Governor Mifflin opens with 30-0 loss to Cedar Cliff

New Cumberland  >> The last time Jeff Lang debuted as Governor Mifflin’s head coach, it was in a caretaker position for longtime skipper Mick Vecchio, who took a year off to recover from health issues.

That was in 2016. The Mustangs got spanked by 31 points in a loss to Wilson in Lang’s first game in charge — but rebounded to win 10 of their next 11 games while running the table in Berks 1 for another section championship.

Lang got the permanent job when Vecchio retired this past spring. He and the Mustangs can only hope a similar history is in store because the second debut wasn’t pretty, either.

Governor Mifflin was outgained by more than 200 yards, its vaunted Wing-T attack MIA for most of the evening, and suffered a 30-0 defeat to host Cedar Cliff at West Shore Stadium in Friday night’s curtain-raiser.

“Poor. An ‘F’,” was Lang’s reply when asked to grade the evening. “We had too many young kids going both ways in the beginning of the game, when we should have done a better a better job once we got into the game. We designated a couple of people on one wave of the ball and had some of the seconds do a pretty good job, where you could then see some of the inexperience of the kids going two ways who couldn’t handle it.”

It was Mifflin’s first shutout loss since the 2012 season opener, a 21-0 defeat to Wilson. As was the case four years hence in 2016, the Mustangs bounced back that campaign as well, posting a 10-3 mark en route to a Berks 1 title.

So, there is some history here on which to hang your hat if it’s Maroon and Gold. Even so, a thrashing to what is expected to be a good, but certainly not dominant, Cedar Cliff club means there is plenty of cleanup to do before calling on the nemesis Bulldogs next week.

“We’ve got to get better,” Lang said. “I think we can throw the ball and we have some receivers who can catch the ball. We’ve got to get better up front yet.

“The same thing happened two years ago. I told the kids tonight the team that made the fewest mistakes was going to win the football game. We made more mistakes than they did. We clean up those mistakes, they know we can go out and get it.”

Cedar Cliff outgained Mifflin 357-146 — the product of a running game that picked up steam as the night wore on, a profitable relationship between quarterback Chris Dare and wideout Bobby Whalen mixed with a defense that stifled Mifflin at nearly every turn.

The dagger came relatively early in the form of a 87-yard hookup, with Whalen on the corner in single coverage. Dare threw a dart to the spot and Whalen did the final 50 yards himself for the touchdown, a score that pushed the hosts’ lead to 16-0 in the second quarter, with the scoreboard clock at West Shore Stadium frozen.

It felt over right then and as things turned out, it was.

“That took some winds out of the sails,” Lang admitted. “We were battling pretty good until then.”

Whalen caught three balls from Dare for 120 yards — then flipped the script late for the game’s final score by tossing a 16-yard strike to his quarterback.

Offensively, Mifflin was held to 59 yards rushing on 26 carries. Jacob Gelvin gained 21 yards on eight totes as the feature back before the break. Qua-Mei Williams featured in the second half, to 11 yards on eight. The offensive line struggled to establish push and lanes in the trenches all night.

Quarterback Kolbie Reeser completed 6 of 15 pass attempts for 98 yards, with one interception, snared by Whalen.

Miscues were costly, no moreso than on the very first drive of the season. Mifflin moved the ball 42 yards on four plays to reach the Cedar Cliff 30, where the drive died on fourth down and manageable when a bad snap sailed over Reeser’s head for a 16-yard loss.   

The pick by Whalen set up Cedar Cliff’s first touchdown, the culmination of an 8-play, 74-yard march, with Dare finding Jaheim Reynolds from six out for a 9-0 lead (the PAT was blocked) at 7:37 of the second quarter.

Down 16-0, the Mustangs drove the ball 54 yards on 10 plays to the Colts 10, with 1:13 to the half, before coughing the ball up on third-and-4, killing their only other deep foray.

Jaheim Morris rushed for 101 yards on 23 totes for the Colts. Dare finished 11 of 17 for 207 yards and three touchdowns.

Governor Mifflin — 0  0  0  0 – 0

Cedar Cliff — 3  13  7  7  —  30