Schuylkill Valley falls to Annville-Cleona on Homecoming

Schuylkill Valley’s Dominic Giuffre broke off an 18yard run on the first play from scrimmage.

From there, it was an utterly forgettable night for the Panthers on Homecoming.

Annville-Cleona dominated at the line of scrimmage on both sides in a 4210 victory over Schuylkill Valley in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section 5 game at Leesport.

The Panthers (5-1, 6-3), a week after beating archrival Hamburg 41-34 for their sixth straight win, came in on a high and were looking to set up a showdown for the section title against unbeaten Lancaster Catholic in the regular season finale.

Instead, there was nothing but frustration.

“We didn’t come to play,” Schuylkill Valley coach Bruce Harbach said. “I mean, our kids were not ready to play. After a big win last week, you know, everybody’s right, this was a trap game. The classic trap game. Our kids were not ready to play. That’s partly my fault.”

The Dutchmen (4-2, 6-3) ended up running for 358 yards on 59 carries and outgained the Panthers 408-196.

“The kids are playing physical,” Annville coach Matt Gingrich said. “It’s nice to be physical because when you’re physical it masks a lot of mistakes.”

Not that the Dutchmen made too many errors. They controlled the ball and the clock on offense and never let the Panthers get going.

Annville held Giuffre, who came in as the leading rusher in Berks with 1,270 yards, to 63 yards on 17 carries.

“They were keying on him,” Harbach said. “They were coming off the edge, they were blitzing. Our linemen didn’t pick it up. It was an all-around bad game for us.”

Phoenix Music, a senior, finished with 157 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries, plus the one catch for the 31-yard TD.

Schuylkill Valley showed some life down 28-3 with a 60-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a 6-yard run by Giuffre off a pitch from Logan Nawrocki, who ran the first 5 yards on the play.

The Panthers now will get a chance to play for a share of the Section 5 title against the Crusaders, who Harbach coached to two state titles and 139 wins in 16 seasons.

“We’ll get the drawing board and try to figure it out,” Harbach said, “make some changes and see what happens.”