Sep. 17—This weekend marks the beginning of the end for the Berks Football League.
A pair of Berks II openers are set for Friday night at 7 and another is scheduled for Saturday afternoon as the league starts its final season before all 13 members join the Lancaster-Lebanon League for the 2022 season.
On Friday, Fleetwood visits Conrad Weiser and Twin Valley travels to Kutztown in a pair of games that match 2-1 teams. On Saturday, perennial power Wyomissing will host Hamburg at 1:30 p.m. in a clash of teams off to 3-0 starts.
Nine other games involving Berks teams are on the schedule Friday night highlighted by the recently created mega matchup between two of the state’s top 15 teams, Gov. Mifflin and Harrisburg.
Gov. Mifflin, ranked fifth in the state in the latest MaxPreps poll, will host No. 13 Harrisburg Friday night in a game created when each team’s opponent was unable to play this week because of COVID-19 protocols.
Gov. Mifflin senior Nick Singleton, the county’s all-time leader in rushing yards and touchdowns, will face a challenge from a tough Harrisburg defense.
Wilson, off to a 1-2 start, also faces a big game against Martin Luther King out of Philadelphia. Martin Luther King opened its season last Friday with an 18-6 loss to Chester.
Wilson started its season with a win over Central Dauphin before dropping back-to-back games to Berks Football League Division I members Gov. Mifflin and Exeter. The Bulldogs played without starting quarterback Brad Hoffman against Exeter because of an injury.
On Friday, the Bulldogs could be without their top two running backs, Jadyn Jones and Gavin Lenart. Jones was ejected from last Friday’s game against Exeter and must sit out the next game according to PIAA rules. Lenart, along with senior receiver Josh Drake, were injured early in the Exeter game and did not return.
The Berks Football League has struggled to maintain competitive balance from top to bottom in its two divisions and shrunk in numbers because of the loss of Pottsville and Blue Mountain and the merger of Central Catholic and Holy Name into Berks Catholic.
That made it difficult for schools to find four or five non-league games to fill a 10-game schedule. That’s a big reason they applied to join the Lancaster-Lebanon League, which will consist of five divisions and 37 teams next season.
The competitive balance also could improve in each division next season as teams were separated not only by size, but by the success of each school’s program.
This week’s Berks II games feature some interesting matchups.
The Twin Valley-Kutztown game showcases two of the top running backs in Berks not named Nick Singleton.
Kutztown’s Lennon Neiman has rushed for 661 yards on 45 carries and has scored seven touchdowns to help the Cougars win multiple games for the first time since 2016. Twin Valley features Dominic Caruso, who has rushed for 202 yards in three games this season and needs just 57 yards to reach 3,000 for his career.
The Fleetwood-Conrad Weiser matchup features two of the county’s top quarterbacks in the Scouts’ Logan Klitsch and the Tigers’ Tanner Maddocks.
Wyomissing and Hamburg join Gov. Mifflin as the only undefeated Berks County teams after three weeks.
Diohnny Ruiz has helped Hamburg get off to its first 3-0 start since 2013 by rushing for 254 yards and gaining another 121 through the air. Tommy Grabowski leads Wyomissing out of its Wing-T offense with 269 yards and six touchdowns on 46 rushes.