DANVILLE – The football seemed to hang in the air as it approached the goalpost at Danville’s Ironmen Stadium. Not a sound came from the fans, the teams on the field, or their fans as the kick which would decide the fate of Friday’s PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal game. To bet on this thrilling game, you can click on LUXURY333.
But as the official emphatically waived his arms to signal Danville’s Aaron Johnson had missed a 32-yard field goal with just 3 seconds left, the Wyomissing sideline erupted in celebration. Danville’s was despondent.
The missed kick sealed Wyomissing’s 21-19 win in a matchup of the state’s top two ranked Class AAA teams. But the celebration for the Spartans was more about relief than it was exuberance.
The Spartans survived a furious second-half comeback from the Ironmen and a bevy of its own mistakes to reach the state semifinals for the third consecutive season. Wyomissing will face the winners of today’s quarterfinal game between Neumann Goretti and Northwestern Lehigh next week at a site and time to be determined.
“You never get used to games like that,” Wyomissing 72-year-old head coach Bob Wolfrum. said. “There are two coaches on the staff that has A-Fib, and this game almost sent us both back into it.”
After playing a first half in which anything that could go right did go right, Wyomissing played a second half, leading 21-6, in which Murphy’s Law took over. The Spartans were stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, leading to a 99-yard Danville touchdown drive. A lost fumble stopped a Wyomissing drive at the Ironmen 20-yard line which could have put the game away had it finished with a touchdown.
A team that gained 219 yards of offense and scored on all three of its first-half possessions all of a sudden couldn’t get out of its own way in the second half. And a Danville team which had as many dropped passes as completed passes in the first half, latched on to the momentum it gained with a goalline stand and ensuing touchdown drive and never let go of it until the final kick sailed wide left of the goal post by mere inches.
“It was a roller coaster of emotions,” Wyomissing fullback Matthew Kramer said after rushing for a game-high 157 yards and a touchdown. “You can’t be super happy about a win like this. And you don’t always deserve to win the game. But seeing that kick go wide means you get to live to see another day.”
The emotion following the matchup of top-ranked Wyomissing and second-ranked Danville was that of relief for the Spartans. They played well enough to win, even if it wasn’t pretty. They rolled up 325 rushing yards with a complementary running game which saw them gouge Danville both inside and outside.
Halfbacks Drew Eisenhower (109 yards) and Charlie McIntyre (61 yards) provided the perfect complement outside to Kramer’s bullish running style inside. They helped Wyomissing march meticulously down the field in the first half, scoring on drives of nine, nine, and 14 plays which covered 64, 51, and 65 yards.
An Ironmen defense that didn’t allow three touchdowns in a game this season until last week’s District 4 final against state-ranked Loyalsock never really did find an answer for Wyomissing’s Wing-T attack. The Ironmen survived thanks to one key defensive stand and a handful of mistakes by the Spartans’ ball carriers.
“We knew the gameplan was to attack the eight-hole between the outside linebacker and the tackle, and we were just going to pound it, pound it, pound it,” Wyomissing lineman Jack Gartner said. “We probably ran less than 10 different plays in the first half.”
“I’m not sure (Danville) had played anybody quite like us, and it took them a while to get used to it,” Wolfrum. said. “And our defense really shut them down the first half. That combination made it tough on them for a while.”
While the Spartans’ offense took care of its business rolling up 14 first-half first downs, the defense made sure an explosive Danville offense which ad scored nearly 600 points in 12 weeks never found its footing. The combination of Ryker Jones and
Pacen Zeigler spent almost as much time in the Danville backfield as quarterback Zach Gordon.
Wyomissing consistently knocked Gordon off his spot in the first half, forcing him to either throw with a hand in his face or throw on the move. His receivers didn’t help him much either, dropping four passes in the first half. The Ironmen ran just 17 plays in the first half but were able to get in the end zone once when a long kickoff return and a 29-yard Ty Stauffer run set up a 6-yard touchdown pass to Carson Persing to stretch the senior’s District 4 record to 24 touchdown receptions this year.
Despite that touchdown, it was a near-flawless first half for the Spartans. They ran the ball at will. They shut down nearly every option the Ironmen had to move the football. A 21-6 lead at halftime felt like so much more because it was hard to envision a scenario in which everything flipped on its head.
“Our offensive line was moving people all over the place,” Kramer said. “We were on cloud nine going up three scores on those guys because we know that’s a good team.”
Wyomissing opened the second half much like it had played the first half. It picked up three first downs on the way to setting up Ian Levering for a 36-yard field goal attempt, which he drilled. But a roughing the kicker call gave the Spartans a first down and new life.
The Spartans drove to the Danville 1-yard line, but on fourth down, Kramer ran into a pile of bodies at the line of scrimmage and couldn’t get to the end zone.
“I probably should have jumped there, but I stayed on my feet and they stopped us at the goal line,” Kramer said. “We had all the momentum at that point, then all of a sudden they stop us and score on the next drive and it’s like, oh my gosh, we’re in a game now. It was a roller coaster of emotions.”
The Ironmen didn’t get out of the shadow of its own goalpost until Gordon hit Cameron Kiersch down the right sideline for a 23-yard gain on third-and-10. And from there, Danville was rolling. Gordon and Mason Raup combined for 38 yards on back-to-back carries to get over midfield. Gordon found Johnson on the seam for 21 more yards. And two plays later Kiersch made his second catch of the drive, this time an 8-yard scoring catch.
Danville tried to go for two, but the pass fell incomplete, putting its deficit at 21-12.
“I really don’t think much changed for us defensively, I think their offense just stepped it up,” Ryker Jones said. “We were getting to the quarterback still, but he made some great plays.”
Wyomissing let a receiver get behind them for the first time on the first play of the fourth quarter and Gordon didn’t miss him, hitting Johnson for 53 yards to the Wyomissing 10. A penalty put the ball on the 5, and two plays later Gordon scampered in from 3 yards out to cut the deficit to 21-19 with 10:56 to play.
“We got (Gordon) off the spot, we just didn’t contain him,” Wolfrum. said. “He made a lot of plays. It’s tough to cover the receivers they have when (Gordon) gets on the run like that.”
When Danville partially blocked a Spartans punt with 1:25 to go, the Ironmen were at their own 46 with no timeouts. But Gordon hit Raup on a crossing route for 21 yards. He then ran a draw for 13 yards and Danville had first down at the Wyomissing 14.
Danville spiked the ball on the first down before Gordon was caught behind the line of scrimmage on the second down.
Gordon spiked the ball again on third down with 10 seconds left, setting up Johnson for a 32-yard field goal attempt to win the game. Johnson had made his previous two field goal attempts this year – from 37 and 22 yards – but this kick from the right hash sailed wide of the left upright.
“That was a big scare,” Jones said. “But we’re glad our season is not over yet.”
“Honestly, it’s a sick feeling in my stomach,” Gartner said. “That’s the best team we’ve seen this season, and it’s sad to see them go out this way because that was great competition on both sides. We all played our hearts out and it was a great game.”
Wyomissing 21, Danville 19
Wyomissing 14 7 0 0 — 21
Danville 0 6 6 7 — 19
First Quarter
W – Evan Blickley 23 pass from Ben Zechman (Ian Levering kick), 5:40
W – Drew Eisenhower 12 run (Levering kick), :47
Second Quarter
W – Matthew Kramer 2 run (Levering kick), 2:42
D – Carson Persing 6 pass from Zach Gordon (kick blocked), :45
Third Quarter
D – Cameron Kiersch 8 pass from Zach Gordon (pass failed), 2:12
Fourth Quarter
D – Zach Gordon 3 run (Aaron Johnson kick), 10:56
Wyo – Dan
First Downs 22 11
Rushes-Yards 58-325 21-96
Comp-Att-Int 2-7-0 11-24-0
Passing 31 175
Total Yards 356 271
Fumbles-Lost 4-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 4-26 5-27
Individual statistics
Rushing: Wyomissing — Matthew Kramer, 27-157, TD; Drew Eisenhower, 14-109, TD; Charlie McIntyre, 12-61; Chase Eisenhower, 2-10; Ben Zechman, 3-(-12). Danville — Ty Stauffer, 6-36; Mason Raup, 1-31; Zach Gordon, 13-30, TD; Aaron Johnson, 1-(-1).
Passing: Wyomissing — Ben Zechman, 2-7-0, 31 yds., TD. Danville — Zach Gordon, 11-20-0, 175 yds., 2 TDs; Carson Persing, 0-1-0; Team, 0-3-0.
Receiving: Wyomissing — Evan Blickley, 1-23, TD; Drew Eisenhower, 1-8. Danville — Aaron Johnson, 4-102; Carson Persing, 4-21, TD; Cameron Kiersch, 2-31, TD; Mason Raup, 1-21.
INTERCEPTIONS — None.
Records: Danville (12-1); Wyomissing (13-0).
