Old Forge is still a one town school which makes their run more remarkable. North Catholic is from Pittsburgh, and one of their graduates is Dan Rooney of Steeler fame. I bet they don’t pick football players, they just make a team with what comes through the door. The privates and charters don’ belong in this tournament. They should have their own.
December 9th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
all you berwick people talked so big before the game and now youre all crying about recruiting nonsense. you set yourself up so you are heros and winners either way. you either beat the big bad private school or you lost by an “unfair,” system. get over it you lost the game. my nephews team went winless because their coaches weren’t great and they didnt have very much talent. sometimes the other team is just better and wood clearly was. berwick had a great year. get over it and get back in the weight room for next yeat instead of crying fo the piaa
December 9th, 2013 at 11:04 am
@dutchoven,
Imhotep is a public school. Did you have any problem over the past 10 years, when publics won 75% of the chips?
December 9th, 2013 at 10:38 am
Boo hoo
December 8th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
Correction of previous comment.We need to limit the amount of students that go to these private schools specifically to play football.The PIAA should stand for fairness and sportsmanship.Look at some of the lopsided scores.Wood 42 Berwick14. Central Catholic 45 Lower Dauphin 0 .Mcdevitt 48 ManheimCentral 7. Speak up People or do you want to continue to see your teams get kicked around.
December 8th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Wake up HS Football fans.I ask you do you want to see a continuation of what we are now seeing. I ASK YOU DO YOU WANT TO SEE CONTINUED DOMINATION OF THESE PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN PENNSYLVANIA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.If not then go to the PIAA as I will be doing.We need to get these unlimited amount of students that are recruited to play football.Do nothing and Coaches I am speaking to you as we’ll you will continue to get dominated on both sides of the ball. Their are only 2 teams in the finals that are public schools South Fayette and Old Forge.I will not let this go. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.