Governor Mifflin makes quick work of Fleetwood to claim Berks League Section 1 crown
SHILLINGTON >> Governor Mifflin claimed the BCIAA Section 1 crown for a second consecutive campaign by brute force Friday night in front of a Senior Night crowd at Mustang Stadium with a 49-10 mauling of the Fleetwood Tigers.
The Mustangs (8-1, 5-0 Berks 1) hung 42 first-quarter points on the overwhelmed Tigers (0-9, 0-6) and reached mercy clock parameters with just 7:49 of total game time elapsed.
Governor Mifflin wraps the regular season at Conrad Weiser next Friday. The best second-place Exeter can do is tie the Mustangs with a win and a Mifflin loss; however, Mifflin won the head-to-head meeting 28-14 in September.
It was the Bryce Stubler Show Friday night during that electrifying opening quarter against the Tigers. Stubler caught a touchdown pass, recovered two fumbles on defense that led to two more scores and returned a punt for a 44-yard touchdown — all during the opening 7:49 of play.
Mifflin’s offense had the football for a grand total nine snaps during the first quarter and scored touchdowns on five of them. Stubler’s 44-yard punt return for score, which made it 14-0 3:05 in, was the sixth.
Running back Isaac Ruoss touched the football three times and scored a touchdown on all three with runs of 48, 1 and 13 yards, respectively. Quarterback Kam Wolfe was 4 of 5 passing for 84 yards and those two scores to Stubler before giving way to back-up Kolbie Reeser for the balance of the evening.
“It was a great team win, everyone was executing their blocks and Kam was finding me,” Stubler said. “The (second) fumble (recovery), the ball just fell right in my hands and I tried to make the most of that.”
A third Fleetwood fumble, early in the second quarter, gave the Mustangs the football deep in Tigers’ territory. Reeser took a knee at the Fleetwood 7 with eight minutes and change yet to play in the first half and the Mustangs turned it over on downs.
Mifflin head coach Mick Vecchio, more than a quarter-century on the job, always recalls his earlier days when making unorthodox calls like that in the name of sportsmanship. It’s a tough call to make, he acknowledged, because you want your backups to play football, too.
“You know, I’ve been the head football coach here for a long time,” Vecchio said, “and we’ve been on the receiving end of these things. I’m very happy tonight, but I’ve never forgotten how that felt.
“They’re (Fleetwood) struggling. … It’s just one of those things when you get to be an old man, you get very sentimental about kids.”
Reeser later added a 4-yard keeper for a score with 2:13 left in the third quarter for the game’s final margin.
Fleetwood’s Seth Wagner accounted for all 10 of his club’s points. Wagner hit a 25-yard field goal to close the first half, capping a 10-play, 78-yard drive — by far the Tigers’ best series of the night. He ripped off a 47-yard run for a score, with Mifflin’s defensive starters departed, in the third quarter. And he kicked the extra point. Wagner finished with 59 rushing yards on nine totes.
Tigers diminutive sophomore quarterback David Schaeffer (listed at 5-foot-4, 125 pounds) attempted just two passes before departing late but hit on both of them, good for 38 and eight yards, to finish his night 2 of 2 for 46 yards.
Governor Mifflin 49, Fleetwood 10
Fleetwood – 0 3 7 0 — 10
Gov Mifflin – 42 0 7 0 — 49
First quarter
GM – Bryce Stubler 36 pass from Kam Wolfe (Ben Myers kick), 11:26
GM – Stubler 44 punt return (Myers kick), 8:55
GM – Isaac Ruoss 48 run (Myers kick), 6:42
GM – Tyshaun Weaver 20 pass from Wolfe (Myers kick), 6:23
GM – Ruoss 1 run (Myers kick), 4:11
GM – Ruoss 13 run (Myers kick), 1:48
Second quarter
F – Seth Wagner 25 FG, 0:05
Third quarter
F – Wagner 47 run (Wagner kick), 7:43
GM – Kolbie Reeser 4 run (Robert Turner kick), 2:13
