District finals loss can't spoil what CV accomplished
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Matthew O’Haren/Special to The Sentinel
CV players Ethan Mengle, center, talks with teammates after the Eagles’ loss on Saturday.
HERSHEY – On a crisp, clear evening that clearly signaled winter is near, the Cumberland Valley football players reflected on the program’s best season, in terms of wins and losses, since 2003.
The Eagles won 12 games this year and advanced to the District 3 Class AAAA championship game for the first time in five years.
The program, once feared by many, was coming off a losing season in 2006 and an exit in the first round of the district tournament last year. This year’s CV team won its first district game since the 2003 team that won the title, won 12 games and advanced into the state playoffs before falling to Easton, 34-20.
But there were wet eyes Saturday night at Hersheypark Stadium following a 35-7 loss to top-seeded and unbeaten Wilson.
“We’ve been struggling the past few years and to bring it back, to make everybody turn their heads and look at us again is definitely an honor,” senior tight end/defensive end Matt Lengel said. “It’s a shame we didn’t bring it fully back but we’re on the rise again.”
There will not be practice No. 80 on Monday afternoon or a film exchange with the Bethel Park coaches Sunday morning.
Regardless, CV appeared on the state bracket – Saturday’s finale doubled as a PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal – and won 11 straight games before eight turnovers relegated the scrappy Eagles to second place, which isn’t the worst spot to be in.
“That’s what we’ve been saying,” senior quarterback/outside linebacker Nate Rhodes said. “Look at this whole year. We’ve just been playing our hearts out but it didn’t turn our way.”
If it’s remembered for anything, the 2008 CV football team will go down as one that never quit.
After a 17-14 loss to fellow state quarterfinalist State College on Sept. 5, the Eagles took a seven-point win from Altoona that jump-started a four-game road trip that saw CV go unbeaten.
The trip ended at Hersheypark Stadium with a wild 31-28 win over Lower Dauphin on Oct. 3.. Over the final four weeks the Eagles beat Harrisburg by two and Central Dauphin by seven in overtime to garner the district’s second seed and some much-deserved respect.
“This was the greatest year of my life,” Rhodes said. “I hate that it’s ending now but what can you do? This has been a (heck) of a ride. I can’t put in to words how amazing this was, this whole ride.”
Thanks to that ability to win the close games, CV rose to second in the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division behind only State College and made for some edge-of-your-seat evenings at Harry C.. Chapman Field in late November.
“Some of those blowouts were boring as heck,” said Rimpfel, whose Eagles won eight games by at least three touchdowns, including three massacres in the district playoffs by a combined 135-23. “Everything we asked of them they responded to. Tonight we just made a lot of mistakes and (Wilson) beat us.”
As the Eagles helped restore the rich CV tradition, they also laid the groundwork for future teams. It’s never accepted along the Carlisle Pike to win seven games and simply qualify for the playoffs.
CV, which has eight 3-AAAA titles, doesn’t make any bones about setting its goals on the district title game each fall.
“This sets the tone for next year and brings CV football back to its roots,” senior two-way lineman Brandon Morris said. “I’m pretty sure we made all the alumni proud, all the coaches proud and all the players are proud of what we accomplished this season.”
A key to this team wasn’t any offensive or defensive strategy. It wasn’t one superstar taking CV to the next level or anything that was drawn up in a practice or in a preseason passing camp.
The group was a family that cared about one another and was there to pick a fellow teammate up when he were down. The team wasn’t about finger-pointing or placing the blame on any one person.
CV won and lost as a team.
“This was one big family, that’s all it is,” Rhodes said. “Everybody loves each other and that’s not going to stop.”
“These are my brothers out here,” Morris said. “I’ll never forget that.”
Something else the members of this team won’t forget are the lessons it learned. Harrisburg scored more touchdowns than CV but the Eagles found a way to win. Against Central Dauphin, CV took the lead with 43 seconds left and still needed to show up in overtime to win after the Rams marched down the field and tied the game.
Those trials taught this team to never give up and the Eagles didn’t, even when they trailed 27-0 at halftime Saturday night.
And that’s a lesson that will help these players in the game of life.
“Anything I do ever again I won’t give up,” Lengel said. “You just have to keep fighting no matter if you’re down four touchdowns or just in life, in general. You never give up, you just keep pushing.”
