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WVC football: Berwick pulls away in second half to defeat Abington Heights

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Guest helps evacuate Sherman Hills residents as fire breaks out

By his own admission, Carm DeFrancesco had a frenetic season-opening eve.The ghosts of Berwick&#8217;s past, not to mention his own, kept haunting him over and again, to the point where he pretty much gave up on even trying to fall asleep.&#8220;When you accept a job like this,&#8221; DeFrancesco said, &#8220;you understand there&#8217;s a torch to bear, a tradition to uphold.&#8221;He held his own for 22 years, coaching Danville, Shamokin and Mount Carmel to District 4 titles while compiling a 152-97 lifetime record that included a stint at Cardinal Brennan. Then, after five seasons guiding his alma mater Mount Carmel, DeFrancesco settled into retirement after the 2014 season.At the age of 66, he came out four months ago to take over the illustrious program at Berwick. When the Bulldogs lost Frank Sheptock &#8212; who returned to the Division III college ranks as an assistant at King&#8217;s following a highly successful three-year stint &#8212; DeFrancesco jumped at the chance to get back in the game.What in the name of the late George Curry was he thinking?&#8220;Coach Curry, I got to be real close with him at the end of his career,&#8221; DeFrancesco said. &#8220;I think about him. A lot. I was restless all (Friday) night. You think about all the great teams they&#8217;ve had here, all the great players who played here. And you understand going in there&#8217;s going to be a lot of pressure to win. But if you&#8217;re going to coach, you want that.&#8220;And this is the kind of job you want.&#8221;A funny thing happened on the way to building a future at Berwick, though.The past collided with the present in Berwick&#8217;s 28-6 victory over Abington Heights. Rather violently.It started right in the first quarter, when Bulldogs safety Ryan Laubach came speeding off the edge and crashed into Abington Heights quarterback Michael Show on a fourth-and-goal play that jarred the ball loose and completed an impressive goal-line stand.It continued when safety Blane Cleaver batted a pass in the air, caught it and returned the interception 12 yards for a Berwick touchdown that changed the complexion of the game late in the third quarter.And whether they were pounding people running with the football or batting the ball itself, the Bulldogs brought an angry defense out of their storied past and into the start of a new season with a new head coach.&#8220;It&#8217;s a different attitude,&#8221; Cleaver said. &#8220;He (DeFrancesco) brought a lot of power. Hard work. Hard hitting. We have that hunger this year.&#8220;We have that chip on our shoulder.&#8221;A chip off the old block?One of the biggest names in Berwick football history thinks so.Bo Orlando was one of Curry&#8217;s all-time favorites, sparking the Bulldogs to an unbeaten season and a mythical USA Today national title in 1982 before going on to play defensive back in the NFL for nearly a decade.He&#8217;s in his first full year as Berwick&#8217;s athletic director now. And he just couldn&#8217;t keep from jumping aboard to help DeFrancesco as a defensive backs coach this year, same as he did while his son Joey was playing in state title games at Bethlehem&#8217;s Liberty High School.Which explains why fans may have noticed one of the Berwick coaches sprinting 40 yards down the sideline in about two seconds to shout instructions from time to time.&#8220;It&#8217;s in my blood,&#8221; Orlando smiled.But he almost considers DeFrancesco to be one of Berwick&#8217;s blood brothers.&#8220;I&#8217;ve known Carm for a long, long time,&#8221; Orlando said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a Mount Carmel guy. To me, Mount Carmel, Berwick, it&#8217;s all in the same mold.&#8221;DeFrancesco may never be named a two-time national champion and win seven state titles like Curry&#8217;s teams of the 1980s and 90s. He may not be able to duplicate the feat of Gary Campbell, who led Berwick to a District 2/11 title during Curry&#8217;s time away in the late 2000s. Or even match Sheptock&#8217;s back-to-back District 2 title games in his first two seasons at Berwick.But there&#8217;s a certain electricity on Berwick&#8217;s sideline, an aggressive attitude that really hasn&#8217;t bitten the Bulldogs since Curry was distributing those WETSU T-shirts to the team.&#8220;It&#8217;s definitely a big change for us,&#8221; said Eric Montes, better known as a defensive end but also a fullback to crashed in for two touchdowns Saturday. &#8220;There are pros and cons to that. The pros: you can always try something different. The cons: as seniors, having been practicing with coach Sheptock for the past three, four years, he (DeFrancesco) does a lot differently. He&#8217;s a really energetic guy. He changes our mindset from one day to the next, one play to the next. &#8220;It&#8217;s working fast.Sure, Berwick&#8217;s offense &#8212; especially at the start &#8212; was shaky, at best. But Curry&#8217;s course to becoming the winningest high school football coach in Pennsylvania didn&#8217;t always include Jake Kelchner throwing two touchdown passes to Lance Evina in a state championship game, or Ron Powlus tossing touchdowns to anyone he wanted to.It wasn&#8217;t always about prolific and eye-popping offense.A lot of Berwick&#8217;s bravado was built on the backs of players happy to hammer teams with a power running game, and defenses that simply destroyed the gameplans of opponents.Smashmouth football, Curry loved calling it.And in that sense, DeFrancesco&#8217;s debut at Berwick could only be called a smashing success.<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Paul Sokoloski covers area sports for the Times Leader. You may reach him at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</shirttailMeta></div>

Sokoloski: Berwick wakes up the echoes in stirring debut for DeFrancesco