If you’re a football fan, the Section 5 showdown between Hamburg and Kutztown in Lancaster-Lebanon delivered everything you could hope for from start to finish.
Trailing 12-0 early and struggling against the Cougars’ tough running attack, the Hawks never gave up. They fought back and pulled off an exciting second-half comeback.
In the end, Hamburg walked out of Kutztown with a 21-20 victory Friday night.
“Our goal each and every week is to go 1-0,” Hawks coach Tyler Hartranft said. “That’s it, you know. We have taken some time to try to establish the culture. And to me, this was a big step in the right direction.”
Midway through the third quarter, Kutztown’s Ryan Walters broke free for a 43-yard touchdown run, his second of the game, finishing off a nine-play, 74-yard drive.
Earlier in the drive, the Cougars (0-2, 1-4) faced a crucial fourth-and-four. Fullback Ian Bahr appeared to be stopped about a full yard short, but the line judge surprised everyone by signaling the chain gang to move the sticks forward.
Four plays later, the Cougars extended their lead to 20-7 with a successful two-point conversion run by quarterback Wyatt Stoess after missing two extra points earlier in the game. They then looked to shut down the Hawks’ offense and secure their second win of the season.
But Hartranft’s young team showed the fight they had in them and bounced back.
Driving at midfield, freshman quarterback Isaac McFadden dropped back and fired a deep pass to Elijah Metzler, who caught it and raced to the end zone for a 51-yard touchdown. The successful PAT cut the deficit to six points.
Metzler, a sophomore, made up for an almost critical mistake he made late in the first half.
With less than a minute left until halftime, the Hawks took over. Right away, McFadden connected with his top target, Bentz, on a smoke screen. Bentz took it 25 yards down to the 32-yard line, and with multiple timeouts still in their pocket, the Hawks (1-1, 2-3) were in a great position.
It was a huge opportunity to close the gap, but that hope quickly slipped away.
On the next play, McFadden threw another screen, this time to Metzler, who didn’t look like the intended target based on the body language of the other Hawks receivers.
Metzler was immediately surrounded and tackled, but instead of going down, he tried to make a play by pitching the ball to a teammate. Unfortunately, the ball went forward, bounced around, and was recovered by the Cougars, killing the momentum of a promising two-minute drive.
Fortunately for the Hawks and Metzler, after a 36-yard run by Mason Sherry, the Cougars’ offense stalled. As the half ended, Stoess threw an interception to Ethan Horvath as time expired.
“We are a young football team, and I harped on this week that we needed guys to make a step up and make a play,” Hartranft said. “And that wasn’t the moment to necessarily force a play there, especially driving late in the first two-minute drill we’re executing.”
“It was a young kid trying to do too much, and he’s going to learn from it. I guess somebody’s watching too many Reggie Bush highlights,” Hartranft said, joking. “He’s going to learn from it. I’ll tell you what. He’ll never do it again. I told him, ‘We’re going to need you in the second half,’ and he caught that long touchdown. That’s resiliency.”
On the next possession, the Hawks’ defense stepped up, stuffing every run and forcing Kutztown to punt, their first punt of the game.
“We run that three (man) front, so we just ended up throwing those extra ends out there expecting that run, and we were just able to handle it,” senior lineman Astian Reppert said of stopping Kutztown’s running attack. “We were able to stop them.”
Coming into Week 5, the Cougars were averaging over 400 rushing yards per game, leading the Lancaster-Lebanon League. But the Hawks put the brakes on their ground game, holding them to just 237 yards for the night.
With two minutes left in the third quarter, the Hawks took over and steadily chipped away at the yardage.
After a 13-play drive, the Hawks found themselves at Kutztown’s seven-yard line, facing a crucial fourth-and-goal.
A field goal here could seal their fate, as the Cougars would likely stick to their ground game to run down the clock, potentially keeping the ball out of the Hawks’ hands for good.
Hartranft and his staff chose to put the ball in their freshman quarterback’s hands, with full confidence he would get it done.
Well, McFadden delivered for what would be the game-winning touchdown.
McFadden rolled right with a two-man concept on the outside. Owen Bentz ran a speed out in the end zone and caught the ball in stride for the touchdown.
“In that moment, that was the best play call,” Hartranft said of the play call. “I had complete confidence that he was going to execute. I have complete confidence in (Alex) Soto and (Owen) Bentz that they were going to get it done. We protected really well up front. They gave him a good time to be able to make the play, and he did his 1/11 on that play.”
“I don’t know what that’s like, coming in as a freshman, trying to lead a team, but he’s doing a great job,” Reppert said of McFadden. “He’s learning, but he’s improving very well and very fast. Very lucky to have him.”
With a 21-20 lead thanks to freshman kicker Aran Moser’s PAT, the Hawks’ defense now had the task of making a crucial stop with 7:29 left on the clock.
The Cougars quickly found themselves facing a fourth-and-10 deep in their own territory.
Instead of punting and relying on his defense to get a stop, head coach Larry Chester chose to go for it, calling a sweep to the right. But Ryan Walters was stopped five yards short by Logan Warke, turning the ball over on downs.
“Defensively, they had those two big plays. We have to limit those,” Hartranft said of his defense. “If we don’t do what we’re taught, we aren’t doing our exact technique, bad things happen. But then we cleaned it up. Our kids were coachable. They didn’t sulk. They came back, they fought, they did the little things, and that’s the result.”
With excellent field position at the Kutztown 46-yard line, the Hawks went to work draining the clock. They drove down to the 23 before turning it over on downs, but not before running the clock down to under a minute. Hartranft made the right late-game decisions down the stretch, sealing the win.
Unlike their usual offensive calls in the traditional T-formation offense, Kutztown had no choice but to air it out with no timeouts remaining. They managed to pick up one first down, but six incompletions ended their comeback hopes as time ran out.
“It was exciting,” Reppert said of his performance in the win. “It was a lot of different emotions. But I just remained, kept my head up, and I was just looking to make plays, and I was able to do that.”
Isaac McFadden finished the night 11-for-23 for 138 yards and two touchdowns, while also adding 30 rushing yards and a score on the ground.
Thomas Johnson led the rushing attack with 46 yards on 12 carries, and Owen Bentz hauled in six catches for 63 yards and a touchdown.
For Kutztown, Ryan Walters led the way with 130 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while Mason Sherry added 111 yards and a score. Ian Bahr chipped in with 23 yards. The trio each carried the ball 12 times.Quarterback Wyatt Stoess struggled through the air, finishing 4-for-16 for 46 yards with two interceptions.
In the first half, Kutztown wasted no time showcasing its run-heavy offense, the top rushing attack in the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League, and found success early.
A 15-yard play-action rollout from Wyatt Stoess to Jayden Martin softened up the Hawks’ front seven. On the very next play, Mason Sherry took a handoff up the middle, broke multiple tackles at the line of scrimmage, and ran 34 yards for the game’s first touchdown.
After a quick three-and-out from the Hawks, it took just three plays for Ryan Walters to one-up his teammate, breaking loose for a 66-yard touchdown run. He slipped past the safety and powered through several one-arm tackle attempts on his way to the end zone.
On their next possession, however, penalties and the Hawks’ run-stuffing defense pushed Kutztown behind the chains, stalling the drive.
On third-and-16, Stoess dropped back and looked to hit his tight end on a seam route down the middle, but linebacker Bryce Schmeck was lurking underneath and came up with the interception.
The Hawks capitalized on the turnover and punched it in for their first score of the game.
After an eight-yard run on fourth down, McFadden decided to use his legs again on a designed QB keeper sweep to the left, and got his team on the board with 4:47 left until halftime.
The Cougars held a 12-7 lead at halftime.
Next week, Hamburg hosts Lancaster Catholic, while Kutztown travels to Annville-Cleona.