High school football: Wyomissing wins LL Section 4 title by beating Lampeter-Strasburg

On Halloween afternoon, there was one question left to answer: Who would get the treats, and who would get tricked?

Wyomissing hosted Lampeter-Strasburg in the final Lancaster-Lebanon Football League game of the regular season.

One team would win the Section 4 title, while the other would walk away thinking about what it could’ve done differently at Bob Wolfrum Field.

Well, for the Spartans at home, they grabbed the opportunity by the horns and never looked back, winning 27-14 behind a strong defensive performance combined with an offense that chewed up the clock at will.

It marked the Spartans’ (7-0, 7-2) first Section title since 2022, the inaugural season of the Berks County football merger.

“It feels amazing,” senior lineman Nate Martinez said. “My brothers and I have been working really hard through the off-season. We really wanted this, especially two years ago when this happened, we lost. We really came back from the adversity, and we just really stuck together and we played through it all.”

On offense, the game was commanded by fullback Ethan Nye on the ground. He rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns, serving as the workhorse for the Spartans.

Paired with Brady Eisenhower at quarterback, who also had an exceptional day, completing 8-of-14 passes for 112 yards and accounting for two total touchdowns, including a 19-yard designed QB keeper, the Pioneers (6-1, 7-3) had no answer all afternoon.

“It was great,” Nye said of clinching the section. “Knowing they’re a good team throughout, we practiced, we had to push through, keep our motivation up, and just being a family, a brotherhood, pushing through.”

Hoisting a section title this year was not something many thought possible after the first few games of the season.

At the beginning of the 2026 season, the Spartans started 0-2, allowing 76 points in those matchups. Unfortunately, a game against Frankford High School was also canceled.

An unfamiliar position for Wyomissing fans, who are used to watching the Spartans beat up on teams from Week 1 through deep into the postseason.

“I wasn’t worried that we were 0-2, but we didn’t look real good doing it,” Wolfrum said of the early-season concerns. “I was a little concerned there, but we got better and better…We’ve just improved. Having a quarterback like Brady makes it not easy, but easy to score points because he can run and throw. That’s really tough on a defense when the quarterback can do both. So I knew we had a chance of being good, but I wasn’t seeing it early.”

Since Week 4, the Spartans have not lost and have put up 40 points in every single matchup, excluding Week 10.

But what changed from the early weeks until now?

A (risky) in-season defensive scheme change.

“I said, ‘This is really stupid, but I think we have to.’ We were successful with it. We weren’t always looking great, but we’re getting better with that every week,” Wolfrum said. “That’s a pretty good team that we held down.”

After a staff meeting following their Week 3 loss to Twin Valley, 42-14, the Spartans decided to shake things up and return to their roots, roots that won them the 2021 PIAA Class 2A state championship.

The Double Eagle Flex defense.

Fitting their personnel better, the scheme calls for an eight-man box with a ‘flex’ player roaming the line of scrimmage, backed by Cover 1 or Cover 3 in the secondary. It allows the Spartans to win the battle in the trenches and control the line of scrimmage.

That showed on Saturday afternoon as the Pioneers rushed for just 55 yards on 22 carries (2.3 per carry). They also picked up just eight first downs compared to Wyomissing’s 19.

Prior to the Section 4 title decider, Lampeter-Strasburg averaged more than 180 yards on the ground along with nearly 30 points per game.

Safe to say, the change has paid off in a big way.

Wolfrum, with a smile on his face, said they’ll return to their base defense next season, but for now, they’re sticking with what has worked for them in 2026, with hopes of capturing their 13th District championship in school history.

“We felt like we needed a change, especially going through these other teams,” Martinez said of the defensive switch. “We thought we’d use a different defense that helped win the championship for 2012’s team.”

The Spartans will hope their defensive success continues in the District 3 Class 3A playoffs following a bye next week. They’ll face Trinity (6-4) on November 14.

“Super confidence,” Nye said of what the win does for them moving forward. “Knowing that our backs are good, our lines good, and knowing that we can always push down the field, take time off the clock, our defense can hold the other team. It just feels nice.”

During the Section 4 decider, Wyomissing struck first.

Nye picked up 47 yards on the Spartans’ second possession, capping the drive with a 1-yard touchdown.

The following Pioneers possession was stopped on fourth-and-short when Martinez stuffed Colby DeJessa at the line of scrimmage as he tried to stretch the play outside, forcing a turnover on downs.

Getting back to work, the Spartans drained nearly seven minutes off the clock to close out the first quarter.

With 5:35 left in the second quarter, Eisenhower rolled out to his left and took off in the open field, scoring on a designed 19-yard QB keeper to give the Spartans a 14-0 lead.

Needing to get the ball rolling themselves, the Pioneers did just that.

Asher Jones connected with a wide-open Andre Flaud on a designed swing pass.

A defender sat in the flat, but there was no help over the top. Flaud saw nothing but green grass in front of him after the catch before being taken down inside the 10-yard line for a 36-yard gain.

One play later, Saddiq Taylor scored on a 9-yard run.

But just as easily as the Pioneers got on the board, the Spartans responded by executing a two-minute drill with 2:25 left until halftime.

Eisenhower diced up the Pioneers’ secondary with completions of 12, 33, 13 and 9 yards, before connecting with Zander Westwood for a 9-yard touchdown.

To get into Lampeter-Strasburg territory, Andrew DiFabrizio ran an out-and-up route, with Eisenhower pump-faking to create just enough hesitation from the cornerback to practically hand the ball to No. 88.

A few plays later, Eisenhower rolled to his right while Westwood drifted back to the left. A convoy of blockers led the way as Westwood made his way into the end zone, jumping over a defender to score.

Eisenhower was 5-of-6 for 76 yards on the drive, with a spike accounting for the only incompletion.

On their first possession of the third quarter, Wyomissing punched it in again.

Nye scored his second touchdown on a 3-yard carry, but the drive was set up by a third-and-long completion from Eisenhower to DiFabrizio for 21 yards along the sideline on a toe-tap catch.

“All the big guys up front, I want to thank, for making big holes for me,” Nye said, crediting his offensive line.

Wyomissing led 27-7 early in the fourth quarter, with the Pioneers needing to get going as time was not on their side.

Their passing game came alive as Asher Jones connected with his tight end, Parker Jones, who was wide open downfield for a 22-yard gain, followed by a 23-yard touchdown on a corner route.

Some hope seeped into the opposing bleachers, and even more so when the defense forced a three-and-out with 8:30 remaining in the game.

Asher Jones went back to Parker Jones for a 28-yard gain, but Martinez sacked him on the next play, quieting the crowd.

Behind the sticks, Asher Jones had back-to-back incompletions, facing a fourth-and-13 with essentially their lives on the line.

Jones dropped back, looking downfield, but was crushed by Westwood for another sack.

That was the ballgame, as the Spartans ran the clock out on offense.