ST. LAWRENCE - Mike Farr is confident his Schuylkill Haven football team will win a lot of games this season.
For his Hurricanes to be champions, the ninth-year coach stressed, they have to learn some things from Saturday's opponent, Wyomissing.
The defending PIAA Class AA champion Spartans were outmuscled and pretty much outplayed for most of Saturday's non-league season opener at Exeter High School's Don Thomas Stadium.
What Wyomissing did, however, was make big plays when it needed to. And those big plays were the difference in the Spartans' 29-15 victory over the Hurricanes.
"You can't play good teams and give up big plays," Farr said. "We tripled them in time of possession and doubled them in first downs. They made big plays and we made two very big mistakes.
"We're trying to be a champion like they are. We're not a champion. They're a champion. You can't make mistakes against championship teams. Until somebody beats them, they're a champion."
Wyomissing graduated 10 starters on both sides of the ball from last year's team that went 16-0 and won the Berks Football League Section 2, District 3 Class AA and PIAA Class AA titles.
The Spartans who returned, however, saw extensive playing time in a lot of Wyomissing's games last year, and along the way learned what it takes to win big games.
All four of Wyomissing's scores were 49 yards or longer. Junior quarterback Scott Kuczala, the JV QB last season, completed touchdown passes of 89 yards to Thomas Paolini and 49 yards to Sean Smith, while Paolini raced 66 yards for a score on a jet sweep with 40 seconds left in the first half.
Wyomissing's final touchdown came on a 55-yard interception return by Bryan Weber with 5:30 left after the Hurricanes had sliced the Spartans' lead to 22-15 late in the third quarter.
"The fact they were part of last
year and got to play in a lot of the games, you sort of learn how to win," Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum said. "It wasn't pretty, and we got pushed around pretty good, but we hung on and offensively made just enough plays.
"The sweep we hit short side of an unbalanced line and he just stepped out of a tackle. They were playing up real tight and we got behind them a couple of times for big plays.
"We never really put together any type of a drive on offense," Wolfrum continued. "We had trouble moving the ball with any consistency; we just got the big plays."
Two of those big plays came on big mistakes by the Hurricanes' defense. Both the 89-yard TD pass to Paolini, which came three plays after Haven turned the ball over on downs at the Wyomissing 5, and the 49-yard pass to Smith came on blown coverages in the Hurricanes' secondary.
"The mistakes we made were in our secondary rolls and responsibilities. That's why we had two free receivers and they scored on that jet sweep," Farr said. "You have one mental breakdown, you take one play off, you can't overcome it. We don't have enough athletes to take plays off. We have to play full throttle every single play."
Schuylkill Haven did a lot of things well. The Hurricanes rushed for 237 yards, as Will Casella (32-140) and Ryan Fink (21-99, 2 TDs) did the bulk of the ballcarrying. Haven ran 65 plays to Wyomissing's 30 and amassed 15 first downs to the Spartans' seven.
Haven's defense made several big stops, setting up a nine-play, 37-yard drive that resulted in a 2-yard TD run by Fink, then later forcing a fumble that led to Fink's 7-yard TD run.
Offensively, however, the Hurricanes couldn't come up with the big play. Only three of Haven's 55 rush attempts was for more than 10 yards, the longest being 15.
And when the Hurricanes did reach the end zone, Wyomissing answered immediately to regain the momentum.
"We're like the middle-class worker," Farr said. "We work, work, work, work and can't get ahead. That's the way it was like today. Everything we did, they had an answer.
"Champions answer. We had the momentum, they answered right back. We scored, boom, they answered. That's what champions do."
Saturday marked the end of the two-year series between Schuylkill Haven and Wyomissing, which will visit Pottsville in next year's opener. Farr hopes his players learn some things from Saturday's defeat.
"My kids have to learn what it takes to be a champion," Farr said. "Stop talking about it. Let everybody else talk about how good you're supposed to be.
"We're going to win a lot of football games this year, I guarantee you that. At the end of the day, Wyomissing was better than us today."