Daniel Boone falls to Reading at FirstEnergy Stadium

READING >> It was not just another football game for the Daniel Boone Blazers Friday night. On a couple of fronts.

The Blazers took their turn playing at the home of the Reading Fightin Phils, FirstEnergy Stadium, in the fifth of six high school football games scheduled for the venerable 68-year-old baseball park in a series dubbed “Gridiron Classic.” That unique opportunity alone would have made it a memorable experience.

But it was also first-year head coach Rob Flowers’ return engagement against the program he guided for seven seasons, the Reading Red Knights. It couldn’t be just another Friday night under the lights.

And it wasn’t. But it didn’t go the way Flowers or his squad envisioned.

Reading’s Jordan Jones hauled in a 42-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-7 early in the final stanza and held on to stun the Blazers, 16-13, in a Berks League Section 1 clash.

The verdict supplied Reading (1-5, 1-2) with its first win of the season in dropping the Blazers to 3-3, 0-2. It was Reading’s second appearance at FirstEnergy Stadium, having dropped a 43-12 decision to Governor Mifflin a week ago.

Flowers downplayed his sort of homecoming, but he stepped away to compose himself for a few seconds after being asked about it.

“I knew and we knew that Reading was going to come out and play hard,” Flowers said. “Congrats to them on their first win, but we came up short. We put the ball on the ground, they came up with some plays and that’s the kind of thing you just can’t have happen.

“I would have loved to come out of here with a win for our program, not for Rob Flowers. It wasn’t the Rob Flowers Bowl tonight. It was a football game between Daniel Boone and Reading High Schools, played by kids between the white lines. I don’t play between the white lines. That’s not my style and that’s not me.”

The play that decided it was a tough one for Boone to absorb. Nursing a 13-10 lead, the Blazer defense had stiffened against the Knights during a 5-play, 22-yard probe that bridged the third and fourth quarters.

On fourth down, the sixth play of the drive, Reading quarterback Branden Boutte looked right before finding Jones matched up to the left in single coverage. Jones outlept his defender, spun and saw green, not blue, in front of him. He tightroped it down the sideline to give the Knights the lead and enough to see it through.

“I said to myself, ‘I want the ball. It’s mine. There’s no way he’s getting it’,” Jones said of his touchdown reception. “Open field. I was happy to see it.”

“That was a tough one,” said Flowers. “Our kid played it the correct way. (Jones) went up and got it. He’s a big receiver. High school kids make plays and we’ve made a bunch of plays. We didn’t make enough tonight.

The sudden deficit was problematic for Boone — even though greater than 11 minutes remained to play — because a non-existent passing game had effectively reduced the Blazers to a one-dimensional attack. Quarterback Tommy Buchert did not complete a pass, ending the game 0-for-11 under center.

“We couldn’t complete balls,” Flowers said. “We blocked it up, except for the last one (a game-ending sack of Buchert), but we just couldn’t complete them tonight. If you’ve watched us, you’ve seen that we’ve struggled passing this year.”

The Blazers got the game’s first break, a high snap over Boutte’s head in the shot gun near midfield that Ben Reno scooped up and returned 36 yards for a score with 7:43 to play in the first half.

Reading’s response was telling: The Knights embarked on a 16-play, 71-yard meat grinder that absorbed all of the remaining time in the half. It ended on a successful 35-yard field goal by Kelvin Del Cid, not a touchdown, but it was a shot in the arm to a squad looking for its first win for Flowers’ successor, Andre Doyle.

“We feel as though we can move against any team, it’s just about execution,” Doyle said. “Tonight, we were able to just do a little bit more than what our opponent did. … The game is about momentum. They were on their heels a bit and we felt they were tired, so we wanted to push the ball a bit and revitalize our group. We were able to call a time out with two seconds left, put it through and go in with momentum.”

Reading took its first lead at 10-7 early in the third, on Marlowe Bowen’s 7-yard scamper to cap a 7-play, 46-yard effort, shortened by a Boone personal foul call on the second-half kickoff.

The Blazers came right back, however, on the ensuing series, with their largest play from scrimmage: Chase Lacey went off left end untouched for a 49-yard score three snaps later for a 13-10 advantage with 8:36 left in the third. The conversion failed.

Lacey was Boone’s most productive player, with 83 yards rushing on 14 carries.