One of the Schuylkill League’s fiercest rivalries will renew Friday night in Schuylkill Haven as the Schuylkill Haven Hurricanes (2-3) host the Williams Valley Vikings (4-1) at Rotary Field.
Over the past four seasons, the two teams have met seven times, with Williams Valley holding a slim 4-3 edge. But Schuylkill Haven has been a regular season success.
The Hurricanes have won three straight regular-season matchups, but have fallen in each of the three postseason rematches, including a 34-31 loss in last year’s District 11 Class 2A championship game. In that game, the Vikings trailed 28-7 in the second quarter before outscoring the Hurricanes, 27-3, over the remainder of the game to claim their third straight District 11 title.
Adding to the rivalry this season is Williams Valley head coach Frank Gaffney coaching against his former team in Schuylkill Haven. Prior to taking the position in Williamstown this past offseason, Gaffney spent multiple seasons as the defensive coordinator at Schuylkill Haven, working closely with head coach Mike Farr.
Notably, Farr will return to the sideline on Friday night after being suspended the past two games for the Hurricanes following an incident during the Hurricanes’ Week 3 loss to Blue Mountain.
How they got here
Williams Valley enters the week with a 4-1 record, including 2-0 in league play while being winners of three straight games.
Since losing 30-12 in Week 2 to Southern Columbia, the Vikings’ defense has been extremely dominant, allowing just 20 total points, including only six points in their last two games. Offensively, it took a little while for Gaffney’s team to get the ball rolling, but the Vikings are certainly clicking over the past two weeks, putting up 33 points against Nativity BVM and 41 against Mahanoy Area.
In the win over Mahanoy Area, Fletcher Thompson rushed for 278 yards and four touchdowns on 32 carries, while the Vikings tallied nearly 300 rushing yards as a team.
Schuylkill Haven has won two straight after an 0-3 start, defeating Nativity BVM, 63-7, last week. The Hurricanes ran for 352 yards including, 161 yards from Colton Reber, who found the end zone four times. Chase Yoder ran for 85 yards and a touchdown, and Logan Goad added 52 rushing yards in the win.
Quarterback Bode Hinnershitz also had a productive evening, completing 5 of 6 attempts for 103 yards and three touchdowns.
A dominant Thompson leads the way for Vikings
Williams Valley doesn’t do too much special offensively.
Most plays, opposing defenses know what the Vikings are going to do, and most plays, it doesn’t end up mattering.
This season, the Vikings have tallied 183 carries for 1,101 yards, an average of 6 yards per carry. They’re averaging 220 rushing yards per game and have 17 rushing touchdowns.
They’ll pass the ball here and there — quarterback Cayden Witmer has 59 passing attempts, completing 21 for 329 yards and one touchdown. But more often than not, the Vikings play ground-and-pound football.
Thompson leads the ground attack for Williams Valley. The tailback had a tremendous first half of his junior season, totaling 124 carries for 1,001 yards and 13 touchdowns. He enters this week with 502 career carries for 4,302 yards — an average of 8.6 yards per carry — and 52 touchdowns. That’s not to mention 34 career receptions for 642 yards and eight touchdowns. There are few running backs in the Schuylkill League as dominant as Thompson.
With the changes in personnel and a new system, it’s no surprise that it took the Vikings a few weeks to get their legs under them offensively.
The Vikings totaled just 27 points in their first two games. In Week 3, they saw a slight uptick with 19 points against North Schuylkil before hitting their stride, scoring 74 points over the past two games.
Now, they’ll turn their attention to a Schuylkill Haven team which at times has struggled to slow down opposing rushing attacks. Over their first three games of the season, the Hurricanes allowed nearly 1,100 rushing yards in total. The past two weeks against Mahanoy Area and Nativity BVM have been better performances and steps in the right direction.
For the Hurricanes, the game plan to defeat Williams Valley will be simple. If they can slow down Fletcher Thompson, they have a good chance of slowing down the Vikings overall. But slowing down Thompson is easier said than done.
Schuylkill Haven finding its stride at the right time
For being just over the halfway mark, Schuylkill Haven has already faced quite a bit of adversity this season.
The team started the season 0-3, lost several players along the way to injuries, and coach Mike Farr was suspended for the program’s past two games.
For a lot of teams, the combination would’ve been enough for them to chalk up the season as a failure and call it a day. But instead, Schuylkill Haven has responded and is finally looking like the team that many expected them to be this fall.
The Hurricanes’ offense has continued to move the ball well, even in their three losses, averaging nearly 30 points per contest. But the difference has been their defense. After allowing 48, 40, and 50 points in their first three games, the Hurricanes held Mahanoy Area and Nativity BVM to just 23 total points.
It’s been a step in the right direction, and interim coach John Carestia Jr. deserves plenty of credit for helping right the ship in Farr’s absence.
Offensively, this year’s Schuylkill Haven team is more balanced than in previous seasons.
While the rushing attack is still its bread and butter — led by Colton Reber’s 64 carries for 768 yards and 12 touchdowns — the Hurricanes can also throw the ball around quite a bit.
Through the air, quarterbacks Bradyn Diehl and Bode Hinnershitz have combined to complete 30-of-45 attempts for nine touchdowns against three interceptions. Freshman tight end Noah Runkle has impressed with seven receptions for 216 yards and five touchdowns. The rest of the passing attack can be attributed to their running backs with Reber, Chase Yoder and Logan Goad each having at least seven receptions this season and all totaling over 100 receiving yards.
On the ground, Reber remains the primary back, but Goad and Yoder have both been effective. Goad is averaging 8.5 yards per carry, totaling 221 yards and a trio of scores over 26 carries. Yoder has averaged 9.9 yards per carry while totaling 148 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.
Few opposing defenses have been able to slow the Hurricanes this season. But adding to the intrigue of this week’s matchup is that Williams Valley coach Frank Gaffney knows the Hurricanes’ offense very well. After spending the past few seasons with the opponent, Gaffney should be well equipped to have his defense prepared. But as said with Williams Valley , slowing down Schuylkill Haven’s offense is quite easier said than done.
The stakes
Overall, Friday night’s league game will be just that. While the rivalry will remain fierce, the Hurricanes and Vikings will meet just once each season for the foreseeable future, as Williams Valley dropped down to Class A this year.
A win on Friday for Williams Valley would mark its fourth in a row with four games remaining, setting the Vikings up nicely for late-season success.
For Schuylkill Haven, a win to get back to .500 would feel monumental compared to where the Hurricanes were just a few weeks ago. With a manageable schedule and several favorable matchups the rest of the way, a loss would by no means be back-breaking, but a win could propel the Hurricanes into becoming one of the scarier teams to face down the stretch and in the playoffs.
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